Latina Filmmakers Weigh Triumphs, Challenges : Conference: Two-day session at UCI also features a big dose of feminist cheerleading and criticism of the movie industry, both in Mexico and Hollywood.
IRVINE — Of the many images to emerge from the Latina filmmakers conference at UC Irvine on Friday, the one that best summed it up came at the beginning of director Patricia Diaz’s tribute to Matilde Landeta.
Diaz’s “My Filmmaking, My Life: Matilde Landeta,†the 30-minute documentary that opened the screening portion of “Speak for Myself: Mexicana/Chicana/Latina Filmmaking,†started with a re-creation of Landeta’s attempts to become a director in what she called the “male-dominated†Mexican movie industry.
To get the executives’ attention, Landeta, often described Friday as the “first feminist director of the Mexican cinema,†dressed in a baggy suit, tie, hat and fake mustache and paraded around the studio. After making her point, Landeta admitted it was just a gag, but one with sting: “Now I am an assistant director,†the actress playing Landeta said defiantly, “because I am a man .â€
Landeta went on to become something of a legend in Mexico. By rising from a script girl to a director of full-length movies, she is credited with inspiring and opening the door for those who came later. In many ways, the two-day conference (which ended Saturday) was a testimonial to Landeta and other Latina directors such as Marcela Fernandez Violante, Lourdes Portillo and Ela Troyano.
Also screened at the conference was Landeta’s pivotal “La Negra Angustias†(“Black Anguishâ€), her 1949 message-oriented movie about a mulatto peasant girl who becomes one of Mexico’s revolutionary leaders.
Held at the Beckman Center, the conference attempted to combine praise for the work Latinas have done in filmmaking with a discussion of the challenges ahead. There was also a big dose of feminist cheerleading and criticism of the movie industry, both in Mexico and Hollywood, for its treatment of women.
Rosalinda Fregoso, a professor of Chicana Studies at UC Davis, told the audience that female directors, especially Latinas, have little access to creating mainstream films. And even if they had more access, she noted, the “painful and deep compromises†of working within the Hollywood and Mexican systems would likely strip them of their integrity and vision.
Latinas are told that their films “don’t sell because the experiences aren’t universal,†Fregoso said. “And if somehow you found someone to finance it, there would be difficult negotiations ahead.â€
She cautioned against compromises that might lead feminist filmmakers to alter their goal of “overturning feminine stereotypes.†In fact, Fregoso said, Latina directors have an obligation in the future to make pictures aimed at commenting directly on “violence against women, homosexuals and lesbians in our culture.â€
Offering her perspective in a speech titled “A Short Overview of Feminist Mexican Cinema,†Carmen Huaco-Nuzum, a film studies scholar at UC Santa Cruz, said the Mexican movie industry has for years been “marred by a male oligarchy,†which usually prevented the Latina filmmaker from “articulating her voice.†That voice, she said, should always be raised “in opposition†to repression.
Both speakers turned to Landeta and Violante (whose career began in the wake of Landeta’s) as examples of what can be accomplished despite difficult odds.
Saturday’s conference activities included a talk on “Emerging Women Makers: New Visions and Directions†by Lillian Jimenez, the founder of the Paul Robeson Fund for Film in New York, and screenings of several films, including “Esperanza†by Sylvia Morales, “Untitled†by Portillo and “Golpe de Suerte†by Violante.
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