Idyllic landscapes devoid of cinema
Like its neighbors, Honduras has suffered from the overwhelming impact of the Mexican film industry, not to mention Hollywood's impact on the region. Overwhelmed by international productions, local screens had little room for local filmmakers for most of the 20th century, which explains the virtual non-existence of Honduran cinema before the 1980s. In 1962, Rome-trained director Sami Kafati shot Mon ami Angel in 8mm, an experimental short that became the first Honduran film in history. Kafati went on to pursue a career as a documentary filmmaker, collaborating with Chilean and Colombian filmmakers and helping to raise Honduras' international profile. He died in 1996, leaving his first feature No hay Tierra sin Dueño unfinished. The film was finally released posthumously in 2002, and presented at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes.
Parallel to Kafati's career, it was thanks to the efforts of René Pauck, a French artist and filmmaker who arrived in Honduras in 1973, that the first filmmakers started making documentaries and social films in the early 1980s. But here, as in Nicaragua, political instability and budget cuts got the better of national initiatives to support production. It was only in 2019 that a new film office was set up, with the aim of boosting local film projects. But local production hasn't come to a standstill, driven by a few fighting spirits willing to do anything to shoot. These include Juan Carlo Fanconi, with his blockbusters Almas de la Media Noche (2002) and El Xendra (2012). A milestone in the history of national cinema, Almas de la Media Noche was released in Honduran cinemas, marking the very first presence of a Honduran film massively distributed on the country's screens. Writer-turned-director Javier Suazo Mejía has been making films since the 1980s. His films Toque de Queda (2012) and Contes et légendes du Honduras (2014) have been very successful nationwide. While the former uses as its backdrop the curfews installed by the government following the 2009 coup attempt, the latter focuses on local folklore, revisiting the legends of La Taconuda, El Cadejo, La fiesta de las ánimas and La Sucia. A four-part story adapted from Jorge Montenegro's radio soap operas, it quickly became one of the biggest box-office hits in Honduras. Last but not least, Katia Lara Pineda, a renowned documentary filmmaker who has been making films for over forty years, is also one of Honduras' leading directors. A country which, today as in the past, gives pride of place to women filmmakers, thanks in particular to the Colectiva de Mujeres Cineastas Hondureñas association, very active in training promising young filmmakers.
Nevertheless, Honduras is still struggling to attract international productions, despite its idyllic landscape. You have to look to the small screen to find shows that have chosen Honduras as a recurring destination, such asTemptation Island, which rolls out one of its sultry seasons in the country's jacuzzis and on its beaches. In contrast to these sandy paradises, Honduras is also famous for the violence of its prisons, and in particular Danli, which can be discovered in the first episode of the Netflix series Inside the World's Toughest Prisons, a cross between reality TV and a highly scripted, but nonetheless chilling documentary.
