A look at Puerto Rico and its cinema through films, documentaries, and commercials from the early twentieth century to the emerging cinema of today. Visual and narrative strategies portray fragments of Puerto Rico's general history and, in turn, answers the questions of who, when, and for whom have films been made in Puerto Rico and the resources that are available to do it.
Related Movies
Artificial Roles (2025)
Artificial intelligence is taking on different roles in the filmmaking space. The questions we must ask ourselves are: what are the pros and cons of this advancement? How can we work with it, and what power do we have as human beings in the face of this technology?
Pedro Albizu Campos: Un hombre... un patriota... (1987)
Short documentary about the life of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.
PsiQuis: Un Giro Decolonial (2023)
PsiQuis: Un Giro Decolonial is a documentary that presents and discusses the psychological impact that colonialism has had on the Puerto Rican people. The director analyzes the traumas generated in Puerto Rican society by that colonial experience.
La operación (1982)
Documentary on the mass sterilization of Puerto Rican women during the 1950s and '60s.
Golpe de agua (2025)
A documentary that reflects on the vision of 'progress' that governments cling to in times of climate change, focusing on the personal and collective experience lived in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017.
Burn Me Back (2024)
Peggy Robles-Alvarado is a Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow in Literature, a Latinx Playwrights Circle Fellow, and a three-time International Latino Book Award winner who authored Conversations With My Skin, and Homage To The Warrior Women. In this film by New York-based filmmaker Matt Haller, she recounts the grief and pain of losing her father, interwoven with her Puerto Rican heritage.
El apagón: Aquí vive gente (2022)
“El apagón: Aquí vive gente” is a 23-minute film that explores the socio-economic challenges in Puerto Rico, focusing on the effects of power outages and gentrification driven by the real estate and energy sectors. Through visuals and personal stories, the documentary highlights the experiences of Puerto Rican communities facing these issues.
After Maria (2019)
Strong Puerto Rican women forced to flee the island after Hurricane Maria have bonded like family in a FEMA hotel in the Bronx. They seek stability in their new life as forces try to pull them apart.
One-Way Ticket (1983)
Documentary about how the arrival of the railway industry impacted Puerto Rican culture economically, socially, and humanistically during the first half of the 20th century. It includes photos by Jack Delano, among others, and scenarios to reconstruct the experience of what could have been the last trip made by train from San Juan to Ponce in 1953.
El puente (1951)
The efforts of a community to build a bridge which would allow their children to go school during the rainy season.
Isla chatarra (2007)
Isla chatarra describes the phenomenon of the ubiquity of automobiles in Puerto Rico. The island measures slightly less than 9,000 square kilometers, but has 25,000 kilometers of paved road, one of the highest proportions in the planet. Puerto Rico is one of the countries with the largest number of vehicles per kilometer (of road) and third in the world in number of cars per 1,000 inhabitants. The film was produced with the idea to raise consciousness and create a dialogue about the ongoing situation of our dependence on cars. It also shows the dangerous circumstances of an island that is slowly being covered by scrap metal.
Nuyorican Básquet (2017)
The story of the basketball players that represented Puerto Rico at the San Juan's 1979 Pan Am Games.
Julia, toda en mí (2002)
A poetic journey about the life and work of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos.
Biopsia (2016)
Carmen accompanies a group of women who must travel from the island of Vieques to San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, in order to perform breast biopsies. The long journey is by water and road. Amid many fears and vicissitudes, Carmen confirms once again the need for appropriate medical services for both women and for the rest of the Vieques population.
Solar Weather: Dr. Alessandra Pacini (2022)
Alessandra Pacini, solar physicist and mother of two, has dedicated her life to researching our sun and its relation to the rest of our solar system. Traveling across the globe with her family, from Finland to Puerto Rico, Alessandra is on a mission to discover the great mysteries of our solar system.
Una pasión llamada Clara Lair (1996)
Through dramatization and interviews with her colleagues, this film captures the life and work of famed Puerto Rican poet Mercedes Negrón Muñoz (also known as Clara Lair).
Ionosphere: Dr. Eliana Nossa (2020)
At Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, Eliana Nossa studies the ionosphere. This short films tells the story of Columbian researcher Eliana Nossa as she explains her study of the ever-changing universe, Arecibo's technology and data, and her role as a woman among her male colleagues. She studies the ionospheric irregularities that impact terrestrial communication.
La otra intención (2014)
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, hundreds of artists gathered to pay honor to the work of Puerto Rican artist Myrna Báez. La otra intención (The Other Intention) is an observational documentary that travels through the work of Myrna while visiting artists, such as Petra Bravo, Deborah Hunt, Yiyo Tirado, Gustavo Castrodad, the theater group Y no había luz, among others, to accompany them in their creative process of re-interpretation.