Introduction

Abstract

There is a changing representation of LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning, Intersex) bodies and identities in the #metoo and #NiUnaMenos era that has shifted the ways in which global cinema is addressing gender, sexuality, identity, and embodiment. Body, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin American Cinema: Insurgent Skin argues that twenty-first-century Latin American film is revolutionary in its engagement with LGBTQI and feminist issues, demonstrating an ability to represent marginalized subjects with empathy and creating a new signifying matrix informed by queer theory and film phenomenology. Latin American cinema is pushing the envelope of the internationally viable feature film by exposing both local and global audiences to films about women, gays and lesbians, intersex people, and trans populations. This is accomplished in films that break with classical cinematic traditions, that include queer characters and issues, and that challenge heteronormative and binary representations of gender and sexuality. Haptic and affect theory, in combination with queer and feminist optics and film phenomenology, enable us to meaningfully engage with this expansive landscape of Latin American cinema.