Modern Latin American Film

This is a sample syllabus of this course.
The syllabus might change from one Semester to the other. Modern Latin American Film
Professor: Edgardo Dieleke
Class:
Screenings:
Office hours:
edieleke@gmail.com
Spring 2012
Course Description
The course is designed as an overview of Latin American Cinema during
the last sixty years. We will be discussing in detail 12 significant films as well as
the cultural and historical context in which they have been produced. Every film
constitutes a landmark in Latin American Cinema and will be analyzed according
to a particular topic or debate. Special emphasis will be given to the Latin
American Cinema of the 60s and contemporary cinema.
The films and writings under consideration, from the present and the
past, will provide a sampling of how cinema in Latin America has dealt in its
special way with issues and problems such as poverty, justice, memory,
violence, the family, the public and the private. The close analysis of the films
also aims to help students appreciate the language of film and the specific
issues of cinema in Latin America.
Certain topics will be discussed in detail: cinema and poverty, films as
political weapon, cinema as a privileged aesthetic witness of historical
processes, and the boundaries of documentary and fiction. Given the context,
special attention will be given to Argentina Cinema, in particular to the films of
the last decade.
Additionally, the course will include screenings and Q&As with guest
filmmakers depending on the semester’s schedule and the availability of the
directors. In this case, special attention will be given to young filmmakers of
the New Argentine Cinema.
Course Requirements
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The course will comprise two weekly sessions of one hour and a half. In
addition to this, a weekly screening will be scheduled so that students will be
able to watch the films included in the syllabus.
Classes will be held in English and will not assume prior knowledge of film
history. Classes will consist of presentations by the instructor and class
discussions, and will help to introduce topics, authors, problems and issues.
There will also be some additional films or segments of films screened during
class. Very often the brief introductory presentations will be followed by
general discussion and questions concerning the films and texts under
consideration. Students will be asked to analyze films or specific sequences..
Bibliography will be composed by critical texts in English (but it may also
include some texts in Spanish at the end of the semester).
Attendance Policy and Class Participation
Attendance to both weekly sessions and screening is compulsory.
Students are expected to perform an active participation during class. Final
grades depend significantly on this aspect.
No unexcused absences are permitted. Students are responsible for
making up any work missed due to excused absence, and they should contact
their class teachers to catch up on missed work.
Classwork
Classwork includes both attendance to classes and significant
contribution to all learning activities. In order to perform an adequate
participation, students should prepare each lesson before class, as it is
indicated below.
Students must fulfill the expectations required for their homework. They
should carefully organize their lessons before class, read the required texts and
watch the required films according to what is indicated in the syllabus.
As part of the participation students will be asked to write a weekly
response to the readings and the films analyzed. Also, they might be asked to
prepare the analysis of a particular scene.
Papers and exams
One short essay will be required by mid-term (not longer than five pages,
double-spaced, in English, Spanish or Portuguese).
A longer final paper (8-10 pages, double-spaced, in English, Spanish o
Portuguese) is due by the end of the semester).
NOTE: Only hard copies. No papers will be accepted as email attachments. No
late papers will be accepted.
There will be no mid-term or final examinations.
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Grading
Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation and written work.
The final grade will be determined by the quality of class participation and by
the assigned papers. The first paper will be worth 30%; class participation,
30%; and the final paper, 40%.
Plagiarism / cheating
Written works, essays and papers must be the result of the student’s personal
reflection. Quotations and bibliography must follow the MLA, APA or Chicago
formats.
The presentation of another person’s words, ideas, judgment, images or
data as though they were your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally,
constitutes an act of plagiarism.
Texts
Texts listed in the syllabus should be carefully read prior to the class they are
to be discussed in. Required readings are marked by an asterisk. Other texts
are suggested as of related interest. Further readings will undoubtedly come up
as discussion develops. Most of the assigned texts will be available for
purchase, in xeroxed copies, in the form of a Course Packet. Other texts will be
distributed during the course.
Some Recommended General Readings (not required):
John King, Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America.
Paulo Antonio Paranagua, Tradición y modernidad en el cine de América Latina.
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction.
Schedule
W eek 1
Screening: Los olvidados, directed by Luis Buñuel (México 1950).
Introduction to the course.
Readings:
*Michael Wood, “Buñuel in México” (in Mediating Two Worlds, J. King and AM.
Lopez, ed.).
*Luis Buñuel, My Last Breath (“Mexico” chapter).
Ernesto R. Acevedo-Munoz, “Los Olvidados and the Crisis of Mexican Cinema”.
(in Acevedo-Munoz, Bunuel and Mexico: The Crisis of National Cinema).
Stephen Hart, “Bunuel’s Box of Subaltern Tricks: Technique in Los Olvidados”
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(in Peter William Evans & Isabel Santaolalla, eds. Luis Bunuel: New Readings).
*Glauber Rocha, “The 12 Commandments of Our Lord Buñuel” (in Glauber
Rocha, Del hambre al sueño).
W eek 2
Neorrealism and social cinema in Latin America
Main Screening:
Tire dié (Fernando Birri, 1960)
Barren Lives (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Brazil, 1963)
Readings:
*Andre Bazin, “Italian Neorrealism” (in A. Bazin, What is Cinema?)
Glauber Rocha, “Rossellini’s Neorrealism” (in Glauber Rocha, Del hambre al
sueño)
Birri, Fernando. “Cinema and Underdevelopment”
W eek 3
The aesthetics of hunger
Screening: Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha, Brazil; 1964).
Readings:
Glauber Rocha, “Aesthetics of Hunger” and “Asthetics of the Dream” (in
Glauber Rocha, Del hambre al sueño)
*Ismail Xavier, "Black God, White Devil: The Representation of History" (in
Robert Stam, ed "Brazilian Cinema").
John King, "Brazil: From Cinema Novo to TV Globo" (in J. King, Magical Reels).
W eek 4
A Cinema for the Third- World
Main screening: The hour of the furnaces (Fernando Solanas and Octavio
Getino, Argentina; 1968)
*Solanas, Fernando and Octavio Getino, "Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and
Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World",
in Martin, Michael (Editor), New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and
Transcontinental Articulations, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1997,
pp. 33 - 58.
*Stam, Robert, "Hour of the Furnaces and the Two Avant Gardes", Millenium nº
7/9, 1980/81
W eek 5
The intellectuals and the Cuban Revolution
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Main screening: Memories of underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea,
Cuba;1968)
Readings:
*Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Edmundo Desnoes, Michael Channan (ed), Memories of
Underdevelopment and Inconsolable Memories (Rutgers Films in Print).
*Julia Lesage, “Memories of Underdevelopment” (Jump Cut, no. 1, May-June
1974).
Michael Chanan, Cuban Cinema (Cultural Studies of the Americas, 14).
W eek 6
The documentary tradition in Brazil (1)
Main screening: Twenty years later (Eduardo Coutinho, Brazil; 1986)
Readings:
TBA
W eek 7
Chile and the aftermath of dictatorship: Patricio Guzman.
Main Screening: Chile, the obstinate memory (Patricio Guzman, Chile; 1997)
W eek 8
Neoliberalism and the image of contemporary Mexico
Main screening: Amores perros (Alejandro González Iñarritu, Mexico; 2000)
Readings:
*Paul Julian Smith, Amores perros.
*Alma Guillermopietro, “Mexico City” chapters (in The Heart That Bleeds, Alma
Guillermopietro).
* Michael Wood, "Dog Days" (The New York Review of Books, September 20,
2001).
W eek 9
Urban violence, the limits of fiction and the images of poverty in Brazil
Main Screening: City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Brazil; 2002).
Readings:
*Paulo Lins, City of God (chapter 1). This text can be read in the original
Portuguese or in Spanish translation.
*Mike Davis, City of Slums. (selection)
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* Ivana Bentes, "The sertao and the favela in contemporary Brazilian film" (in
Lucia Nagib, ed. The New Brazilian Cinema).
W eek 10
The aesthetics of New Argentine Cinema (1)
Main screening: The swamp (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina; 2001)
Readings:
Gonzalo Aguilar. New Worlds (selection).
W eek 11
The documentary in Brazil (2). The role of the media.
Main screening: Bus 174 (Jose Padilha, Brazil; 2002)
W eek 12
The aesthetics of New Argentine Cinema (2)
Main screening: The blondes (Albertina Carri, Argentina; 2003).
Readings:
*Gonzalo Aguilar. New Worlds (selection).
*Michael Renov, “The Subject in History: The New Autobiography in Film and
Video” and “Filling Up the Hole in the Real: Death and Mourning in
Contemporary Documentary Film and Video” (in Michael Renov, The Subject of
Documentary).
W eek 13
The return of the Real in New Argentine Cinema
Main screening: El Bonaerense (Pablo Trapero, Argentina; 2002)
*Gonzalo Aguilar. New Worlds (selection).
W eek 14
Politics and Cinema in Contemporary Argentina
Main screening: The student (Santiago Mitre, Argentina; 2011).
Q&A with Director Santiago Mitre.
Note: Some films in this program may be changed. Others may be added to
enrich the discussion. Some additional readings will also be added.
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Bibliography
Required readings are available in a course packet.
Aguilar, Gonzalo. New Argentine Film. Other worlds. Palgrave, Mcmillan, 2011.
(Selection)
Barnard, Tim, "Popular Cinema and Populist Politics", in Barnard, Tim (Editor),
Argentine Cinema, Nightwood Editions, Toronto, 1986, pp. 5 - 63.
Castagna, Gustavo, "From one vanguard to another: Is there a tradition?", in
Horacio Bernades, Diego Lerer and Sergio Wolf (editors), Nuevo cine argentino.
Temas, autores y estilos de una renovación, Fipresci / Tatanka, 2002.
Falicov, Tamara, “Young Filmmakers and the New Independent Argentine
Cinema” in The Cinematic Tango, Wallflower Press, 2007, pp. 115-150.
Foster, David William, "Camila: Beauty and Bestiality", in Contemporary
Argentine Cinema, University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 1992,
pp. 14 - 26.
Foster, David William, "The Official Story: Truth and Consequences", in
Contemporary Argentine Cinema, University of Missouri Press, Columbia and
London, 1992, pp. 38 - 54.
Gordard, Jean-Luc y Fernando Solanas, "Godard por Solanas, Solanas por
Godard", Cine del Tercer Mundo n° 1, Montevideo, octubre de 1969, p. 15.
(There is an English version in Cinefiles)
Horton, Robert, "Silvia Prieto", Film Comment vol 36 nº 2, marzo - abril de
2000.
Kohan, Martín: “La apariencia celebrada”, in Punto de vista nº 78, abril de 2004.
Kriger, Clara, "The Official Story", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López
(eds.), The Cinema of Latin America, Wallflower Press, London, 2003, pp. 177 183.
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Mestman, Mariano, "The Hour of the Furnaces", en Alberto Elena and Marina
López (eds.), The Cinema of Latin America, Londres, Wallflower Press, 2003
Morán, Ana Martín, "The Swamp", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López
(eds.), The Cinema of Latin America, Wallflower Press, London, 2003, pp. 231 239.
Oubiña, David. “Between breakup and tradition: New Argentinean Cinema”, in
Senses of cinema. Issue 57, 2004.
Pick, Zuzana, "Reviewing Women's History: Camila", in The New Latin American
Cinema. A Continental Project, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1993, pp. 82
-89.
Podalsky, Laura, "High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars and Hoteles de citas:
Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960s
Buenos Aires", in Stock, Ann Marie (Editor), Framing Latin American Cinema:
Contemporary Critical Perspectives, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,
1997, pp. 1 - 25.
Quintín, "From one generation to another: Is there a dividing line?", in Horacio
Bernades, Diego Lerer and Sergio Wolf (editors), Nuevo cine argentino. Temas,
autores y estilos de una renovación, Fipresci / Tatanka, 2002.
Reati, Fernando, "Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in
Films of the 1980's", in Latin American Literary Review, July-December 1989,
pp. 24-39.
Schwarzböck, Silvia and Hugo Salas, "El verano de nuestro descontento. Género
y violencia en La ciénaga", in El amante nº 108, March 2001, pp. 10 - 12.
Solanas, Fernando and Octavio Getino, "Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and
Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World",
in Martin, Michael (Editor), New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and
Transcontinental Articulations, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1997,
pp. 33 - 58.
Stam, Robert, "Hour of the Furnaces and the Two Avant Gardes", Millenium nº
7/9, 1980/81
Suárez, Pablo, "Martín Rejtman: la superficie de las cosas", en Horacio
Bernades, Diego Lerer y Sergio Wolf (editores), El nuevo cine argentino. Temas
autores y estilos de una renovación, Fipresci / Tatanka, Buenos Aires, 2002.
Taylor, Diana, "Damnable Iteration: The Traps of Political Spectacle", in Modern
Language Quarterly 57:2, June 1996, pp. 305 - 323.
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Secondary readings
Bernini, Emilio, "Ciertas tendencias en el cine argentino. Notas sobre el 'nuevo
cine argentino' (1956-1966)", in Kilómetro 111 nº 1, november 2000, pp. 71 88.
----------------, Estudio crítico sobre Silvia Prieto, Pic Nic Editorial, Buenos Aires,
2008
Castagna, Gustavo, "La generación del 60: Paradojas de un mito", in Wolf,
Sergio (ed.), Cine argentino. La otra historia, Ediciones Letra Buena, Buenos
Aires, 1993, pp. 245 - 263.
Castor, Nick, "Argentina: 1976-1983", in King, John and Nissa Torrents
(Editors), The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema, British Film Institute,
London, 1987, pp. 81 - 91.
Feldman, Simón, La generación del 60, Centro Editor de América Latina /
Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía / Ediciones Culturales Argentinas, Buenos
Aires, 1990.
Foster, David, "Contemporary Argentine Cinema", in Martin, Michael (Editor),
New Latin American Cinema: Studies of National Cinemas, Wayne State
University Press, Detroit, 1997, pp. 464 - 479.
Getino, Octavio, "Some Notes on the Concept of a Third Cinema", in Barnard,
Tim (Editor), Argentine Cinema, Nightwood Editions, Toronto, 1986, pp. 99–
108.
Kathleen Newman, “Cultural Redemocratization: Argentina, 1978–89,” in On
Edge: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American Culture, George Yúdice, Jean
Franco, and Juan Flores (Editors), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1992, 161–186.
King, John and Nissa Torrents (Editors), The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine
Cinema, British Film Institute, London, 1987.
----------------, Sheila Witaker and Rosa Bosch (eds.), An Argentine Passion: Maria
Luisa Bemberg and her Films, Verso, London, 2000.
López, Ana, "Argentina, 1955-1976: The Film Industry and its Margins", in
King, John and Nissa Torrents (Editors), The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine
Cinema, British Film Institute, London, 1987, pp. 49 - 80.
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Mestman, Mariano "Entre Argel y Buenos Aires: El Comité de cine del Tercer
Mundo" (1973-1974), en Gerardo Yoel (compilador), Imgen, política y memoria,
Buenos Aires, Libros del Rojas, 2002
Oubiña, David, "Pop Rebel. The Cinema of Leonardo Favio", in Film Comment
vol. 37 nº 5, New York, September - October 2001.
----------------, Estudio crítico sobre La ciénaga, Pic Nic Editorial, Buenos Aires,
2007
Paul Willemen, "The Third Cinema Question: Notes and Reflections", en Jim
Pines and Paul Willemen (comps.), Questions of Third Cinema, Londres, British
Film Institute, 1989
Wolf, Sergio (ed.), Cine argentino. La otra historia, Ediciones Letra Buena,
Buenos Aires, 1993.
Zuzana M. Pick, "The Collective and the Nation: The Hour of the Furnaces", en
The New Latin American Cinema: A Continental Project, Austin, University of
Texas Press, 1993.
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