This article explores critically the arrival of the Lumière cinematograph to the Caribbean, through a comparative analysis in some countries, and analyzes its impact on the cultural practices at a turning point between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These practices were affected by the new invention in the regional identity constitution through the consumption of films and then by their production in exotic key. This key that guided the practices of communication on the region and it was presented between the classic exotic convention of barbarism, backwardness or savages and the desire of its elites to present themselves as “moderns”. © 2023 Sello editorial Universidad del Atlantico. All rights reserved.