SELCS

Growing Up in Latin America: Childhood and Youth in Cinema

Course code: SPAN2105.
Course unit value: 0.5.

This course will introduce students to a broad range of periods and styles in Latin American cinema, and to concepts in film theory. It will be focused around the representation of children and adolescents in film, with special attention to the kind of function childhood and adolescence fulfill in Latin American cinema. This will allow us to explore thematic questions of nationhood, politics, gender and sexuality, and the way childhood and adolescence are used to envision the past and history, as well as the future and social change. We will also consider questions specific to cinematic and visual representation, such as whether and how filmmakers attempt to create a child’s view of the world through aesthetic means, and ethical questions arising around the representation of child suffering and death.

  • Assessment: one 3000 word essay (40%); and one unseen two-hour written examination (60%).

Tutor: Dr Deborah Martin

Films and preparatory reading:

Films

  • Los olvidados (Luis Buñuel, Mexico, 1950)
  • Chircales (Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva, Colombia, 1965-72)
  • Central Station/Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, Brazil, 1998)
  • La vendedora de rosas (Víctor Gaviria, Colombia 1998)
  • La ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2001)
  • XXY (Lucía Puenzo, Argentina 2007)
  • La rabia (Albertina Carri, Argentina 2009)
  • José Martí: el ojo del canario (Fernando Pérez, Cuba 2010)

Initial Secondary Bibliography

  • Bordwell, D. and K. Thompson. 2004. Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Del Pozo, D. 2003. “Olvidados y re-creados: la invariable y paradójica presencia del niño de la calle en el cine latinoamericano.” Chasqui 32.1: 85-97.
  • Hart, S. 2004. A Companion to Latin American Film. Woodbridge: Tamesis.
  • Hayward, S. 2000. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. London & NY: Routledge.
  • Kelleher, J. 1998. ‘Face to Face with Terror: Children in Film’. In Children in Culture: Approaches to Childhood, ed. K. Lesnik-Oberstein. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Kantaris, G. 2003. “The Young and the Damned: Street Visions in Latin American Cinema.” In Contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies, eds. S. Hart and R. Young, 177-89. London: Arnold.
  • King, J. 1990. Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America. London: Verso.
  • Lapsley, R. and M. Westlake. 1994. Film Theory: An Introduction. Manchester: MUP.
  • Lebeau, V. 2008. Childhood and Cinema. London: Reaktion Books.
  • Lury, K. 2010. The Child in Film: Tears, Fears and Fairytales. London: IB Tauris.
  • Monaco, J. 2000. How to Read a Film. Oxford: OUP.
  • Noriega, C.A. (ed). 2000. Visible Nations: Latin American Cinema and Video. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Podalsky, L. 2011. The Politics of Affect and Emotion in Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Rocha, C. and G. Seminet. 2012. Children in Hispanic Cinema [Special Issue]. Studies in Hispanic Cinema, 8.2.
  • Shary, T. and A. Seibel. 2007. Youth Culture in Global Cinema. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Shaw, D. 2003. Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: Ten Key Films. New York: Continuum.