El Cine Underground

Closing out the year — and our first season — with Macario (1960). A film about hunger, dignity, death, and what it costs to ask for one moment to yourself in a world that demands everything. Macario reminds us that life and death sit at the same table, that poverty is never a moral failure, and that even the smallest desire can feel radical when you’ve been taught to endure in silence. As the yea...

In this holiday episode, El Cine Underground dives into Latin Christmas cinema through Mi Niño Tizoc (1972), Santa Claus vs. The Devil (1952), and The Shepherd’s Tale (1991). We explore Indigenous representation, the origins and symbolism of Posadas, Chicano religious imagery, and the contradictions at the heart of Catholic holiday storytelling. These films blend cultural critique, absurdity, and...

Holiday downtime hits different when you spend it in the shadows…For Noirvember, we’re taking you on a cross-continental descent into Latin Noir: Mexico’s political glamour, Hollywood’s dusty borderlands, and Argentina’s elegant revenge. Three films. Three countries. Three flavors of darkness. If you need a break from family, daylight, or holiday cheer…step into the shadows with us. 🎥 Another Daw...

Brazilian cinema wasn’t built for comfort—it was built for survival. A handcuffed woman lost at sea (Limite), a drunk confessing to God (O Ébrio), a peasant mistaking a prophet for salvation (Black God, White Devil).Three stories. One heartbeat. Art made under pressure, faith filmed under dictatorship. This week on El Cine Underground: when silence, faith, and revolt all speak the same cinematic l...

The Devil Wears a Top Hat: Coffin Joe’s BrazilThis week, El Cine Underground descends into the world of Brazil’s most infamous horror icon — Zé do Caixão, known to the world as Coffin Joe. Created — and lived — by filmmaker José Mojica Marins, Coffin Joe is the undertaker who mocked God, tormented women, and became a national legend in the process. Watching these films wasn’t easy. They’re brutal,...

Guillermo del Toro once said, “If you look back at your life and nothing has changed, something is wrong. Sanity is change.” In this episode, we return to Guadalajara — to the messy, inspired beginnings of one of cinema’s greatest visionaries. Before Pan’s Labyrinth or The Shape of Water, a young del Toro was making short films like Geometría in cramped rooms, experimenting with latex, blood, and...

What makes a film truly Cuban? Can a story told by outsiders still belong to the culture it portrays? In this episode, we dive into Cuban cinema through Soy Cuba, Memories of Underdevelopment, and Le Salut Cubain—films that blur the line between authenticity and appropriation. From revolutionary propaganda to intimate portraits of identity, these works force us to ask: who gets to tell a nation’s...

Cuba’s revolutionary cinema isn’t just history—it’s an act of rebellion, shot in stark black and white and alive with the tension between power and freedom. These films expose how control—bullied in by governments or disguised as love—chokes our ability to live fully. Want to watch them? Lucía is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel JustWatchThe Criterion Collection. Death of a Bureaucrat ...

From the vaults, the monsters awake. This episode of El Cine Underground is based on the Mexico Maleficarum film series presented at the Academy Museum with guest curator Abraham Castillo Flores. Together, we reclaim “maleficarum” from fanatic persecution and celebrate the psychotronic spirit of Mexican horror—where luchadores fought vampires on nylon strings, witches and doll people haunted the s...

From the picket lines to the projectors, the Chicano Cinema Movement of the ’70s and ’80s was raw, bilingual, and unapologetically political. Born out of the Chicano civil rights struggle, filmmakers like Luis Valdez used DIY grit to take back the screen from Hollywood’s whitewashed lens—mixing barrio realism, myth, and rebellion. This episode dives into the films, the fights, and the underground...

This is the trailer for El Cine Underground — your new obsession for Latin film history like you’ve never heard it before. Think classic cinema deep dives with a rebel twist. We uncover the stories, the culture, and the wild films that shaped Latin America’s screen legacy. Ready to go underground? Press play and start your journey. SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersecti...