The multiples faces of the city in films: urban image and social representations of the Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción, 1928-1978

Abstract

The cinema has collected images of the city from the moment of its creation and has continued until today. This paper presents a journey through the images of Guatemala City; the “Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción”, in the Guatemalan film is made. The study period is from 1928 -year of the oldest records are kept national- cinema until 1978 -in feature film production as a result than the intern armed conflict is interrupted. Half a century in which it seeks not only inventory the filmed record of the sites but to approach social representations of filmmakers trying to show “his” city. To achieve briefly review how the city has been reflected in the cinema and then move to an approach to the city at the time of modernization, within the framework of the development of mass culture. However, it is reviewing films as historical documents the fundamental part of this work, in search of the transformations of the urban image and, in parallel, to examine the social representations of the city in the filmmakers.