Movies by women are featured in Cinema Tropical's April program.
Women Make Movies, Latin Style
In celebration of our 30th Anniversary, we are proud to present in collaboration with Cinema Tropical, Women Make Movies, Latin Style, a unique program that unravels the history of women in Latin American cinema and examines the distinct cross-cultural experience of Latinas living in the United States. Throughout its history, the non-profit distributor Women Make Movies (WMM) has supported the talents of emerging and established women filmmakers from Latin America and been among the first to widely distribute their work to audiences in the United States. Our commitment to advancing the role and presence of Latina women in the film community has allowed us to acquire a highly esteemed collection of documentary and feature films reflecting the diversity and evolution of Latina and Latin American cinema.
Within the last thirty years, the breadth of cinematic accomplishments by Latina and Latin American women filmmakers has overwhelmingly challenged cultural and gender stereotypes, as well as introduced non-Latino audiences to the experiences of a community rooted in Latin America. The recent critical success of Maryse Sistach's Academy Award nominated Perfume de violetas, Lucrecia Martel's La Cienaga, and the Sundance Award winners, Señorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo and Real Women Have Curves by Patricia Cardoso, has recently demonstrated how Latina and Latin American women's cinema has evolved into a sophisticated body of features, narrative shorts and documentaries that that no longer corresponds to one particular style, thematic interest or genre. Prior to this growing recognition, Women Make Movies was the first to promote the work of such acclaimed filmmakers as María Novaro, Maryse Sistach, and Lourdes Portillo when few had heard of their work in the United States. For this reason Women Make Movies, Latin Style represents more than a series highlighting our Latin American collection, it represents our deep commitment to Latina makers.
Beginning in 1983, Women Make Movies made the critical decision to address the lack of films by and about Latina women in distribution by curating a series of films and videos entitled Punto de vista: Latina. The program was created with a specific feminist and grassroots mandate: to present positive, inspiring images of Latin women, explore the social and historical contexts of the countries in which they were produced, and demonstrate the variety of cinematic styles and formats used in Latin America, and inspire Latinas living in the United States to create film. As indicated by its mission, the series was screened in true guerrilla fashion - at community centers, galleries, schools, even bodega storefronts - and used to create dialogue about issues affecting the Latino community. As Bienvenida Matias, Board Member of Women Make Movies and former Executive Director of the Center for Arts Criticism, explains, "This return to community screens with works that spoke to local residents about issues that were important to the - housing, immigration and war, and women's work - created a new presence for WMM as an organization."
More impressive than the manner Punto de vista: Latina was screened were the methods used to acquire the films. Prior to the advent of email, fax or the Internet, WMM first contacted filmmakers in Latin American through the lengthy process of traditional mail correspondence and numerous telephone conversations. However, it was through friends and a growing network created by the global feminist community that WMM was able to effectively communicate with various sister film organizations in Latin America, among them the members of the historic women's film collectives, Cine Mujer-Colombia, Cine Mujer-Mexico, and Grupo Miercoles-Venezuela. In a matter of months, WMM acquired fifteen titles, including such classics as Mujeres del planeta (Women of the Planet) by Maria Barea; Conozca las tres (I Know Three) by Maryse Sistach; Carmen Carascal by Cine Mujer-Columbia; Pan y dignidad (Bread & Dignity) by María José Alvarez, and After the Earthquake by Lourdes Portillo. While the films in this collection were characterized by their overriding social and political content, they also presented for the first time a unique feminine perspective on the Latin American experience and introduced a group of highly accomplished Latina women filmmakers to US audiences.
Women Make Movies, Latin Style brings together a selection of these classic titles, as well as our latest films and videos by and about Latina and Latin American women. From pop culture divas to male feminists, these works present the diverse artistic vision, cultural reflections, and political meditations of a talented group of Latina women. Highlighting the series is El Diablo Nunca Duerme (The Devil Never Sleeps), by the Academy Award nominated filmmaker Lourdes Portillo (Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo) and Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business, by the acclaimed filmmakers Helena Solberg and David Meyer. Melding traditional and experimental techniques to capture the nuances of Mexican social and family order, The Devil Never Sleeps is a stunning documentary that mines the complicated intersections of analysis and autobiography, evidence and hypothesis to uncover the mysterious murder of Portillo's uncle in Chihuahua, Mexico. Scheduled to open with Portillo's Columbus on Trial, a humorous short inspired by the controversy surrounding the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America, starring the renowned Chicano performance group, Culture Clash, both these films demonstrate the filmmaker's ability to use experimentation and humor to bring forward sobering issues related to colonization and transnationalism. Profiling the life of one of the most recognizable Latin icons of the twentieth century, Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business, a skillful documentary combining reenactments, interviews with confidants and commentators, and footage from her many films to tell the haunting story of this 1940s superstar. Charting Miranda's transformation from famed Brazilian singer to Hollywood's first Latina star to independent artist, this riveting documentary shows how Miranda's saga exemplifies contradictions in the relationship between Latin America and the United States that persist today.
Accompanying the film program at the Pioneer Theatre is a video series of selected works of documentaries and short narratives that address a myriad of social issues and the history of women's cinema in Latin America, including: A Man When He is a Man by Valerie Sarmiento and Macho by Lucinda Broadbent, two groundbreaking works examining the effects of machismo in Latino culture; Home is Struggle, an exploration of the effects of exile and immigration by Argentine filmmaker Marta Bautis; Daughters of War, a stirring look into the life of a 17-year-old girl living in the former Maoist stronghold of Ayuacucho, Peru by María Barea; Love, Women and Flowers by Marta Rodríguez, the seminal documentary on the hazardous labor conditions of flower workers in Colombia; La mirada de Myriam (Myriam's Gaze), the acclaimed short that chronicles the struggles facing a single mother living in Bogota, by Clara Riascos; My Filmmaking, My Life: Matilde Landeta, the fascinating profile of the life and accomplishments of one of the pioneering women of Mexican film, by Patricia Diaz; My Island Surrounded by Water, the first film by the highly acclaimed Mexican filmmaker, Maria Novaro; and La Boda, an intimate portrait of migrant life along the U.S.-Mexican border through the eyes of a young bride-to-be, by Hannah Weyer.
The continued accolade garnered by Latina and Latin American women filmmakers is a sign of the growing opportunities and markets in the United States; however, there is still work to be done to allow Latina women more access and entry into the film community. As cited by the Guerilla Girls and Alice Loca on their "Anatomically Correct Oscar" billboard, now hanging prominently in Los Angeles on the eve of the Academy Awards, women still only account for four percent of all working directors and Latinos only five percent of movie actors; meanwhile, white men write and direct 93 percent of all major films. These glaring disparities make our work at WMM more important than ever. As we continue to celebrate our 30th Anniversary, we are committed to advancing the role and presence of Latina and Latin American women working in film and we look forward to promoting new works that reflect the experience of the Latino/a community.