Protheroe, Michael Robert; (2025) Seeing Queerly: Phenomenological approaches to contemporary Chilean and Venezuelan cinema. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text Protheroe_10208300_thesis.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 June 2026. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, there has been an increasing amount of filmmaking in the Latin American region which focuses on queer lives and the (queer) body, in a way that privileges a multisensorial approach to cinema which undermines and destabilises a traditionally visual understanding of the medium. This thesis examines contemporary Chilean and Venezuelan cinema through a phenomenological lens, thinking through what it means for certain films to portray the lived experiences of queer bodies and how these films themselves can be seen as queered through the varying means of representation used to explore non-normative lives. Focusing on six films, three Chilean and three Venezuelan, which were released between 2012 and 2020, this thesis examines these two countries often seen to be at opposite ends of the spectrum of the “Pink Tide” and its aftermath, discussing similarities and differences between queer politics, cultures and filmic representations between these two contexts. The films range from smaller, local features to some which achieved international acclaim and they span a diversity of genres, from coming of age to thriller/slasher style film, though what binds them is a focus on the body, how it is perceived and expressed on film, and how queer lives are represented narratively and aesthetically on screen. There are also some overlapping thematic elements, such as queer grief and joy, violence, race, touch, childhood and ageing. This research analyses these films by bringing together film phenomenology and queer phenomenology, two strands of the same field of philosophy, to approach the body on film and the body of film, considering how we are orientated in certain ways towards film, sometimes being encouraged or obliged to see queerly. This project does so in order to develop a “queer film phenomenology”, to consider the filmic experience and its intersubjective relationship with the spectator.

Download activity - last month

Export as JSONCSVXML

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as JSONCSVXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item