Violence, Conflict and Discourse in Mexican Cinema (2002-2015)

ISBN-13: 9781137282101 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022

Miriam Haddu

Opis

The last two decades have seen dramatic changes to Mexico's socio-political landscape. A former president fleeing into exile, political assassinations, a rebellion in Chiapas, and the eruption of the so-called war on drugs provide key examples of critical events shaping the nation. This book examines Mexican cinema's representations of, and responses to, these socio-political moments. Beginning with the definitive year 1994, which saw the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) declare war on the Mexican government, the early chapters in this book discuss the outcome of these episodes in subsequent years and how they find screen representation. The study then moves on to provide close readings of key filmic texts as reflections of the so-called narco-war and its effects on Mexican society. Focusing on both fiction and documentary filmmaking, this book explores notions of violence, victimhood, and the complex processing of grief in the context of enforced disappearances and the narco-conflict. In addition to examining films made in Mexico, this investigation incorporates the work of three of the nation's most celebrated transnational directors: Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Alfonso Cuaron. By examining their work on European soil as a comparative exercise, the analyses offer an understanding of the imprints left by warfare and trauma upon the collective and individual psyche, seen from a universal viewpoint. Using rigorous theoretical frameworks and succinct filmic analyses, this book will be essential reading for those interested in Mexican and Latin American film, as well as those working in the fields of Cultural, Screen, and Trauma Studies.

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Indigeneity, Insurgency and Resistance: El violín (2006) and Corazón del tiempo (2009)

Chapter 3: Political Violence: The Case of Conejo en la luna (Rabbit on the Moon) (2004) and Colosio: El asesinato (Colosio: The Assassination) (2012)

Chapter 4: Drug Violence and Narco Wars Part I: Luis Estrada’s El infierno (Hell) (2010)

Chapter 5: Drug Violence and Narco Wars Part II: Amat Escalante’s Heli (2013)

Chapter 6: Spectral Visions: Mexican Directors in Europe (Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón)

Chapter 7: Textual Hybridities in Aro Tolbukhin: En la mente del asesino (2002)

Chapter 8: Loss and Mourning in Documentary: Tatiana Huezo’s Ausencias (2015)

Chapter 9: Conclusion

O autorze

Miriam Haddu is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom. She specialises in Mexican film, photography, and documentary filmmaking. She has curated international exhibitions on Mexican photography and has published extensively in the field. She is the author of Contemporary Mexican Cinema (1989-1999): History, Space and Identity, and her co-edited books include Visual Synergies in Fiction and Documentary Film from Latin America and Legacies of the Past: Memory and Trauma in Mexican Visual and Audio-Visual Culture.

Blurb

"This is an essential text for anyone interested in how Mexican cinema has represented the social and political crisis that narco-violence, forced disappearances, and necropolitics have shaped in Mexico. Haddu provides important context and astute and clear readings of key films read through the prism of violence and produced during a historical period of unprecedented changes."

--Sergio De La Mora, University of California, Davis, USA

The last two decades have seen dramatic changes to Mexico’s socio-political landscape. A former president fleeing into exile, political assassinations, a rebellion in Chiapas, and the eruption of the so-called war on drugs provide key examples of critical events shaping the nation. This book examines Mexican cinema’s representations of, and responses to, these socio-political moments. Beginning with the definitive year 1994, the early chapters in this book discuss the presence of guerilla uprisings amidst political upheaval, and how they find screen representation. A key focus of this book is also the so-called narco-war and its effects on Mexican society, read through the prism of selected filmic texts. Focusing on both fiction and documentary filmmaking, notions of violence, victimhood, and the complex processing of grief in the context of enforced disappearances and the narco-conflict are explored in this study. Furthermore, the investigations offer a comparative approach to examining films both made in Mexico and beyond its frontiers, seen in the transnational work of Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. The discussions offer an understanding of the imprints left by warfare and trauma upon the collective and individual psyche. Using rigorous theoretical frameworks and succinct filmic analyses, this book will be essential reading for those interested in Mexican and Latin American film, as well as those working in the fields of Cultural, Screen, and Trauma Studies.

Miriam Haddu is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom.