Description
Book SynopsisSet against the background of Bolivia's prominent urban festival parades and the country's recent appearance on the front lines of antiglobalization movements, Circuits of Culture is the first social analysis of Bolivian film and television, their circulation through the social and national landscape, and the emergence of the country's indigenous video movement. At the heart of Jeff Himpele's examination is an ethnography of the popular television program, The Open Tribunal of the People. The indigenous and underrepresented majorities in La Paz have used the talk show to publicize their social problems and seek medical and legal assistance from the show's hosts and the political party they launched. Himpele studies the program in order to identify the possibilities of the mass media as a site for political discourse and as a means of social action. Charting as well the history of Bolivia's media culture, Himpele perceptively investigates cinematic media as sites for understanding t
