The 70s may have seen the birth of heavy metal, but the genre truly went global in the 80s. Trickling south of the US border, tape-trading networks helped lay the foundations for thrash, black and death metal scenes everywhere from Brazil to Argentina, Australia to Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. But where Brazil and Argentina embraced heavy metal as a form of post-dictatorial liberation, emergent scenes in and bordering Central America still faced an uphill battle against ongoing social, political and military issues in their respective countries.
“DESPOTIC GOVERNMENTS HAVE THREATENED PEOPLE”
DAVID ROSALES, CURARE
“The very first interview I did, I was told ‘metal in Latin America isn’t about entertainment’,” explains filmmaker Dr Nelson Varas-Diaz. “When you start travelling through places in South America or the Global South, you notice how people use metal in different ways; not just as a thing they consume to think about the world critically – it’s how they engage with the world.”
This observation has served as a key ingredient in the acclaimed documentaries and books Nelson has produced on heavy metal in Latin America, covering everywhere from the Caribbean to Argentina, Chile and Peru. Far from merely cataloguing bands and fans in each country, Nelson’s documentaries explore how heavy metal impacts their lives. But where his previous film, Songs Of Injustice, explored how metal was used as a mirror for the brutal realities historically faced by Latin American metal fans, his fourth outing, Acts Of Resistance, looks at how metal is changing those realities, focused on stories playing out in Guatemala, Colombia and Ecuador.