Call for papers| RCL nº. 66 | "Indigenous Cinemas and Audiovisual Practices in the Americas"

Indigenous audiovisual practices in the Americas have been developing for at least four decades, taking diverse forms, modes of circulation, and purposes. This production has played a strategic role in defending Indigenous peoples’ territories and ways of life across the region. Video, film, and other audiovisual media have become integrated into the everyday lives of different communities, contributing to the preservation and transformation of traditional knowledge, the communication of political demands, artistic expression, exchanges among Indigenous peoples, and, more broadly, the strengthening of political and cultural projects.

Beyond serving as a tool in the struggle for sovereignty, audiovisual practices are central to conveying Indigenous peoples’ forms of care and ways of perceiving and relating to the land. This aspect is particularly important in the contemporary context of environmental crisis, in which climate change and other devastating effects of what has variously been termed as the Anthropocene/Capitalocene/Plantationocene/Chthulucene demand forms of knowledge and practices of relating to the natural world beyond those prescribed by the extractivist imperative of Modernity/Coloniality.

Without losing sight of its inherent plurality, how can we approach the singularities of Indigenous audiovisual production in the twenty-first century? To what extent are narratives and regimes of image and sound created or challenged in order to better accommodate the cosmologies and demands of Indigenous peoples? What epistemological dilemmas arise from engaging, through audiovisual media, with other modes of knowledge? How have Indigenous filmmakers and media artists been redefining cinematic aesthetics and theory? How do these works challenge the fields of film and media studies? What forms of production make possible the emergence of works in unfavourable social contexts? How does circulation through film festivals contribute to networks of solidarity, technical training, and political education? Following these questions, one might also inquire into the role of contemporary production in confronting violence perpetrated by the state, large extractive corporations, and landowners that threaten Indigenous territories and lives.

This thematic issue seeks to strengthen critical thinking around contemporary indigenous audiovisual practices in the Americas. It aims to bring together analytical, conceptual, and historical texts capable of highlighting the aesthetic and political singularities of these practices, while considering them in their sensible dimension, as well as their modes of production and circulation. By approaching Indigenous audiovisual practices in a broad sense, the issue seeks to include productions in the field of cinema and video, militant audiovisual initiatives disseminated through social media, as well as artistic works exhibited in institutions and galleries. While acknowledging the sui generis character of recent works, the intention is to situate them within a historical perspective, investigating possible correspondences and differences in relation to earlier audiovisual production in the Americas.

We welcome original research articles that align with or expand upon the following thematic axes:

I. Collective arrangements

Analysis of how collective modes of video and film production challenge traditional notions of authorship and the political economy of images, contributing to broader forms of social participation and Indigenous self-determination. We welcome work that approaches audiovisual practices as sites of organization, expression, and emancipation for Indigenous collectives, including collaborative practices involving women and Afro-Indigenous communities, as well as alliances with non-Indigenous people.

II. Land cinemas

Investigation into indigenous audiovisual practices concerned with land through modes of care, traditional knowledge, interspecific agency, land reclamation, resistance to agribusiness and large corporations, and the environmental impacts of extractivism. We invite contributions grounded in decolonial thought, counter-colonial perspectives, ecocriticism, media studies, and other approaches that engage with audiovisual media from a socio-environmental perspective.

III. Cosmologies of image and sound: narrative and experimentation

Critical engagement with experimentation and new regimes of image and sound arising from Indigenous modes of knowledge and epistemological claims. Discussions may encompass the translation/equivocation of cosmologies, sociocultural aspects, communication strategies, artistic practices, intermediality, and the processes and contingencies of audiovisual production. Texts may also address the role of formal inventions in articulating visible and invisible worlds, as well as human and more-than-human worlds.

IV. Circulation through community projects, festivals, and other circuits

We also invite reflections on the organization of events, community projects, film festivals, and programs devoted to Indigenous cinema which showcase the work of Indigenous filmmakers while fostering crucial dialogues about the interplay between art, identity, and politics. Equally welcome are contributions addressing audiovisual screenings at Indigenous political gatherings or videos circulated on social media in response to emergency situations requiring rapid dissemination. In this regard, we encourage submissions that examine the importance of Indigenous audiovisual circulation in creating transnational networks of solidarity, promoting educational programmes, developing filmic repertoires for Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences in festivals, and fostering processes of community building.

V. Archive, history, and imagination

The plural status of archives and their different modes of appropriation and creation by Indigenous audiovisual practices. We are particularly interested in texts that reflect on the production of images and sounds as an internal archive for Indigenous peoples, preserving or transforming cultural practices and forms of knowledge. The theme also encompasses the use of archives in counter-colonial practices, challenges to official histories, the reconfiguration of regimes of memory, the fabulation of worlds and futures.

References

Blackmore, Ernie, Kerstin Knopf, Wendy Gay Pearson, Corina Wieser-Cox, eds. 2024. The Routledge handbook of indigenous film. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge.

Brasil, André. 2025. Miradas do Invisível: Limiares dos Cinemas Indígenas. Belo Horizonte: Editora da UFMG.

Brenez, Nicole, Jonathan Larcher, Alo Paistik, and Skaya Sikh, eds. 2024.  Film X Autochthonous Struggles Today. London : Sternberg Press. 

COUSIN Collective, eds. 2024. Temporal Territories: An Anthology on Indigenous Experimental Cinema. New York: COUSIN Collective; Light Industry.

Gergaud, Sophie, and Thora M. Herrmann, dir. 2019. Cinémas autochtones: des représentations en mouvements. Paris Sèvres: l’Harmattan GITPA, Groupe international de travail avec les peuples autochtones.

Hammerschmidt, Claudia, David Foitzik Reyes, and Christina Enders, eds.. 2026.  Geopoética Fílmica en Wallmapu: Resistencias y nuevos imaginarios en el cine mapuche. Buenos Aires: Teseo/SDL.

Hidalgo, Amália I. Córdova. 2025 Frames of Resistance: The Cinemas of Abya Yala. Nova York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Maxakali, Isael. 2024. Hãhãm Ok Nãg Xinẽm Ok Nãg/Sem terra não tem cinema. Belo Horizonte, MG: NPGAU.

Stan, Robert. 2023. Indigeneity and the Decolonizing Gaze: Transnational Imaginaries, Media Aesthetics, and Social Thought. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Submission Details and deadlines

Full manuscript submission deadline: January 15, 2027
Review process: January to April 2027
Editors’ decision: May 2027
Expected publication date: June 2027

Articles can be written in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese and will be blind peer reviewed. Visual essays will also be accepted. Formatting must be in accordance with the journal’s submission guidelines, and the submission must be made via the OJS platform of the Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens (RCL).

At the time of submission, please indicate (in the comments section) the issue number of the journal to which you wish to submit your manuscript.

Editors:

• Beatriz Rodovalho (Ircav - Sorbonne Nouvelle)
• Naara Fontinele (Universidade Picardie Jules Verne)
• Edson Costa Júnior (ECA-Universidade de São Paulo)