The course will introduce the development of Latin American Cinema from the 1940s till today focusing on crucial moments in its history. From the popular cinemas of the 40s and 50s till the global success of new Latin American films such as City of God and Amores Perros, through the political modernist cinemas of the 60s (Cinema Novo, Third Cinema, etc) the course will mainly center in the cinemas of Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, but will as well introduce some turning points in the cinemas of Chile, Cuba, Bolivia and other Latin American countries. The main point of the course will be to discuss the way in which Latin American countries coped with the dominance of Hollywood and European film industries in local and global markets by inventing different solutions. On the one hand a struggle to create a local industry that can provide local entertainment to the local audiences, and on the other the foundation of different political cinema movements that tried to find a way to create social, political and cultural change through local and international success. The class will stress that both tendencies are always in search of a local identity, and thought in conflict, they complement each other as strategies of resistance to imperialist cultural and economical dominance.