Filmmakers often mine novels and plays for stories and characters, but what happens when poetry appears on screen? In this edited volume, contributors explore the rich corpus of Latin American films that operate where poetry and cinema meet. Examples include the adaptation of poems to film; the characterisation of poets on screen; the role of poets as filmmakers; the concept of the ‘poetic film’; approaches to the ‘cinema of poetry’ (drawing on writings by Pasolini, in particular); poetic documentaries; and the use of poetry in avant-garde film. Contributions range from silent cinema to contemporary works, and from Mexico through Brazil to the Southern Cone, including studies of films by Maria Luisa Bemberg, Pablo Larrain, Guillermo del Toro, as well as independent video and media artists.

Ben Bollig is Professor of Spanish-American Literature at the University of Oxford. David M.J. Wood is a Researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas, UNAM, Mexico City.