Class: Monday, Wednesday 12:50-2:20 Film screenings: Tues 6:30-9:30
COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Objectives
This interdisciplinary course introduces important feature films about
Latin America, by Latin Americans. This semester’s films
are organized around the theme of “the nation and
identity.” Through film, the course analyzes significant
aspects of important political, economic, social, and aesthetic
tensions that have characterized the “construction” of the
nation and the constitution of identities in Latin America. The
course also contextualizes cinematic production in the region and
offers the opportunity for students to develop their interpretative
filmic skills.
The course requires no Spanish language ability for those who are
enrolled in the LAS section. Students who enroll for Spanish
major credit, however, will read all Spanish language materials listed
on the syllabus and will write all required papers in Spanish.
Class sessions on Monday and Wednesday are devoted to lectures on and
discussions of the assigned readings and films. Films will be
screened during the Tuesday evening session; attendance at all
screenings is mandatory for students.
Course Materials
The following book is required for the course and may be purchased from
the Willamette University bookstore. Other required readings are
on electronic resources through the Hatfield Library. During the
course of the semester, additional readings may be handed out in class.
• John King, Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America, Verso, 2nd Edition, 2000, paper.
Course Format, Student Obligations and Grades
The course is organized around video presentations, class discussions,
lectures and (outside) reading, writing, and researching.
Students are expected to fully participate in the shaping of the course
by contributing relevant information, developing controversial issues,
and raising probing questions during the Monday and Wednesday class
sessions. Final course grades will be assigned on the following
bases.
• Twenty percent of the course grade will be
determined by attentive, informed, and thoughtful participation in
class discussions.
• Forty percent of the course grade will be
based on reviews of six films of your choice—each 500 words in
length, double-spaced—that identify and analytically relate the
main themes of the films to class readings and discussion and address
their modes of filmmaking. The reviews are not to summarize the
films’ story lines or the class discussions. Reviews are
due by the Monday class session following the Tuesday viewing of the
videos. Everyone must complete at least one review of a film in
each of the four units—Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba.
• A research paper of 15-20 pages in English,
10-15 pages in Spanish, on some significant aspect of Latin American
cinema will determine forty percent of the course grade. A
250-word description of the paper topic is due October 17, an outline
of the paper is due on October 31, and the research paper is due on
December 7. The course instructors must approve all paper topics.
• Written work that is turned in past due dates
will be graded down by one letter grade, e.g., from “A” to
“B”, for every 24 hour period past the due date it is
received.
Office Hours
Prof. Dash’s office is Smullin 317, his telephone is 370-6262,
his email is rdash@willamette.university, and his WU web page (where
this syllabus is posted) is
“http://www.willamette.edu/~rdash/”. Prof.
Dash’s office time this semester is Monday and Wednesday 11:30 to
12:30, and by appointment. Prof. Varas’ office is Walton
Hall 143, her telephone is 375-5372, and her email is
pvaras@willamette.edu. Her office time this semester is MW 11:00
to 12:00 and by appointment.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1
Tuesday Aug 28 No class meeting
Wednesday Aug 29 Introduction to course and syllabus; discussion of Mexico
Read John King, Magical Reels, Introduction and Chapter 1
I. MEXICO
Week 2
Tuesday Sept 4 Screening of Qué Viva México
(1931/1979, director Sergei Eisenstein; produced by Grigory Alexandrov;
reconstructed by Grigory Alexandrov and Nikita Orlov, 85 minutes)
Wednesday Sept 5
• Joanne Hershfield, “Race and Ethnicity
in the Classical Cinema,” pp. 81-100 in Joanne Hershfield and
David R. Maciel, Mexico’s Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers
• Laura Podalsky, “Patterns of the
Primitive: Sergei Eisenstein’s Que Viva Mexico!”, pp. 25-39
in John King et al., Mediating Two Worlds
Week 3
Monday Sept 10
• King, Magical Reels, Chapters 2 & 3
• Carlos Monsiváis, “Mexican
Cinema: Of Myths and Demystification,” 139-46 in John King et
al., Mediating Two Worlds
Tuesday Sept 11 Screening of María Candelaria (1943, director Emilio Fernández, 101 minutes)
Wednesday Sept 12
• Andrea Noble, “If Looks Could Kill: Image Wars in María Candelaria,” Screen: the Journal of the Society for Education in Film and Television 42:1 (2001): 77-91
• Julia Tuñón, “Between the
Nation and Utopia: The Image of Mexico in the Films of Emilio
‘Indio’ Fernandez,” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture Vol 12 (1993): no pagination
• Julia Tuñón, “María
Candelaria,” pp. 45-51 in Alberto Elena and Marina Díaz
López, The Cinema of Latin America (Wallflower Press, 2003)
Week 4
Monday Sept 17
• King, Magical Reels, Chap. 6
• Liz Consuelo Rangel, “La ley de Herodes (1999) vs. Río Escondido (1947): La dismitificación del triunfo de la Revolución Mexicana," Divergencias: Revistas de estudio lingüisticos y literaros 4:1 (primavera 2006): 61-68
Tuesday Sept 18 Screening of La ley de Herodes/Herod’s Law (1999, director Luis Estrada, Mexico, 122 minutes)
Wednesday Sept 19
• Judith A.M. Costello, “Politics and Popularity: the Current Mexican Cinema,” Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas 38:1 (May 2005): 31-38
• Emily Hind, “Provincia in Recent Mexican Cinema, 1989-2004,” Discourse 26: 1 & 2 (Winter and Spring, 2004): 26-45
• Savador Velazco, “Rojo amanecer y La ley
de Herodes: cine política de la transción
mexicana,” Hispanic Research Journal 6:1 (February 2005): 67-80
Week 5
Monday Sept 24
• Marvin D’Lugo, “Amores
Perros/Love’s a Bitch” pp. 221-230 in Alberto Elena and
Marina Díaz López, The Cinema of Latin America (Wallflower Press, 2003)
• David R. Maciel, “Cinema and the State
in Contemporary Mexico, 1970-1999,” pp. 197-232 in Joanne
Hershfield and Maciel eds., Mexico’s Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers
Tuesday Sept 25 Screening of Amores Perros/Love’s a Bitch (2000, director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico, 153 minutes)
Wednesday Sept 26
• Alex M. Saragoza and Graciela Berkovich,
“Intimate Connections: Cinematic Allegories of Gender, the State
and National Unity,” pp. 25-32 in Chon A. Noriega and Steven
Ricci, The Mexican Cinema Project
• Deborah Shaw, “Seducing the Public:
Images of Mexico in Like Water for Chocolate and Amores
Perros, pp. 36-70 in Contemporary Cinema of Latin America
• Liliana Wendorff and J. Thomas Morley, “Amores Perros: A Tragic Weltanschauung,” The Film Journal 2004: no pagination
II. Brazil
Week 6
Monday Oct 1
• King, Magical Reels, Chap. 5
• Carlos Diegues, “Cinema Novo,” pp. 64-67 in Johnson and Stam, eds., Brazilian Cinema
• Cliff Welch, “Quilombo,” [Review] American Historical Review (Oct 1992): 1162-1164
Tuesday Oct 2 Screening of Quilombo (1984, director Carlos Diegues, 114 minutes)
Wednesday Oct 3
• Robert Stam, “Cross-Cultural Dialogisms:
Race and Multiculturalism in Brazilian Cinema,” pp. 175-91 in
King et al., Mediating Two Worlds
• Read Dan Yakir, “Carlos Diegues
(Brazil): The Mind of Cinema Novo,” [Interview] pp. 171-79 in
Burton, ed., Cinema and Social Change in Latin America: Conversations with Filmmakers
Week 7
Monday Oct 8
• Rondal Johnson, “Film, Television and Traditional Folk Culture in Bye Bye Brazil,” Journal of Popular Culture 18:1 (Summer 1984): 121-32
• Ismail Zavier, “Eldorado as Hell: Cinema
Novo and Post Cinema Novo—Appropriations of the Imaginary of the
Discovery,” pp. 192-203 in King et al, Mediating Two Worlds
Tuesday Oct 9 Screening of Bye Bye Brasil/Bye Bye Brazil(1979, director Carlos Diegues,
100 minutes)
Wednesday Oct 10
• Anelise Reich Corseuli, “Bye Bye Brazil and the Postmodernist Context,” Michigan Academician 24:4 (1992): 551-57
• Mark Osiel, “Bye Bye Boredom: Brazilian Cinema Comes of Age,” Cineaste 14:1 (1985): 30-35
• João Luiz Vieira, “Bye Bye
Brasil/Bye Bye Brazil” pp. 161-68 in Alberto Elena and Marina
Díaz López, The Cinema of Latin America (Wallflower Press, 2003)
Week 8
Monday Oct 15
• “City of God,” Creative Screenwriting 11:1 (Jan/Feb 2004): 55
• “City of God,” Creative Screenwriting 11:3 (May/June 2004): 22
• Alcino Leite Neto, “A Youth-Crime Saga
Set in a Notorious Ghetto, City of God is a Wake-Up Call for
Brazil,” Film Comment 38:4 (July/Aug 2002): 10-11
• Marta Peixoto, “Rio’s Favelas in
Recent Fiction and Film: Commonplaces of Urban Segregation,” PMLA 122:1 (January 2007): 170-78
Tuesday Oct 16 Screening of Cidade de Deus/City of God (2002, director Fernando Meirelles and
co-director Katia Lund, 130 minutes)
Wednesday Oct 17
• Bülent Diken, “City of God,” City 9:3 (December 2005): 307-320
• Brian J. Godfrey, “Regional Depiction in Contemporary Film,” Geographical Review 83:4 (Oct 1993): np
A 250-word description of the paper topic is due October 17
III. ARGENTINA
Week 9
Monday Oct 22
• King, Ch. 4
• Julianne Burton-Carvajal, “Maria Luisa
Bemberg’s Miss Mary: Fragments of a Life and Career
History,” pp. 331-51 in Diana Robin and Ira Jaffe, Redirecting the Gaze: Gender, Theory and Cinema in the Third World
• Caleb Bach, “María Luisa Bemberg Tells the Untold,” Americas, 46:2 (March/April 1994)
Tuesday Oct 23 Screening of Miss Mary (1986, María Luisa Bemberg, 100 minutes)
Wednesday Oct 24
• María Carbonetti, “Deseos argentinos: Miss Mary,” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 27:1 (2002): 87-117
• Elia Geoffrey Kantaris, “Re-engendering
History: María Luisa Bemberg’s Miss Mary,” Women’s Studies 29 (2000): 5-18
• Jan Mennell, “Jane Eyre Goes to
Argentina: Cultural Imperialism in María Luisa Bemberg’s
Miss Mary,” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 27:1 2002, 99-117.
Week 10
Monday Oct 29 Screening in class of Tire Dié/Throw a Dime (1960, director Fernando Birri,
33 minutes)
• Julianne Burton, “Fernando Birri
(Argentina): The Roots of Documentary Realism,” (Interview), pp,
1-11 in Burton., ed., Cinema and Social Change
• John Hess, “Neo-Realism and New Latin American Cinema,” pp. 104-110 in King et al., Mediating Both Worlds
Tuesday Oct 30 Screening of Tiempo de revancha/Time for Revenge (1981, Adolfo Aristarain, 112 minutes)
Wednesday Oct 31
• Lorena Cancela y Silvina Rival, “Los
Venerables-No-Todos, Momentos de la Periodización de la Historia
Cinematográfica Argentina: Un Recorrido, Inti 52-53 (2001): 535-50
• David Oubiña, “Tiempo de
revancha/Time of Revenge” pp. 169-76 in Alberto Elena and Marina
Díaz López, The Cinema of Latin America (Wallflower Press, 2003)
An outline of the research paper is due on October 31
Week 11
Monday Nov 5 Contemporary documentary and Mexico
Tuesday Nov 6 Screening of The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas (1996, Saul Landau, United States, 56 minutes)
Wednesday Nov 7 Discussion with a representative from the Red de
Defensores Comunitarios por los Derechos Humanos (Network of Community
Human Rights Defenders, (www.defensorescomunitarios.org), which is a
network of indigenous human rights defenders from Zapatista communities
in Chiapas, Mexico
Week 12
Monday Nov 12
• Beatriz Sarlo, “Modernity and Cultural
Mixture: The Case of Buenas Aires,” pp. 164-74 in King et al, Mediating Both Worlds
Tuesday Nov 13 Screening of La cienaga/The Swamp (2001, Lucrecia Martel, 100 minutes)
Wednesday Nov 14
• Robert C. Dash and Patricia Varas,
“(Re)imaginando la nación argentina: Lucrecia Martel y La
ciénaga (forthcoming)
• Ana Martín Morán, “La ciénaga/The Swamp,” pp. 231-39 in The Cinema of Latin America (Wallflower Press, 2003)
• Joel Poblete, “Rodrigo Moreno” [intrevista], Revista de Cine Mabuse, retrieved from http://www.mabuse.cl on May 11, 2007, no pagination
IV. CUBA
Week 13
Monday Nov 19
• King, Chap. 7
• Julianne Burton, “Tomás
Gutiérrez Alea (Cuba): Beyond the Reflection of Reality,”
[Interview] pp. 115-31 in Burton, ed., Cinema and Social Change
• Roman de la Campa, “Memorias del Subdesarrollo,” Revista Iberoamericana 56:152-3 (July-Dec 1990): 1039-1054
Tuesday Nov 20 Screening of Memorias del Subdesarrollo/ Memories of Underdevelopment (1968, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 97 minutes)
Wednesday Nov 21
• Ana M. López, “Memorias of a Home: Mapping the Revolution (and the Making of Exiles?), Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos XX:1 (Otoño 1995): 5-17
• Anitra Nelson, “Tribute: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea [1928-1996],” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, 3:2 (Dec. 1997): 99-107
• Paul Miller, “Memorias del
Subdesarrollo, treinta anos después: una entrevista con Sergio
Corrieri,” Cifra Nueva: Revista de Cultura 8 (July-Dec 1998): 189-201
Week 14
Monday Nov 26
• Paul Julian Smith, “The Language of Strawberry,” Sight and Sound, 4 (Dec., 1994): 30-33.
Tuesday Nov 27 Screening of Fresa y chocolate/Strawberry and Chocolate (1996, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 104 minutes)
Wednesday Nov 28
• Enrico Mario Santi, “Fresa y Chocolate: The Rhetoric of Cuban Reconciliation,” MLN 113:2 (1998): 407-425.
• Deborah Shaw, “Tomas Gutiérrez
Alea’s Changing Images of the Revolution: From Memories of
Underdevelopment to Strawberry and Chocolate,” pp. 9—34 in Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: Ten Key Films
Week 15
Monday Dec 3 Film to be determined, in class
Tuesday Dec 4 No film screening
Wednesday Dec 5 The research paper is due on December 5