Women filmmakers in Mexico were rare until the 1980s and 1990s, when women began to direct feature films in unprecedented numbers. Their films have won acclaim at home and abroad, and the filmmakers have become key figures in contemporary Mexican cinema. In this book, Elissa Rashkin documents how and why women filmmakers have achieved these successes, as she explores how the women's movement, film studies programs, governmental film policy, and the transformation of the intellectual sector since the 1960s have all affected women's filmmaking in Mexico. After a historical overview of Mexican women's filmmaking from the 1930s onward, Rashkin focuses on the work of five contemporary directors--Marisa Sistach, Busi Cortés, Guita Schyfter, María Novaro, and Dana Rotberg. Portraying the filmmakers as intellectuals participating in the public life of the nation, Rashkin examines how these directors have addressed questions of national identity through their films, replacing the patriarchal images and stereotypes of the classic Mexican cinema with feminist visions of a democratic and tolerant society.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Throughout the 1980s and '90s, "women's cinema" in Mexico flourished. Challenging conventional representations of women, female filmmakers began telling their own stories. In Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream, Elissa J. Rashkin undertakes a rigorous, compelling examination of the history of film by Mexican women. Treating such themes as social marginalization (Dana Rotberg's Angel de Fuego), illegal abortion (Rosa Marta Fernandez's Cosas de Mujeres, or Women's Things) and sexual shame (El Secreto de Romelia by Busi Cortes), Rashkin deals in "bold act[s] of revision," debunking "romantic or tragic icons." B&w photos.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The film industry in Mexico suffered near-fatal blows near the end of the 20th century. From 1989 to 1991, 1000 theaters were closed, feature film production fell off by two-thirds, and state support disappeared. Against this backdrop, independent scholar Rashkin traces the recent film careers of five Mexican women filmmakers Mar!a Novaro, Busi Cort s, Dana Rotberg, Marisa Sistach, and Guita Schyfter. The author, whose work centers on feminist studies and filmmaking, concludes, "Women filmmakers in Mexico can thus be seen as part of the larger social phenomenon of Latin American feminism." The five women combine their personal views with Mexican history and culture in their films, all of which are thoroughly documented by Rashkin, although the author devotes too much attention to the films as creative tools and not enough to the individual backgrounds of the women who created them. The result is a unique treatment of an isolated subject, yet the book falls short of being definitive. For a more comprehensive view, see Joanne Herschfield and David MacIel's Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers (LJ 10/1/99). Recommended for academic collections in film studies or Latin American culture and history. Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., AL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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