The Routledge Handbook on the Sociology and History of Cinema and Television in Latin America explores the historical and sociological dimensions of Latin American cinema and television from the 1960s and 1970s onward, decentering the New Latin American Cinema (NLAC) without diminishing its significance. The political and experimental energy that animated it has not vanished; instead, it reemerges across diverse objects, periods, and media forms, sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely. In this sense, the political is located not only in audiovisual texts but also in the interpretive frameworks scholars in the region bring to their analysis, revealing the enduring impact of that radical movement throughout the following decades.

By foregrounding scholarship produced in Latin America, the volume maps both convergences and divergences within the broad field of film and audiovisual studies. It brings together multiple scales of analysis (national, regional, transnational), alongside varied epistemological approaches (canonical inquiry, archival reconstruction, feminist praxis), as well as a wide range of archives spanning on film, television, digital, and private collections. In doing so, the volume situates Latin America audiovisual media within longer transnational traditions and intellectual histories.

Adopting a sociological and historical approach to media and film studies, this handbook offers a critical framework for understanding Latin America’s political, social, and cultural dynamics since the 1960s. It features key scholars based in the region in the social sciences, humanities, and the arts, presenting a field in motion that revisits its disciplinary foundations while engaging new archival practices and challenging enduring political and social exclusions.