Documenting Latinx lives: Visual anthropology and Latinx studies

This essay reflects on teaching college students to use the medium of film/video to explore contemporary issues that affect the everyday lives of Latinx populations in the United States. Drawing on experiences with (mostly Latinx) students in a documentary filmmaking class at Rutgers University, as well as on my own visual, documentary, and ethnographic practice at the intersection of Latinx studies and visual anthropology, I discuss the distinct representational techniques, dilemmas and possibilities that different storytelling strategies in ethnographic and documentary films hold for representing and knowing Latinx social experiences, as well as some of the steps to follow when contemplating the use of film and video in the context of ethnographic projects in Latinx communities. In doing so, I address some key issues that have shaped past and current debates about the visual representation and circulation of Latinx communities, both in Latinx studies and in visual anthropology.