Browse Items (150 total)
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Cidade de Deus, 10 anos depois
City of God – 10 Years Later investigates the fate of the young actors who participated in the award winning film City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. The documentary shows how their lives unfolded after the film’s worldwide success. The film includes the participation of the actors who portrayed Dadinho, Bené, and Li’l Zé, as well as the actress Alice Braga and musician and actor Seu Jorge. (Pragda) -
Representación indígena en el cine latinoamericano
El curso busca analizar las diversas formas en que han aparecido los pueblos indígenas de América Latina en las pantallas de cine, tanto de ficción como documental. Abarca un amplio periodo desde las representaciones en el cine de los primeros tiempos, pasando por los cines clásicos, los nuevos cines, cines políticos e independientes, para culminar en las luchas por la autorrepresentación, principalmente a través del video, que los propios pueblos indígenas emprendieron a partir de la década de los ochenta en casi todo el continente. El panorama de la representación indígena en el cine latinoamericano complejiza una periodización lineal. Si bien el curso está estructurado de manera más o menos cronológica, a lo largo de semestre se propone identificar debates, preocupaciones y formas de representación que permitan lecturas transversales y diacrónicas de los problemas discutidos.
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Cine y revolución en América Latina: Política, cultura e historia de las imágenes en movimiento
La intención del curso es hacer un recorrido por la historia de América Latina y por su producción cinematográfica, teniendo como eje rector las diversas maneras en que se ha expresado la idea de revolución en el cine latinoamericano, tanto en términos argumentales, como en cuestiones estéticas y técnicas, enfatizando su relación con lo social. En el curso se abordarán teorías y metodologías que problematizarán el cine como fuente para la historia cultural y política, tratado de rescatar la incipiente teorización latinoamericana sobre el tema. Así mismo, se emprenderá un recorrido por el cine social latinoamericano y sus distintas corrientes y manifestaciones hasta la década de los años ochenta.
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Ori Inu: In Search of Self
Ori Inu: In Search of Self is a coming-of-age story about a young immigrant woman who must choose between conforming her identity and spirituality to the cultural norms of America or revisiting her roots in the Afro-Brazilian religion called Candomble. The film stars Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins and feature the Grammy-nominated Afropean duo Les Nubians among others. (IMDB) -
Latin America through Cinema (*modified for remote learning, fall 2020)
In this course, we will explore cinema from and about Latin America to expand our understanding of this culturally diverse region comprised of more than twenty countries and territories. We will examine topics such as gender, humor, history, globalization, politics, memory, and religion through the lens of films by Latin American screenwriters and directors. Students will gain experience in film analysis, learning how to articulate the relationship between content and artistic form. Through this cinematographic encounter, we will begin to see and understand Latin America in a new way. -
Hispanic Film (*modified for remote learning, fall 2020)
In our Hispanic film course we examine diverse cinemas made in the region and how Latin American filmmakers represent, reject, reconstruct, maintain or challenge their realities. We look at how films are made, how they are funded, and how films reach audiences to question which films we see, and which ones are hidden from our view. The most accessible films available on major US platforms such as Netflix and Hulu do not begin to represent the diversity of world cinema, nor that of even US cinema.
In this course we examine works from the region to see how artists use cinema to challenge, break with, or redefine their realities sharing complexities beyond the limited roles of Latin Americans in Hollywood film. In these examples of more nuanced representations of Latin Americans, we see the crucial importance of self-representation, and diversity in front of and behind the camera.
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Pïrinop, meu primeiro contato
Em 1964, os índios Ikpeng têm seu primeiro contato com o homem branco numa região próxima ao rio Xingu, no Mato Grosso. O filme relata este encontro, ou o que restou dele: as lembranças, o exílio, a terra abandonada, o desejo e a luta pelo retorno. (Film's Official Website) -
Brava gente brasileira
Diogo is a cartographer and artist who is encharged to set the new frontiers of Portuguese Colonies in South America. When he reaches the center of the continent, finds apparently nothing but wilderness and 'uncivilized' natives with strange ways of living. But Captain Pedro, the rude scout who guides him through the jungle, involves Diogo in an involuntary act of violence which will tie him in an unusual way to that far away country. At the same time, the Portuguese colonists are trying to make peace with Guaicuru Indians (one of the few natives with horse-riding abilities). But peace doesn't ever have a low price. (IMDB) -
Migrations and Immigrations
To learn about the main events and historical characters that have forged the development and the evolution of the Latin-American culture(s) , arts and literature from Pre-Columbian times to the present. To address social-cultural and political issues derived from the tutelage of the Spanish Empire. -
Elena
Elena, a young Brazilian woman, moves to New York with the same dream as her mother: to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra, her seven-year-old sister. Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and heads to New York. At first in search of her destiny, but increasingly, in search of Elena, Petra has only a few clues: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary and some letters. Gradually, the features of the two sisters are confused; we no longer know one from the other. When Petra finally finds Elena in an unexpected place, she has to learn to let her go. ELENA is a film about the persistence of those memories, the irreversibility of that loss, and the impact the absence of her sister had on the seven-year old girl. (Film's Official Website) -
Café com canela
Violeta lives in a tight-knit community in Bahia, Brazil. She is far from the only one struggling with grief and loss: there is also a grandmother entirely dependent on care, a woman desperately searching for love and a young doctor who – after 20 years – is left by his great love, a much older man. Everyone thought they lived together as father and son until the old man dies. The loss is complete and the truth comes out. Then Violeta meets the older Margarida who is grieving alone and in silence in a nearby village. Lovingly Violeta helps her out of her isolation with practical rituals: scrubbing, tidying and making coffee with cinnamon. (International Film Festival Rotterdam) -
Cores e Botas
Joana tem um sonho comum a muitas meninas dos anos 80: ser Paquita. Sua família é bem sucedida e a apoia em seu sonho. Porém, Joana é negra, e nunca se viu uma paquita negra no programa da Xuxa. (Preta Portê Filmes) -
Pisa ligeiro
É um documentário de Bruno Pacheco, produzido nos primeiros anos da década passada, com poplações indígenas de diferentes regiões do país. O filme é um resumo das movimentações políticas- e seus resultados- desde a promulgação da Constituição Federal de 1988, sob o ponto de vista de lideranças indígenas e as expectativas quanto ao futuro. Preservação da cultura, terras, respeito à sua identidade indígena, acesso à educaçāo e saúde sāo alguns dos temas mais importantes para essas proulações e guiam seus movimientos e articulações. (Povos do Brasil)Tags Amazon / Amazonas -
Vazante
Minas Gerais, 1821. Período em que a economia local era baseada na extração de diamantes entrou em colapso. Ao voltar para casa, depois de uma longa viagem, na qual conduzia uma tropa de escravos, Antônio, um patriarca português, descobre que sua mulher morreu em trabalho de parto. Sentindo-se sozinho e isolado em uma fazenda improdutiva, busca um novo casamento com Beatriz, uma menina muito jovem que frustra seu plano de ter filhos. Antônio, então, volta às expedições, negociando negros e gado. Sozinha, Beatriz encontra nos escravos sua companhia. Uma traição implode a família em uma espiral de violência, que é o prenúncio de mudanças. O filme revela algumas de nossas maiores cicatrizes: a escravidão, o casamento forçado de meninas, a mestiçagem fruto do assédio e da exploração sexual das negras, e as hierarquias de poder que pervertem até as relações entre os mais oprimidos. (Cinemateca Brasileira) -
So quando eu danço
Only When I Dance was begun as a hopeful documentary about social projects in Rio’s favelas, the aim being simply to show another side to the Brazilian image of violence and hopelessness, with kids achieving real things in their appallingly blighted neighbourhoods. Director Beadie Finzi and producer Giorgia Lo Savio could never have imagined just what they would end up filming. Having decided that capoeira was overdone as a Brazilian theme, Beadie was drawn to the idea of ballet - she’d been told about a remarkable teacher, Mariza Estrella, who runs Rio’s Centro de Dança, where she gives free lessons to kids she talent-scouts in the favelas. In her top two classes Beadie found two outstanding children: Irlan Santos da Silva, a boy set apart from all others by the intensity of his love of dance, his beautiful physique and his evidently unusual talent, and Isabela Coracy, who faced the biggest barrier possible in her dream of becoming a ballerina: she is black. Even out in the world there are few black classical ballerinas - in Brazil, there are none. (The Arts Desk.com) -
Que horas ela volta?
Que horas ela volta? tells the story of Val, a woman from the Northeastern region of Brazil who works as a live-in maid for a well-to-do São Paulo family. At first, as a very brief scene in the beginning of the film indicates, she worked as a nanny for the family's only child, Fabinho (Michel Joelsas), now a late teen, and for that reason she still has very strong quasi-maternal ties with him. She and her employer, Barbara (Karina Teles), appear to have a warm, friendly, relationship until the arrival of Jéssica (Camila Márdila), Val's daughter, who comes to São Paulo in order to prepare for a university entrance examination ("vestibular") at the School of Architecture. Having been raised unaware of her mother's actual situation, and not having seen her mother for over 10 years, Jéssica finds herself, unexpectedly, living temporarily at the house of Val's employers. She is a self-assured young woman who does not understand her mother's social resignation. With time, her presence at the house creates all kinds of problems: Barbara is driven to distraction and Carlos (Lourenço Mutarelli), Barbara's husband (who is responsible for the family's fortune), becomes so infatuated with Jéssica that he ends up proposing to her. The film has a happy, light-comedy ending: Jessica obtains much better results than Fabinho in the university examination, and Val quits her job and rents a house with her daughter in order to help the latter look after her own son, whose existence is revealed only towards the end of the film. (Source: Sá, Lúcia. “Intimacy at Work: Servant and Employer Relations in Que Horas Ela Volta? (The Second Mother).” Journal of Iberian & Latin American Studies, vol. 24, no. 3, Dec. 2018, pp. 311–327.)Tags Feminism / Feminismo -
Domésticas
Domésticas is not a film about maid-servants but a film by maid-servants. Domésticas wants to give them a voice. Or rather: voices. No less than 3 million women in Brazil work as 'domestics' and they all have stories to tell. Domésticas is however not a film about the life of the maidservant in the city, not a critical look at harsh reality: this film is about the characters as storytellers. Domésticas is the film version of one of the most popular and widely praised modern Brazilian stage plays. As preparation for the play, hundreds of maid-servants were interviewed and the five most important characters were compiled from the conversations. What makes the film special is not just the subject, but also the form. The film starts as a documentary. The five women talk to the camera about themselves, about their desires, frustrations, problems and pleasures. As the film progresses, more and more space is given to pictures to illustrate their stories. They are universal stories about women wrestling with loneliness, ambitions, conflicts with partners and children, loss and pain. But it is not all bad times. New, exciting encounters, music and mutual solidarity provide sparkling interludes in their heavy existence. (International Film Festival Rotterdam) -
Martírio
Filmed over the course of 40 years, indigenous expert and filmmaker Vincent Carelli seeks out the origins of the Guaraní Kaiowá genocide. A conflict of disproportionate forces: the peaceful and obstinate insurgency of the dispossessed Guaraní Kaiowá against the powerful apparatus of agribusiness. While fighting against the Brazilian Congress in order not to be evicted from their homes, the 50.000 indigenous people demand the demarcation of the space that belongs to them. With rigorous investigative work, this Brazilian director recorded the birthplace of the resistance movement in the 1980s and tells, with his own voice and those of the indigenous people, of the social and political injustices suffered. The stunning archival historical images, new footage, both color and black and white, hearings in Brazilian Congress, and even interviews with those opposed to the Guaraní Kaiowá’s rights, reveal the crudeness with which they coexist every day: among the violation of their civil rights and the fortitude with which they confront the usurpers. This epic documentary has become a sensation in Brazil and the ultimate testimony that unifies these unheard voices by “ethnocide actions,” the cruel synthesis of a conflict without a foreseen solution in the near future. (Pragda) -
Corumbiara
A personal account of 20 years of video activism in Corumbiara, a municipality in western Brazil. In order to stop the destruction of the habitat of isolated Native Americans, their existence will have to be proven in court. Back in 1986, filmmaker Vincent Carrelli first got involved in a hunt for the remains of an Indian village, which had been wiped off the map by a landowner. Unfortunately, the tools that they found were insufficient to stand up in court. In the years that followed, Carrelli returned to the region on several occasions, convinced that the Native Americans lived there and determined to record this fact with his camera. The film documents the heartwarming contact between the researchers and a family of Canoé Indians, and contains unique footage of one of the last survivors of an unknown tribe. But the activists also must deal with disappointing defeats in the face of landowners, lumber merchants and farmers, and even instances of gruesome violence. Ultimately, the film also asks questions about the legitimacy of the hunt for footage. To what extent is it justified to invade the habitat of people who shun any attempt at contact - even if that invasion occurs with the intent to protect them from greater external aggression? (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)Tags Amazon / Amazonas -
Latin American Women Writers and Filmmakers
This course will provide students an introduction to the critical analysis of film and literature in Latin America (including Brazil) with a specific focus, particularly at the end of the course, on post-dictatorship film and literature from Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. This course is designed to give students an introduction of literary and filmic analysis at an advanced level as a means of building their speaking, reading, critical thinking, and writing skills in Spanish and English. -
Quilombo
Palmares is a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in northeast Brazil. In 1650, plantation slaves revolt and head for the mountains where they find others led by the aged seer, Acotirene. She anoints one who becomes Ganga Zumba, a legendary king. For years, his warriors hold off Portuguese raiders; then he agrees to leave the mountains in exchange for reservation land and peace. It's a mistake. Zumbi, a warrior whose mother was killed by Portuguese and who spent 15 years with the Whites, stays in the mountains to lead Palmares. In 1694, the Portuguese import a ruthless captain from São Paulo to lead an assault on the free Blacks. Can Zumbi keep Palmares free? (IMDB) -
Xingu
A gripping account of a collision of cultures, "Xingu" tells the inspiring true story of the three Villas Bôas brothers, who became the leading advocates for Brazil's Amazonian Indians, an effort that culminated in the founding of a mammoth tribal preserve. Directed by Cao Hamburger, "Xingu" begins in 1943, when the brothers -- Orlando (Felipe Camarago), Cláudio (João Miguel) and Leonardo (Caio Blat) -- sign up for Brazil's March to the West, an expedition to explore and open the interior for development. Smitten by the land's raw beauty, they are also fascinated by the indigenous people there. Orlando, the eldest and a natural politician, defuses the tensions when they meet the Xavante, who have not seen white men before. When a flu epidemic kills half the tribe, the brothers vow to protect the natives from the forces of civilization that they represent. "We are the poison," Cláudio says, "and the antidote." The brothers eventually win the creation, in 1961, of the Xingu National Park, a preserve larger than Maryland. The film makes clear that not everyone agrees with the Xingu approach, that one answer does not fit all. But as natives maintain traditional lives there, they can integrate into the larger society, by their own choice and at their own speed. Source: Gold, Daniel M. Review of Xingu, by Cao Hamburger. New York Times, 14 Mar 2014, sec. C8.Tags Amazon / Amazonas -
O dia de Jerusa
"The Day of Jerusa" narrates the encounter between Jerusa (Lea Garcia), a resident of an old townhouse of Bixiga with the young Silvia, played by Deborah Marcal, which circulates through the traditional São Paulo neighborhood doing opinion research on soap in powder. The story emerges from observations of everyday life, to cycle through the streets of São Paulo, Brazil. (Kweli TV) -
Bixa Travesty
A documentary that follows Ms Linn da Quebrada, a black trans woman, performer and activist living in impoverished São Paulo. Her electrifying performances (with plenty of nudity) brazenly take on Brazil's hetero-normative machismo. (IMDB) -
Carandiru
São Paolo, 1992. A new doctor arrives in the notorious male prison of Carandiru, aiming to promote Aids education. Gradually we become aware of individuals within the crowd of convicts, as they come to the doctor's office for treatment. In flashback we learn the crimes that brought them to the prison. Dagger has killed another prisoner's father. Highness is a good-looking thief with a white wife and a black mistress. He has taken the blame for a fire set by his jealous wife. Chico is a dignified older man, waiting in vain for a visit from his grown daughter. Zico, a drug dealer, was taken in by the family of Deusdete after being abandoned by his mother. Deusdete has killed the two men who raped his sister and now shares a cell with Zico. Antonio and Miro are armed robbers brought down by the jealousy and treachery of their wives. Lady Di is a transsexual who aims to marry fellow inmate Too Bad. On visiting day the partners and children of all these characters are allowed into the prison. Zico, now addicted to crack, goes crazy and pours boiling water over Deusdete. He is killed in turn by a number of prisoners, and Highness gets Ezequiel, another addict, to take the blame. There is a football match among the convicts. Afterwards a fight breaks out which escalates into a riot. Although the prisoners give up their arms, the riot squad enter and slaughter the inmates. The final titles tell us that 111 convicts were killed and not one policeman. Documentary footage shows how the prison was finally demolished in 2002. Source: Smith, Paul Julian. Sight and Sound, vol. 14, no. 4, 2004, p. 44-45. -
Cidade de Deus
Basada en hechos reales, describe el mundo del crimen organizado en Cidade de Deus, un suburbio de Río de Janeiro, desde finales de los sesenta hasta principios de los ochenta, época durante la cual el tráfico de drogas y la violencia impusieron su ley en las favelas. A finales de los sesenta, Buscapé, un niño de 11 años tímido y sensible, observa a los niños duros de su barrio, sus robos, sus peleas, sus enfrentamientos diarios con la policía. Pero él sabe muy bien lo que quiere ser si consigue sobrevivir: fotógrafo. Dadinho, un niño de su edad que se traslada al barrio, sueña con ser el criminal más peligroso de Río de Janeiro y empieza su aprendizaje haciendo recados para los delincuentes locales. Admira a Cabeleira y su pandilla, que se dedican a atracar los camiones del gas. Un día Cabeleira le da a Dadinho la oportunidad de cometer su primer asesinato. (Film Affinity) -
Ventos de Agosto
Mascaro’s film shows a place in the process of disappearing; in this case, due to climate change. It centers on two main characters: Shirley (Dandara de Morais) and her boyfriend, Jeison (Geová Manoel dos Santos). Shirley used to live in a big city but moved back to the village to care for her aging grandmother. She works as a truck driver at a coconut farm where Jeison is a coconut picker. Shirley wants to be a tattoo artist and Jeison spends his free time practicing underwater fishing. The everyday life of the characters is disrupted by the arrival of a meteorologist (or a wind researcher, as the final credits describe him—played by the director himself) who arrives in the village to study the sounds of the winds. An accident befalls the researcher and Jeison fnds him drowned at sea. As his body is never claimed, Jeison becomes determined to notify the authorities, despite the difficulties he encounters in the process. Source: Cunha, Mariana. "Bodies in Landscape: The Scientist's Presence in Viajo Porque Preciso, Volto Porque Te Amo, and Ventos de Agosto." Space and Subjectivity in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema, edited by Antônio Márcio da Silva and Mariana Cunha, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, p. 85. -
Ôrí
While giving an overall look at the documented history of BLACK MOVEMENTS in Brazil (during the 70s and 80s), ORI tells the story of a woman, Beatriz Nascimento, activist and historian, who searches for her identity through research into the history of the "QUILOMBOS" as warrior establishments and focuses of cultural resistance, from 15th-century Africa to Brazil in the 20th century. (Culture Unplugged - watch complete film here) -
A negação do Brasil
A documentary film about the taboos, stereotypes, and struggles of Black actors in Brazilian television "soaps." Based on his own memories and on a sturdy body of research evidence, the director analyzes race relations in Brazilian soap operas, calling attention to their likely influence on Black people's identity-forming processes. (Kanopy) -
Ganga Zumba
Near the end of the 16th century, slaves working in northeastern Brazilian sugar cane mills conspire to escape to Quilombo dos Palmares, a haven for fugitive black slaves. Among the group is young Ganga Zumba (Antonio Pitanga), who rises to become head of the first revolutionary republic in the Americas. (Film at Lincoln Center) -
Xica da Silva
In the 18th century, in Minas Gerais, the Portuguese mined diamonds and gold. João Fernandes de Oliveira arrives from Lisbon with the Crown's exclusive contract for mining diamonds. He quickly asserts control, letting the intendant and other authorities know that he's onto their corruption. Xica, a slave of the local sergeant-major and possessed of phenomenal sex drive and tricks that cause men to howl with pleasure, quickly captures João. He denies her no extravagance; miners die for his greed. Eventually Lisbon hears of João's excesses and sends an inspector. José, a political radical, provides Xica refuge; her unrelenting sexual tingle is Brazil's spirit. (IMDB) -
Chuva é cantoria na aldeia dos mortos
João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora's hybrid [film] follows Ihjãc (Henrique-Ihjãc Krahô), a 15-year old indigenous Krahô from the north of Brazil, who runs away from home after he is called to direct his deceased father's spirit to the village of the dead. Denying his tribal duty as a prospective shaman, Ihjãc instead resides in the nearby town of Itcajá against the advice of his wife (Raene Kôtó Krahô) and community. (Cinema Tropical) -
Tropicália
Uma análise sobre o importante movimento musical homônimo, liderado por Caetano Veloso e Gilberto Gil no final dos anos 1960. O documentário resgata uma fase na história do Brasil em que cena musical fervilhava e os festivais revelavam vários novos talentos. Ao mesmo tempo, o Brasil sofria com a ditadura dos generais no poder, o que fez com que Caetano e Gil fossem exilados do país. (Adoro Cinema Brasil)Tags Cinema Nôvo -
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The Three Caballeros
A large box arrives for Donald on his birthday, three gifts inside. He unwraps one at a time, and each takes him on an adventure. The first is a movie projector with a film about the birds of South American: Donald watches two cartoons, one tells of a penguin who longs to live on a tropical isle and the other about a gaucho boy who hunts the wild ostrich. The second gift is a pop-up book about Brazil. Inside is Zé Carioca, who takes Donald to Brazil's Bahia for a mix of animation and live action: the two cartoon birds sing and dance with natives. The third gift is a piñata, accompanied by Panchito. A ride on a magic serape takes the three amigos singing and dancing across Mexico. (IMDB) -
Contemporary Spanish and Latin American Cinema
This interdisciplinary course seeks to review and analyze the complexity of contemporary society through the study of Latin American and Spanish film production. We will explore topics that relates to issues of ethnicity, class representation, immigration and exile, dictatorship, experiences of war and violence, globalization, gender, as well as sexual and racial identities, among other themes. The course has a transatlantic approach covering different genres, styles, and filmmakers from Mexico, Cuba, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay. Class discussions in Forum, activities, presentations, reflections, and a final multimodal research project will help to improve and expand students’ analytical skills as well as their Spanish language proficiency. -
La terra degli uomini rossi
Cuando una tribu de guaraníes indígenas intenta volver a habitar su tierra ancestral, que se encuentra en la frontera de los campos de un rico terrateniente, aumentan las tensiones. (Translation by Liam Lewis) -
Saludos amigos
Live-action segments show members of the Disney staff touring South America and recording their impressions in sketches. These segue into four animated sections: "Lake Titicaca" depicts tourist Donald Duck's troubles with a stubborn llama; "Pedro" tells of a little mail plane's adventures flying over the treacherous Andes; "El Gaucho Goofy" transplants an American cowboy into the Argentine pampas; and in "Aquarela do Brasil," Jose Carioca shows Donald the sights and sounds of Rio de Janiero. (IMDB) -
Poetry and Politics in Latin American Cinema
By tracing a Latin American centric social, geo-political, cultural, historical, cinematic map, we will be looking at the praxis of key visionary filmmakers and cinematic movements. We will examine how these filmmakers, their films, their texts, and their legacies engage local and global contexts. Cinema from the global south is not an addendum to "First World Cinema"; the majority of world cinema is actually produced in the "Third World”. By mapping the vibrant, often neglected, legacy of Latin American cinema, we will revisit films from New Latin American Cinema to more contemporary films from the continent in order to delve into the poetry and politics of a subjective repertoire of films. By grounding our critical approach and analyses in the historical, theoretical, political, social, economic, and cultural framework that these films were created in, “Poetry and Politics in Latin American Cinema” aims to deconstruct some of the dominant, oppressive discourses and colonial systems that provoked the counter-narratives and resistance manifest in these cinematic works.
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Transgressive Gazes across the Americas
By tracing a women centric social, geo-political, cultural, historical, cinematic map, we will be looking at the praxis of key women filmmakers across the Americas. From Alanis Obomsawin, to Arlene Bowman, to Ann Marie Fleming, to Amanda Strong in Canada to Chicana filmmakers in the US (i.e. Lourdes Portillo, Sylvia Morales), to Latin American filmmakers (Marta Rodriguez [Colombia]), Patricia Ferreira Yxapy [Brazil], Lucrecia Martel [Argentina]), we will examine the intersectional politics evidenced in their films. This examination will feature discussions grounded in critical approaches to, and analyses of, the historical, theoretical, political, social, economic, and cultural framework of these filmmakers. We will also be revisiting concepts from film theory, such as cult theory and auteur theory, which are traditionally centred around the Euro-Western white male imaginary, in order to subvert, transgress, and redefine film theory from a women and women of color perspective. By deconstructing some of the dominant, oppressive discourses and colonial systems that provoked the counter-narratives and resistance manifest in various women made cinematic works, our goal is to expand our understanding of film culture. -
Latin America through Cinema
In this course, we will explore cinema from and about Latin America to expand our understanding of this culturally diverse region comprised of more than twenty countries and territories. We will examine topics such as gender, humor, history, globalization, politics, memory, and religion through the lens of films by Latin American screenwriters and directors. Students will gain experience in film analysis, learning how to articulate the relationship between content and artistic form. Through this cinematographic encounter, we will begin to see and understand Latin America in a new way. -
Hispanic Film
This course examines film by Spanish and Latin American directors. Students study films as an independent genre using specific structural forms as the means of analysis (close-up, soundtrack, frame, etc.). Students will formulate interpretations that move between the formal, technical composition of films and the concrete socio-historic and cultural reality to which each film refers and shapes. Course activities include screening of films, discussion of articles that focus on literary theory and film analysis, and writing short papers. -
Introduction to Spanish-Language Film
This course is an introduction to appreciating and understanding film art as it relates to the rich and diverse cinema history of Latin America. Conducted entirely in Spanish, the course focuses on students’ acquisition of knowledge on the material and principles of film form, or the basic elements of film narrative, mise-en-scène, editing, and sound. Students will be asked to put their new knowledge into practice by watching closely and analyzing major films produced across the Latin American regions in the 20th and 21st centuries, from Argentina to Chile to Bolivia to Chile to Brazil to Cuba to Mexico. A variety of film genres will be enjoyed, including the documentary, the musical, the comedy, the thriller, the coming-of-age movie and the road film. The “New Latin American Cinema” or the socially-engaged film of the 1960s and 1970s will also receive attention in the course. In addition to studying film as an art form we will also tackle prominent issues in contemporary film studies, including film theory, the history of audiences and the role of cinema as a form of mass media. -
Latin American Cinema
In this course we will explore how Latin Americans have represented themselves on the big screen, through close readings of representative films from each of the following major periods:- silent cinema (1890s-1930s),
- studio cinema (1930s-1950s),
- Neorealism/Art Cinema (1950s),
- the New Latin American Cinema (1960s-1980s), and
- contemporary cinema (1990s to today)
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Latin American Film & Television Studies
This course is an introduction to Latin American film and television studies. It is conducted in Spanish and is open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates with the permission of the instructor. Students will acquire knowledge on contemporary trends in film and television studies, including film theory, the archival turn, and ethnographies of television reception, as they relate to the film and television cultures of the rich and diverse regions of Latin America. The course’s historical purview takes students from classical narratives of the 1930s and 40s to revolutionary cinema of the 1960s and 70s to melorealism and the telenovela of the contemporary period. -
Orfeu Negro
Young lovers Orfeu (Breno Mello) and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death (Ademar Da Silva) and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira) and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim. (IMDB) -
Bye Bye Brasil
The Caravana Rolidei rolls into town with the Gypsy Lord at the mike: he does magic tricks, the erotic Salomé dances, and the mute Swallow performs feats of strength. A young accordion player is completely enamored of Salomé, and he begs to come along. The Gypsy Lord shrugs, and the accordionist and his pregnant wife, Dasdô, join the troupe. Television is their enemy as they go from the coast deep into the Amazon. Salomé lets the accordionist sleep with her once, with Dasdô's knowledge. He's moon-struck. Then, after Dasdô's baby is born and financial disaster hits the troupe, the accordionist must choose between seeing his wife a prostitute and leaving the caravan.Tags Amazon / Amazonas -
Os fuzis
Ano de 1963, policiais chegam a uma cidade pobre do Nordeste brasileiro para impedir que a população saqueie um depósito de alimentos. Em meio a um cenário desolador, os policiais ficam chocados com a negligência do governo que, ao invés de mandar alimentos para os moradores famintos, manda soldados.(Adoro Cinema)Tags Cinema Nôvo -
Opinião pública
Por meio de depoimentos de estudantes, a classe média carioca é retratada de maneira a salientar seus gestos, seus gostos, e sobretudo sua distância frente a realidade brasileira. (Cinemateca Brasileira)Tags Cinema Nôvo