For those unfamiliar with this story you may be interested to know that the Oscar statuette was modelled on the Mexican filmmaker and actor Emilio Fernández. Click here: http://www.studio360.org/story/oscars-real-name-is-emilio/ for the full story. Emilio Fernandez in the 1934 movie Janitzio (Luis Marquez Romay)
Blog
María Félix – Centenary
Over the last 24 hours multiple writers and newspapers have marked the centenary of María Félix’s birth on the 8th of April 1914. In curious symmetry she also died on the 8th of April in 2002 at the age of 88. She is an unfamiliar figure in the English-speaking world. She never acted in an…
A brief introduction to Jean Franco
At the Latin American Studies Association last year in Washington I met Jean Franco. Born in Manchester, she was a pioneering scholar who has become one of the foremost cultural theorists in Latin American Studies. She has written on multiple literary forms (poetry, short story, testimonio, novels, etc), television, journalistic writing and multiple other forms…
Screen Violence: A Conversation
The following conversation took play via Skype instant messaging on the 7th February 2014. This took place as a way of expanding on our blogs on screen violence. [09:42:41] Niamh: In your blog I was really interested in the shared use of the media as a motif. In Pacific Rim TV news is used as…
Screen Violence: A Reflection
I recently blogged about how war photographs are used as a way of efficient storytelling in a Portuguese film (http://www.niamhthornton.net/death-on-film-how-far-can-you-go/). In response to that I had some interesting discussions on Twitter and a decision with Fiona Noble to write blog posts on our shared interest in screen violence. In the process of writing we have…
Zapatistas and Zapatismo
As part of the Tate Livepool’s exhibit “Art Turning Left”, in January I gave a talk about the film set in the Zapatista territory, Corazón del tiempo/Heart of Time (Alberto Cortés, 2008): http://news.liv.ac.uk/2014/01/15/world-cinema-film-screenings-with-tate-liverpool/ This is a film I have discussed in my recent book Revolution and Rebellion in Mexican Cinema. As often happens when you turn your attention to…
Death on Film: How far can you go?
I rarely blog about non-Mexican or non-Mexican-related films except when really moved to do so. I recently saw a film whose opening sequence has haunted and disturbed me and need to write down my thoughts. Capitães de Abril [April Captains] (2000) is by the well-known Portuguese actress Maria de Medeiros. Her long career has included…
Access, distribution and research: Marcela Fernández Violante
As part of a project on Latin American women filmmakers (mostly directors and producers) I will be writing about Marcela Fernández Violante. She has been at the centre of Mexican filmmaking since the 1960s. She was one of the generation of first filmmakers who were educated in film school and later she became the director…
Music, stars and racialised bodies
Today, I am going to Maynooth to give a paper called “Who Made You the Centre of the Universe? Stardom and Racialized Bodies on the Borderland” to a group of Masters’ students and staff at the Hispanic studies department. The title is inspired by a line from a Laura Mvula song, “That’s Alright”. In this…
Imagining the Mexican Revolution
I’m delighted to have a chapter in this book that arrived this morning: It has already received glowing praise, as can be seen from the back cover: The table of contents shows the coverage, depth and diversity of essays: For more information on where to buy the book, see here: http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/Imagining-the-Mexican-Revolution–Versions-and-Visions-in-Literature-and-Visual-Culture1-4438-5316-X.htm