This course examines Argentine film in the second half of the 20th century. The end of World War II, the fall of the Peron government, and the closing of cinema graphic studios in Argentina imposed a series of political, social, and cultural changes reflected in film. Through this medium, students view and analyze the link between cinema and avant-garde artists, high art and popular culture, films as a political instrument, and the development of film as a testimony of historic processes.
Learning outcomes:
First, students are expected to get to know the importance of classical cinema during the industry period. Secondly, a certain time will be devoted to the study of changes produced during the 60´s, i.e. the end of industry films and the emergence of those films that conform the “modern tradition”. Last, the course focuses on contemporary cinema heir of modern cinema. On the other hand, students will be able by the end of the course to analyze Argentine cinema and its transformations during history. Finally, students are expected to incorporate fresh knowledge and tools that allow them to acquire different cultural perspectives through the study of films segregated from commercial cinema. Consequently, students are expected to participate actively in class discussions and debates.
Method of presentation:
The course lasts 15 weeks. It consists of two sessions a week, one hour and a half each session, both practical and theorical. Theoretic contents will allow to state the main issues concerning each unit, introduce the different trends that conform the history of Argentine cinema and promote class discussion. Also, some of the films will be screened during class time. A more practical approach will be held by analyzing those films already screened during class. Also, students are expected to give oral presentations, and discuss mandatory readings. Finally, two fieldtrips are planed: a visit to Museo del cine de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, and going to the movies.
Unit 1: Brief look at the history of Argentine film.
The beginnings. Films with sound. Studio system and star system. Films and popular culture: the tango, criollismo, costumes. The cinema industry. Cinema and peronism. The close of studios and the decline of the industry.
View clips from Lucas Demare, La guerra gaucha (1942), Hugo del Carril, Las aguas bajan turbias (1952).
Barnard, Tim (ed.). “Popular cinema and popular politics”, in Argentine Cinema, Toronto: Nightwood, 1986.
King, John. “The social and Cultural context”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Levinson, Andrés and Félix-Didier, Paula. “The building of a nation: La Guerra gaucha a historic melodrama”, in Film and Melodrama in Latin America, Darlene Sadlier (comp.), Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009.
Unit 2: The 60s.
The new cinema in Argentina. The 60s generation. The influence of neo-realism and nouvelle vogue. The movies and the intellectuals.
Manuel Antín: Circe (1962). Concern for the social, Lautaro Murúa: Alias Gardelito (1961), Fernando Birri: Tire dié (1959).
López, Ana. “Argentine, 1955-1976: the film industry and its margins”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Podalsky, Laura. “High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars, and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960’s Buenos Aires”, en Stock, Ann Marie (ed.). Framing Latin American Cinema. Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Torrents, Nissa. “Contemporary Argentine Cinema”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Unit 3: Post 60s generation.
The split and experimentation. The avant-garde artists and the movies. Independent films, underground films, and militant films. The movie industry and its margins. The political radicalization. Cinema as a political weapon. Third world and third cinema.
Fernando Solanas: La hora de los hornos (1969). Hugo Santiago: Invasión (1969).
Bernini, Emilio. “Politics and the documentary film in Argentina during the 1960s”, in Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Vol. 13, No 2 August 2004, pp. 155-170.
Solanas, Fernando and Getino, Octavio. "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. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997, pp. 33 - 58.
Stam Robert, “Hour of the furnaces and the two avant gardes”, in Millenium, n° 7-9, 1980-81.
Unit 4: Film during the military dictatorship.
The Dirty War, repression, the disappeared. Censorship. Resistant and complacent films. Metaphoric representation and reading between the lines.
Adolfo Aristarain: Tiempo de revancha (1981).
Castor, Nick. “Argentine: 1976-1983”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Taylor, Diana. “Damnable Iteration: the traps of political spectacle”, in Modern Language Quarterly, 57:2, June 1996, pp. 305-3223.
Unit 5: Film during the democracy and the revision of the military dictatorship.
Films as agents of social and cultural reconfiguration. Debate over the recent past: remembering and forgetting. Testimony, accusation, and opportunism.
Luis Puenzo: La historia oficial (1984). Lita Stantic: Un muro de silencio (1993).
Foster, David William. “The official story: Truth and consequences”, in Contemporary Argentine Cinema. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1992, pp. 38-54.
Reati, Fernando. “Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in Films of the 1980’s”, in Latin American Literary Review, 17:34, July-December, pp. 24-39.
Unit 6: Film in the 1990s, New Argentine Cinema.
Tradition and renovation. Differences and contact points between the generation of
the ‘60s and the new film of the ‘90s. Film as a map of the Menem decade. Film and youth culture. The new social configurations. Film and the articulation of collective identities.
Martín Rejtman: Silvia Prieto (1998). Pablo Trapero: El bonaerense (1999). Lucrecia Martel: La ciénaga (2001). Santiago Loza: Extraño (2003). Albertina Carri: Los rubios (2003). Adrián Caetano: Crónica de una fuga (2006). Nicolás Prividera: M (2007). Sandra Gugliota: Las vidas posibles (2007).
Aguilar, Gonzalo. “New Argentine Cinema, The people’s presence”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Amado, Ana. “Memory, identity and film”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Castagna, Gustavo. "From One Vanguard to Another: Is There a Tradition?", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Horton, Robert. “Silvia Prieto”, in Film Comment, Mar/Apr 2000, 36, pp. 7-8.
Morán, Ana Martín. "The Swamp", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López (eds.). The Cinema of Latin America. London: Wallflower Press, 2003, pp. 231 - 239.
Quintín. "From One Generation to Another: Is there a Dividing Line", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Suárez, Pablo. "Martín Rejtman: the surface of things", en Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego y Wolf, Sergio (editores). El nuevo cine argentino. Temas autores y estilos de una renovación. Fipresci/Tatanka, Buenos Aires, 2002.
Wolf, Sergio. “Garage Olimpo and the portrait of the military dictatorship”, in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week 1:
Unit 1. Brief historical overview. The studio system and the Hollywood classical model. Cinema and popular culture: tango and criollismo. Cinema under Peron´s regime. The decline of film industry.
King, John. “The social and Cultural context”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Levinson, Andrés and Félix-Didier, Paula. “The building of a nation: La Guerra gaucha a historic melodrama”, in Film and Melodrama in Latin America, Darlene Sadlier (comp.), Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009.
Week 2:
Unit 2. The New Wave: La Generación del '60 and the rise of independent cinema. Film as spectacle vs. film as artistic expression. Authorship and cinéma d'auteur. Influences: new-realism and nouvelle vogue. Discussion: Alias Gardelito and Circe.
Podalsky, Laura. “High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars, and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960’s Buenos Aires”, en Stock, Ann Marie (ed.). Framing Latin American Cinema. Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Week 3:
Unit 3. Cinema and avant-garde. The film industry and its margins: underground cinema and militant cinema. Argentine filmmakers and the New Latin American Cinema movement. Fernando Solanas and The Hour of the Furnaces.
Solanas, Fernando and Getino, Octavio. "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. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997, pp. 33 - 58.
Stam Robert, “Hour of the furnaces and the two avant gardes”, in Millenium, n° 7-9, 1980-81.
Week 4:
Unit 3. Third World and Third Cinema. Political radicalism and / vs. formal experimentation.
Discussion: Invasión, Hugo Santiago.
Week 5:
Unit 4. Cinema during the military dictatorship. Dirty war, repression, exile, and desaparecidos. Cinema of resistance and cinema of complicity. Adolfo Aristarain: the allegorical style.
Discussion: Tiempo de Revancha, Adolfo Aristarain.
Castor, Nick. “Argentine: 1976-1983”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Taylor, Diana. “Damnable Iteration: the traps of political spectacle”, in Modern Language Quarterly, 57:2, June 1996, pp. 305-3223.
Week 6:
Unit 5. The re-democratization period: the 1980s. The critique of military dictatorship. The debate between those who were forced into exile and those who remained in the country during the dark years of dictatorship.
Kriger, Clara. "The Official Story", in Elena, Alberto and Díaz López, Marina(eds.). The Cinema of Latin America. London: Wallflower Press 2003, pp. 177-183.
Foster, David William. “The official story: Truth and consequences”, in Contemporary Argentine Cinema. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1992, pp. 38-54.
Week 7:
Mid-term exam
Week 8:
Mid semester break
Week 9:
Unit 5. Films as cultural and social documents. Memory and oblivion. Opportunism, denunciation, and testimony. Luis Puenzo's official version of the years of dictatorship and Lita Stantic's critique of the official version.
Reati, Fernando. “Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in Films of the 1980’s”, in Latin American Literary Review, 17:34, July-December, pp. 24-39.
Week 10:
Unit 6. The New Argentine Cinema: between breakup and tradition. Young filmmakers and the rebirth of independent cinema: low-budget movies. Trapero: El bonaerense. Martel: La ciénaga.
Castagna, Gustavo. "From One Vanguard to Another: Is There a Tradition?", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Quintín. "From One Generation to Another: Is there a Dividing Line", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Morán, Ana Martín. "The Swamp", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López (eds.). The Cinema of Latin America. London: Wallflower Press, 2003, pp. 231 - 239.
Week 11:
Unit 6. Two generations of independent cinema: la Generación del '60 and the new cinema of the '90s. Discussion: Silvia Prieto.
Horton, Robert. “Silvia Prieto”, in Film Comment, Mar/Apr 2000, 36, pp. 7-8.
Suárez, Pablo. "Martín Rejtman: the surface of things", en Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego y Wolf, Sergio (editores). El nuevo cine argentino. Temas autores y estilos de una renovación. Fipresci/Tatanka, Buenos Aires, 2002.
Week 12:
Unit 6. The new documentary: Trauma, memory and dictatorship.
Aguilar, Gonzalo. “New Argentine Cinema, The people’s presence”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Amado, Ana. “Memory, identity and film”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Week 13:
Unit 6. Fiction and Dictatorship: Garage Olimpo. Screening and discussion in class.
Amado, Ana. “Memory, identity and film”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Wolf, Sergio. “Garage Olimpo and the portrait of the military dictatorship”, in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Week 14:
Unit 6. New waves on new cinema. Las vidas posibles, Sandra Guliota. Screening and discussion in class.
Week 15:
Final exam.
Required readings:
Barnard, Tim (ed.). Argentine Cinema. Toronto: Nightwood, 1986.
Beceyro, Raúl. Ensayos sobre cine argentino. Santa Fé: Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 1986.
Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). Nuevo cine argentino. Temas autores y estilos de una renovación / New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Buenos Aires: Fipresci, 2002.
Bernini, Emilio. "Ciertas tendencias en el cine argentino. Notas sobre el 'nuevo cine argentino' (1956-1966)", en Kilómetro 111. Ensayos sobre cine, nº 1, “Idea del cine, idea del mundo”, noviembre de 2000.
España, Claudio (comp.). El cine argentino en democracia (1983-1993). Buenos Aires: Fondo Nacional de las Artes, 1994.
Farina, Alberto. Leonardo Favio. Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina / Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía, 1994.
Feldman, Simón. La generación del 60 Buenos Aires: Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía / Ediciones Culturales Argentinas / Legasa, 1990.
Filippelli, Rafael. “Contra la Realpolitik en el arte”, en Punto de vista nº 26, abril de 1986.
Foster, David William. Contemporary Argentine Cinema. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992.
Getino, Octavio. Cine y dependencia. El cine en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Puntosur, 1990.
King, John. Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America. Londres: Verso, 1990.
--------------- y Torrents, Nissa (comps.). The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Mahieu, Agustín. Breve historia del cine nacional (1896 – 1974). Buenos Aires: Alzamor, 1974.
Oubiña, David (comp.). El cine de Hugo Santiago. Buenos Aires, IV Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente / Gobierno de la Ciudad, 2002.
---------------, “Pop Rebel. The Cinema of Leonardo Favio”, in Film Comment vol. 37 nº 5, septiembre – octubre de 2001.
Paraná Sendrós, Daniel. Fernando Birri. Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina / Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía, 1994.
Podalsky, Laura. “High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars, and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960’s Buenos Aires”, en Ann Marie Stock (ed.). Framing Latin American Cinema. Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Reati, Fernando. “Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in Films of the 1980’s”, en Latin American Literary Review, 17:34, julio – diciembre de 1989.
Sarlo, Beatriz. “La noche de las cámaras despiertas”, en La máquina cultural. Maestras, traductores y vanguardistas. Buenos Aires: Ariel, 1998.
Schumann, Peter. Historia del cine latinoamericano. Buenos Aires: Legasa, 1987.
This course examines Argentine film in the second half of the 20th century. The end of World War II, the fall of the Peron government, and the closing of cinema graphic studios in Argentina imposed a series of political, social, and cultural changes reflected in film. Through this medium, students view and analyze the link between cinema and avant-garde artists, high art and popular culture, films as a political instrument, and the development of film as a testimony of historic processes.
First, students are expected to get to know the importance of classical cinema during the industry period. Secondly, a certain time will be devoted to the study of changes produced during the 60´s, i.e. the end of industry films and the emergence of those films that conform the “modern tradition”. Last, the course focuses on contemporary cinema heir of modern cinema. On the other hand, students will be able by the end of the course to analyze Argentine cinema and its transformations during history. Finally, students are expected to incorporate fresh knowledge and tools that allow them to acquire different cultural perspectives through the study of films segregated from commercial cinema. Consequently, students are expected to participate actively in class discussions and debates.
The course lasts 15 weeks. It consists of two sessions a week, one hour and a half each session, both practical and theorical. Theoretic contents will allow to state the main issues concerning each unit, introduce the different trends that conform the history of Argentine cinema and promote class discussion. Also, some of the films will be screened during class time. A more practical approach will be held by analyzing those films already screened during class. Also, students are expected to give oral presentations, and discuss mandatory readings. Finally, two fieldtrips are planed: a visit to Museo del cine de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, and going to the movies.
Participation in class, 15 %
Oral presentation, 15%
Mid-term exam, 30%
Essay, 40%
Unit 1: Brief look at the history of Argentine film.
The beginnings. Films with sound. Studio system and star system. Films and popular culture: the tango, criollismo, costumes. The cinema industry. Cinema and peronism. The close of studios and the decline of the industry.
View clips from Lucas Demare, La guerra gaucha (1942), Hugo del Carril, Las aguas bajan turbias (1952).
Barnard, Tim (ed.). “Popular cinema and popular politics”, in Argentine Cinema, Toronto: Nightwood, 1986.
King, John. “The social and Cultural context”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Levinson, Andrés and Félix-Didier, Paula. “The building of a nation: La Guerra gaucha a historic melodrama”, in Film and Melodrama in Latin America, Darlene Sadlier (comp.), Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009.
Unit 2: The 60s.
The new cinema in Argentina. The 60s generation. The influence of neo-realism and nouvelle vogue. The movies and the intellectuals.
Manuel Antín: Circe (1962). Concern for the social, Lautaro Murúa: Alias Gardelito (1961), Fernando Birri: Tire dié (1959).
López, Ana. “Argentine, 1955-1976: the film industry and its margins”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Podalsky, Laura. “High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars, and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960’s Buenos Aires”, en Stock, Ann Marie (ed.). Framing Latin American Cinema. Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Torrents, Nissa. “Contemporary Argentine Cinema”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Unit 3: Post 60s generation.
The split and experimentation. The avant-garde artists and the movies. Independent films, underground films, and militant films. The movie industry and its margins. The political radicalization. Cinema as a political weapon. Third world and third cinema.
Fernando Solanas: La hora de los hornos (1969). Hugo Santiago: Invasión (1969).
Bernini, Emilio. “Politics and the documentary film in Argentina during the 1960s”, in Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Vol. 13, No 2 August 2004, pp. 155-170.
Solanas, Fernando and Getino, Octavio. "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. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997, pp. 33 - 58.
Stam Robert, “Hour of the furnaces and the two avant gardes”, in Millenium, n° 7-9, 1980-81.
Unit 4: Film during the military dictatorship.
The Dirty War, repression, the disappeared. Censorship. Resistant and complacent films. Metaphoric representation and reading between the lines.
Adolfo Aristarain: Tiempo de revancha (1981).
Castor, Nick. “Argentine: 1976-1983”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Taylor, Diana. “Damnable Iteration: the traps of political spectacle”, in Modern Language Quarterly, 57:2, June 1996, pp. 305-3223.
Unit 5: Film during the democracy and the revision of the military dictatorship.
Films as agents of social and cultural reconfiguration. Debate over the recent past: remembering and forgetting. Testimony, accusation, and opportunism.
Luis Puenzo: La historia oficial (1984). Lita Stantic: Un muro de silencio (1993).
Foster, David William. “The official story: Truth and consequences”, in Contemporary Argentine Cinema. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1992, pp. 38-54.
Reati, Fernando. “Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in Films of the 1980’s”, in Latin American Literary Review, 17:34, July-December, pp. 24-39.
Unit 6: Film in the 1990s, New Argentine Cinema.
Tradition and renovation. Differences and contact points between the generation of
the ‘60s and the new film of the ‘90s. Film as a map of the Menem decade. Film and youth culture. The new social configurations. Film and the articulation of collective identities.
Martín Rejtman: Silvia Prieto (1998). Pablo Trapero: El bonaerense (1999). Lucrecia Martel: La ciénaga (2001). Santiago Loza: Extraño (2003). Albertina Carri: Los rubios (2003). Adrián Caetano: Crónica de una fuga (2006). Nicolás Prividera: M (2007). Sandra Gugliota: Las vidas posibles (2007).
Aguilar, Gonzalo. “New Argentine Cinema, The people’s presence”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Amado, Ana. “Memory, identity and film”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Castagna, Gustavo. "From One Vanguard to Another: Is There a Tradition?", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Horton, Robert. “Silvia Prieto”, in Film Comment, Mar/Apr 2000, 36, pp. 7-8.
Morán, Ana Martín. "The Swamp", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López (eds.). The Cinema of Latin America. London: Wallflower Press, 2003, pp. 231 - 239.
Quintín. "From One Generation to Another: Is there a Dividing Line", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Suárez, Pablo. "Martín Rejtman: the surface of things", en Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego y Wolf, Sergio (editores). El nuevo cine argentino. Temas autores y estilos de una renovación. Fipresci/Tatanka, Buenos Aires, 2002.
Wolf, Sergio. “Garage Olimpo and the portrait of the military dictatorship”, in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week 1:
Unit 1. Brief historical overview. The studio system and the Hollywood classical model. Cinema and popular culture: tango and criollismo. Cinema under Peron´s regime. The decline of film industry.
King, John. “The social and Cultural context”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Levinson, Andrés and Félix-Didier, Paula. “The building of a nation: La Guerra gaucha a historic melodrama”, in Film and Melodrama in Latin America, Darlene Sadlier (comp.), Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009.
Week 2:
Unit 2. The New Wave: La Generación del '60 and the rise of independent cinema. Film as spectacle vs. film as artistic expression. Authorship and cinéma d'auteur. Influences: new-realism and nouvelle vogue. Discussion: Alias Gardelito and Circe.
Podalsky, Laura. “High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars, and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960’s Buenos Aires”, en Stock, Ann Marie (ed.). Framing Latin American Cinema. Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Week 3:
Unit 3. Cinema and avant-garde. The film industry and its margins: underground cinema and militant cinema. Argentine filmmakers and the New Latin American Cinema movement. Fernando Solanas and The Hour of the Furnaces.
Solanas, Fernando and Getino, Octavio. "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. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997, pp. 33 - 58.
Stam Robert, “Hour of the furnaces and the two avant gardes”, in Millenium, n° 7-9, 1980-81.
Week 4:
Unit 3. Third World and Third Cinema. Political radicalism and / vs. formal experimentation.
Discussion: Invasión, Hugo Santiago.
Week 5:
Unit 4. Cinema during the military dictatorship. Dirty war, repression, exile, and desaparecidos. Cinema of resistance and cinema of complicity. Adolfo Aristarain: the allegorical style.
Discussion: Tiempo de Revancha, Adolfo Aristarain.
Castor, Nick. “Argentine: 1976-1983”, in King, John and Torrents, Nissa (editors). “The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Taylor, Diana. “Damnable Iteration: the traps of political spectacle”, in Modern Language Quarterly, 57:2, June 1996, pp. 305-3223.
Week 6:
Unit 5. The re-democratization period: the 1980s. The critique of military dictatorship. The debate between those who were forced into exile and those who remained in the country during the dark years of dictatorship.
Kriger, Clara. "The Official Story", in Elena, Alberto and Díaz López, Marina(eds.). The Cinema of Latin America. London: Wallflower Press 2003, pp. 177-183.
Foster, David William. “The official story: Truth and consequences”, in Contemporary Argentine Cinema. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1992, pp. 38-54.
Week 7:
Mid-term exam
Week 8:
Mid semester break
Week 9:
Unit 5. Films as cultural and social documents. Memory and oblivion. Opportunism, denunciation, and testimony. Luis Puenzo's official version of the years of dictatorship and Lita Stantic's critique of the official version.
Reati, Fernando. “Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in Films of the 1980’s”, in Latin American Literary Review, 17:34, July-December, pp. 24-39.
Week 10:
Unit 6. The New Argentine Cinema: between breakup and tradition. Young filmmakers and the rebirth of independent cinema: low-budget movies. Trapero: El bonaerense. Martel: La ciénaga.
Castagna, Gustavo. "From One Vanguard to Another: Is There a Tradition?", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Quintín. "From One Generation to Another: Is there a Dividing Line", in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Morán, Ana Martín. "The Swamp", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López (eds.). The Cinema of Latin America. London: Wallflower Press, 2003, pp. 231 - 239.
Week 11:
Unit 6. Two generations of independent cinema: la Generación del '60 and the new cinema of the '90s. Discussion: Silvia Prieto.
Horton, Robert. “Silvia Prieto”, in Film Comment, Mar/Apr 2000, 36, pp. 7-8.
Suárez, Pablo. "Martín Rejtman: the surface of things", en Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego y Wolf, Sergio (editores). El nuevo cine argentino. Temas autores y estilos de una renovación. Fipresci/Tatanka, Buenos Aires, 2002.
Week 12:
Unit 6. The new documentary: Trauma, memory and dictatorship.
Aguilar, Gonzalo. “New Argentine Cinema, The people’s presence”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Amado, Ana. “Memory, identity and film”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Week 13:
Unit 6. Fiction and Dictatorship: Garage Olimpo. Screening and discussion in class.
Amado, Ana. “Memory, identity and film”, in REVISTA Harvard review of Latin America, fall 2009/ winter 2010.
Wolf, Sergio. “Garage Olimpo and the portrait of the military dictatorship”, in Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Fipresci/Tatanka, 2002.
Week 14:
Unit 6. New waves on new cinema. Las vidas posibles, Sandra Guliota. Screening and discussion in class.
Week 15:
Final exam.
Barnard, Tim (ed.). Argentine Cinema. Toronto: Nightwood, 1986.
Beceyro, Raúl. Ensayos sobre cine argentino. Santa Fé: Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 1986.
Bernades, Horacio, Lerer, Diego and Wolf, Sergio (editors). Nuevo cine argentino. Temas autores y estilos de una renovación / New Argentine Cinema. Themes, Auteurs and Trends of Innovation. Buenos Aires: Fipresci, 2002.
Bernini, Emilio. "Ciertas tendencias en el cine argentino. Notas sobre el 'nuevo cine argentino' (1956-1966)", en Kilómetro 111. Ensayos sobre cine, nº 1, “Idea del cine, idea del mundo”, noviembre de 2000.
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Farina, Alberto. Leonardo Favio. Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina / Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía, 1994.
Feldman, Simón. La generación del 60 Buenos Aires: Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía / Ediciones Culturales Argentinas / Legasa, 1990.
Filippelli, Rafael. “Contra la Realpolitik en el arte”, en Punto de vista nº 26, abril de 1986.
Foster, David William. Contemporary Argentine Cinema. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992.
Getino, Octavio. Cine y dependencia. El cine en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Puntosur, 1990.
King, John. Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America. Londres: Verso, 1990.
--------------- y Torrents, Nissa (comps.). The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema. Londres: British Film Institute, 1987.
Mahieu, Agustín. Breve historia del cine nacional (1896 – 1974). Buenos Aires: Alzamor, 1974.
Oubiña, David (comp.). El cine de Hugo Santiago. Buenos Aires, IV Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente / Gobierno de la Ciudad, 2002.
---------------, “Pop Rebel. The Cinema of Leonardo Favio”, in Film Comment vol. 37 nº 5, septiembre – octubre de 2001.
Paraná Sendrós, Daniel. Fernando Birri. Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina / Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía, 1994.
Podalsky, Laura. “High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars, and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960’s Buenos Aires”, en Ann Marie Stock (ed.). Framing Latin American Cinema. Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Reati, Fernando. “Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in Films of the 1980’s”, en Latin American Literary Review, 17:34, julio – diciembre de 1989.
Sarlo, Beatriz. “La noche de las cámaras despiertas”, en La máquina cultural. Maestras, traductores y vanguardistas. Buenos Aires: Ariel, 1998.
Schumann, Peter. Historia del cine latinoamericano. Buenos Aires: Legasa, 1987.