Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, 2012)

The 2012 film by Spanish director Pablo Berger, Blancanieves, is an excellent film for the Spanish-language classroom. A remake of the Brothers Grimm's tale, Snow White, Berger's film is set in 1920's Spain and centers on classic Spanish cultural elements: bullfighting and flamenco. The film is silent (with intertitles in English) and is in black and white. So, what would you like to study with your students: film adaption? Spanish cultural elements such as bullfighting and flamenco? The silent film era in Spain? Blancanieves offers all of these possibilities! And it is easily available on Netflix streaming video. 

My students were surprised by how much they liked the film! They really enjoyed the cinematography and the cultural elements. Who knew a silent film could be so good?

Here is my lesson plan, as used in my advanced level film course (though it could easily be adapted for intermediate level students):

Students read a brief introduction to the silent film era in Spain, and Berger´s apparent homage to one filmmaker in particular, Florian Rey. (Note: I wrote this introduction myself and have included a bibliography of works consulted in the creation of the document.)

There are two student presentation topics (see how I do student presentations here):

• La historia de las corridas de toros en España y las partes principales de una corrida
• El flamenco con énfasis en las sevillanas

(There was a miscommunication with one of my students, so in the end I prepared the mini lesson on bullfighting. This is what I put together.)

I also have them read the story by the Brothers Grimm, since most students only know the Disney version. Here is a good version in Spanish.

And here is a link to document that has vocabulary, activities with vocabulary, comprehension questions for students to answer while viewing the film, and follow-up analysis questions that can be answers either in class or outside of class. And here are my in-class presentations: Antes de Ver and Después de Ver

This a fun film - super dramatic, with a fabulous soundtrack. Your students will enjoy it.

Women and Film: A summary of good resources

In my first blog post, almost a year ago, I mentioned that much of my recent research in the area of Spanish-language films has been in the area of contemporary female film directors and their films. Two summers worth of reading literature, blogs and other publications on the subject, and viewing many films, have lead to a quite a collection of information, not only about Spanish-language films, but about the global film and television industries as well. I would like to share what I have discovered with others (there must be others interested in this topic!) in hopes that they can continue the research. I do not claim this compilation of resources to be exhaustive and I hope that others will share their knowledge with me and tell me what I have missed!


Blogs, Twitter, Popular Press, etc.

• The topic of female directors, producers, and films with strong female leads in the global film industry- and the lack of recognition that they receive -  made headlines this year with Jane CAMPION's remarks at Cannes.

• A great general resource is Melissa Silverstein who is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood. I follow her on Twitter (@melsil) and she is a treasure trove of information about women in the industry world wide. I also follow Girls on Film (@Girls_on_Film) the European Women's Audiovisual Network (@ewawomen) and CIMA: Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales (in Spanish) (@CIMAcineastas) onTwitter. They are all excellent sources of information. 
• The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media is fabulous and can be followed on Twitter (@GDIGM) and Facebook. 

• Niamh Thorton has a very informative blog post on Latin American Film Makers. 

• In Argentina the organization La mujer y el cine, is an organization dedicated to promoting the work of women in the film industry. There webpage has recently been taken down, but I am hopeful that this is temporary. (Lamujeryelcine.com.ar)

• In Chile, Femcine is a "Festival Cine de Mujeres." 
• And 2013 article in the newspaper El País reports on the inequality in the Spanish film industry, stating that 9 of every 10 films that are filmed in Spain are directed by a man, and that the casts of these films directed by men are also disproportionately male. In this same article, the Spanish directora Isabel de Ocampo blames this imbalance on the exclusive decision making power of older males when it comes to film financing.

• In a 2013 forum, Colección Espejo, organized by the Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales (CIMA) in Madrid, several Spanish film directors spoke about the sexism that exists in the film industry, which is summarized here. 

• Newsweek has taken notice of some of the more recent films by Mexican directoras. In her piece, Alexis Okeowo highlights several directors and their recent films, including the documentary filmmakers Eva Aridis, as well as Mariana Chenillo and Andrea Martinez (both mentioned later in this piece), Eva Lopez Sanchez, Maria Novaro, and Patricia Riggen.

Books
There are a handful of books on female filmmakers from various Spanish-speaking countries.

Spain:
Barbara Zecchi's (UMASS) most recent book is entitled Desenfocadas: Cineastas españolas y discursos de género* and offers a comprehensive study of women in the Spanish film industry since its inception. She is the Director of the Digital Humanities project from UMASS on the History of Spanish Women´s Cinema. 

*Zecchi, Barbara. "Desenfocadas. Cineastas españolas y discursos de género (introducción)." Introducció del llibre: Desenfocadas. Cineastas españolas y discursos de género, Barbara Zecchi, Icaria 2014, ISBN: 9788498885682, 248 p. (2014).

Argentina:

Rangil, Viviana. Otro punto de vista: mujer y cine en la Argentina. 1st edition. Rosario: Beatriz Viterbo, 2005. Print.

Mexico:

Rashkin, Elissa J. Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.

Other Academic Resources

Ayala Rojas, Laura Lucinda (2012) Miradas de mujeres mexicanas en las artes visuales y en el cine. IMAGINARIO VISUAL (3). pp. 1-8.

Castro Ricalde, M. (2008). Género y estudios cinematográficos en México. CIENCIA ergo sum, 16-1(marzo-junio 2009), 64-70.

Monterde, José Enrique. “El largo camino hacia la dirección.” La Mitad del cielo: Directoras españolas de los años 90.  Ed. Carlos F. Heredero. Ayuntamiento de Málaga ministerio de Educación y Cultura, 1998. 15-24. Print.

There are a good number of academic publications on individual films by contemporary female directors including Te doy mis ojos (Icíar Bollían, 2003), La Misma Luna (Patricia Riggin, 2007), among others. I have not begun to explore the scholarly journal publications which study the specific films by early female pioneers of film in Spanish-speaking countries. 

Latin America Film History: a blog by my students

Another academic interest of mine, besides film in the Spanish classroom, is education technology. I am constantly trying out a new tool or piloting a new app, and encouraging my students to do the same. One of my more recent projects has been student blogging, and last semester I incorporated two different blogging projects into one of my advanced Spanish classes.

This course's focus was Latin American history and culture, from pre-Colombian indigenous cultures to present day and, with so much information to include in just one semester, how to include both breadth and depth in the course was indeed a challenge. My solution was blogging. Each student was involved in two blogging projects: one individual project focused on one specific country in Latin America and a group project focused on a particular cultural project. Students had a number of cultural topics to choose from, including sports, gastronomy, holidays, literature, cinema, etc. Based on both my observations and student evaluations, the blogs were overall a great tool to allow students to dive deeply into two particular topics (their specific country and their cultural aspect) while the rest of the coursework focused on broader themes.

I am talking about this project here in my film blog because the group of 3 students who hosted the cultural blog on Latin American Cinema produced a great resource that deserves to be shared with other students and with educators. These three students (one senior, one junior, and one sophomore) presented their blog at our university's research day, and have given their permission for me to share their blog with my readers. Here it is.

Guilty Pleasures for the Spanish Language Film Fan

I'm not thinking about the classroom right now. It is, after all, summer vacation. I am thinking about fun films that I now have time to watch, without the next day's lesson plans looming. Here are some of my favorite Spanish language films that haven´t (yet?) made it into my classroom, but that I think you, the teacher / professor, will enjoy:

1. Amantes del Cículo Polar (Julio Medem, 1998)
2. 5 días sin Nora (Mariana Chenillo, 2010) Okay, so I have taught this film, but it is so funny that it deserves to be on this list!
3. Anita (Marcos Carnevale, 2009)
4. La otra familia (Gustavo Loza, 2011)
5. Pelotero* (Trevor Martin, Jonathan Paley, Ross Finkel, 2012)
6. 15 años y un día** (Gracia Querejeta, 2013) See my post about this film.
7. XXY (Lucía Puenzo, 2007)

Here are films that have been recommended to me that are on my own "Guilty Pleasures" list for the summer:

1. Viva Cuba* (Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, Iraida Malberti Cabrera, 2005)
2. Hermano* (Marcel Rasquin, 2012)
3. Una noche* (Lucy Mulloy, 2013)
4. Tony Manero* (Pablo Larraín, 2009)
5. Paraiso** (Mariana Chenillo, 2013)
6. El médico aleman** (Lucía Puenzo 2014)

*Available on Netflix instant video. The other films need a bit more effort to get a hold of, but they are well worth the time. I am a big fan of my local library and they seem to be able to find most of them that have been released on US format DVD.
**To my knowledge, these have not yet been released on DVD in the U.S. Amazon has some of them available for purchase in European format.

A Top Ten List

I have finalized the 10 films that I will teach in my 300 level film course this fall. This is a course that aims to increase language proficiency while also teaching culture, and cinematographic and literary analysis through film. The students are high intermediate to advanced language learners, heritage speakers and an occasional native speaker. I develop many of my own lesson plans,but also rely heavily on the textbook Cinema for Spanish Conversation by Focus Publishing. (See my post about this text here.) 

Never content to simply teach all of the same films that I have taught in previous semesters, there are several new films on this year's list as well as a couple of "classics" that I feel the need to revive. It is always difficult for me to narrow down my list to 10 films, given the rich offerings from the many Spanish-speaking countries. The main criteria that I use in my selection process is that the film offer some type of cultural or historical perspective that my students can study. From there I choose films that have been recognized with major awards (Oscars, Goya, Ariel, etc.) or that have been critically acclaimed. The final selections feature strong cinematography, acting, soundtracks or other features which we can also study in the course. Here is this semester's selection:

(country designations refer to the countries showcased in each film, not the nationality of the directors)

1. También la lluvia (Icíar Bollían, Bolivia / Cuba / Hispaniola, 2010) 
2. Diarios de Motocicleta (Walter Salles, Argentina/ Chile / Peru/ Colombia/ Venezuela, 2004)
3. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2008)
4. Como agua para chocolate (Alfonso Arau; Mexico, 1992)
5. La misma luna (Patricia Riggin, Mexico/ USA, 2007)
6. El laberinto del Fauno (Guillermo del Toro , Spain, 2006)
7. El secreto de sus ojos (Juan José Campanella, Argentina, 2010)
8. No (Pablo Larraían, Chile,  2012)
9. Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, Spain, 2012)
10. Chico y Rita (Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal y Fernando Trueba, Cuba, 2010)

In other semesters I've organized the films by geography (country showcased in the film) or by general theme. This year I'm going with a more-or-less thematic approach, with a few exceptions at the end of the semester. The first 8 films are "traditional" narrative films with live actors which I begin two introductory films También la lluvia (Icíar Bollían, Spain, 2010) and Diarios de Motocicleta (Walter Salles, 2004). También la lluvia offers, in addition to the cultural themes which I detailed in a previous post, the opportunity to explore the film making industry and related vocabulary as one of its story lines follows a film crew working in Bolivia. Diarios de Motocicleta offers students a geographical study of Latin America while also introducing them to the idea that the countries in Latin America are not homogeneous and that each has its own unique culture, many of which we will explore later in the course.  

We then explore the theme of family through the films Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2008), Como agua para chocolate (Alfonso Arau; Mexico, 1992) and La misma luna (Patricia Riggin, Mexico/ USA, 2007). 

Volver is my selection this semester by Almodóvar; I have also used Todo sobre mi madre many times in my classes, again with the theme of family and have a hard time choosing between the two films. I have taught both of them in the same semester at times due to my inability to choose between the two great melodramas by Almodóvar. 

I have taught Como agua para chocolate, both the novel and the film, with their magic realism and focus on Mexican culture and family life at the time of the 1910 Revolution, many times earlier in my career, but then put them aside in favor of more recent films. This will be my first time teaching it in over a decade, but I have found that most students have never even heard of the film. It is time to bring a modern classic back out of retirement.  La misma luna is a heart-warming film, which I have often politely ignored when choosing films for my courses because it feels a bit too "happily ever after" for my tastes, but it does make a very real, very difficult topic (child immigration at the US Mexican border) come alive for students, which can then be explored in greater depth. 

The films El laberinto del Fauno (Guillermo del Toro , Spain, 2006), El secreto de sus ojos (Juan José Campanella, Argentina, 2010), and No (Pablo Larraían, Chile,  2012) are studied under the umbrella theme of  "Memoria y olivido" (Memory and Oblivion) as each film explores traumatic events in the the recent history of its showcased country. El laberinto del Fauno, with its incredible special effects and makeup explores the Maqui resitsance to the Franco government in post-civil war Spain, while El secreto de sus ojos uses flashbacks to show "La Guerra Sucia" in 1970's Argentina. No, with its focus on the upbeat theme of the No Campaign of the 1988 plebiscite that ousted the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, contrasts well against the other two films. I create my own plans for Fauno and Secreto, and have taught them both several times. I haven't blogged about them yet, but will publish my plans on this blog later this summer. Secreto is not a film that I would NOT show in a high school classrooms, and I always give a trigger warning and offer an alternative film (La Historia Oficial: Luis Puenzo 1985) for my college students, due to its strong on-screen sexual violence. That said, it is a wonderful crime thriller with an ending that takes everyone off guard. I first taught No this past spring, in a different course, and have blogged about it here. 

The last two films of the semester are not presented thematically, rather showcased for their unique genres: Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, Spain, 2012) is a silent film in black and white while Chico y Rita (Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal y Fernando Trueba, Cuba, 2010) is an animated film. This will be my first time teaching Blancanieves (post coming soon!) and I am excited for the rich cultural content - bullfighting and flamenco - as well as the chance to explore the genre of silent films. I've taught Chico y Rita before and have blogged about the films portrayal of Cuban Jazz pre-1959 here. 

Other films that didn't make this year's course, but that I have enjoyed teaching in previous semesters:

1. Machuca (Andrés Wood 2004)
2. El silencio de Neto (Luis Argueta 1994)
3. Todo sobre mi madre (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
4. El Norte (Gregory Nava 1983)
5. Nueve Reinas (Fabian Bielinsky 2000)
6. Arráncame la vida (Roberto Sneider 2008)
7. Martín Hache (Adolfo Aristarain 1997)
8. Flores de otro mundo (Icíar Bollaín 1999)

9. Fresa y chocolate (Tomás Guitiérrez Alea 1994)

My next post will be about films other Spanish-language films that I love, but that didn´t make it into my course for one reason or another.  Consider them your ¨guilty pleasure¨ viewing list for the summer.....

Student video activity to include in my film class

I attended the NECTFL conference in Boston a few weeks ago and walked away armed with a variety of new activities to try out in my classes. One of these ideas came from a session by  two speakers who presented their "lessons learned" from teaching an online introductory Spanish class. In liue of the traditional in-class student presentations, they had students create videos and upload them to their content management system for other students to view. This is a fabulous idea that I will also use in the live classroom.

Students in my 300 level Spanish and Latin American Film course each make one presentation on a cultural topic related to one of films from the course. (See my posts for films También la lluvia and Chico y Rita.)  These presentations are usually quite well done, and include a Power Point, visuals, etc. However, I have always struggled to find a way to make the student audience more responsive to their peers´ presentations, and to hold them accountable for the information they learn through these presentations. Voila! Students will now need to create videos rather than make in-class presentations. It will require a bit more time on my part, but I hope it will be work the extra effort. This is my plan for fall semester:

1. Student presenter creates a video for their presentation. They may choose their format, allowing for as much or as little technical creatively as they possess. Some suggested platforms for them include:

• iMovie
• Prezi
• Lego Movie Maker

If anyone has other suggestions, please share!

2. Student presenter uploads document to Blackboard 5-7 days before I want the rest of the class to view it.

3. I watch presentation and create 4-8 comprehension and analysis questions that the rest of the class needs to answer while they watch movie.

4. Rest of class watches video and answers questions as a homework assignment. 

I like the idea of students creating their own videos in a film class - I don't expect feature-film quality from them, but it still feels like a good fit for the course.  I'll let everyone know how it goes!

Update:  I loved this project! Students all chose to complete their presentations using Prezi, which worked quite well. Creating the comprehension questions was not difficulty on my part, and I think the students learned more from each other's presentations with this format. I will definitely be repeating this activity next fall. Another alternative to Prezi, would be screencasting. Darcy Lear has a great post that includes the screencasting idea here. 

Focus Publishing´s textbooks on film

I have written in the past about my disappointment that Spanish-language film textbooks don't offer more films by female film directors. However, this winter I discovered two film textbooks by Focus Publishing that have made significant strides in offering a more equitable gender balance in their plans. I was already a fan of the textbooks from Focus Publishing, and I am even more so now. 

The first textbook isn't exactly new, but I only just discovered it:  Cultura y cine: Hispanoamerica hoy (Focus Publishing, 2012) has two great films by female directors:  Entre Nos (Paula Mendoza, 2009) and Cinco días sin Nora (Mariana Chenillo, 2008).  I have taught Cinco días sin Nora  in one my courses, and blogged about it here.  Although not part of my course on female writers and film directors, several students opted to view and research Entre Nos for their final projects.

As the name implies, this textbook is designed for courses with a cultural focus and includes 6 films (one per unit), literary readings, interviews with native speakers, newspaper articles, rich cultural information, and statistics all centered on a single cultural topic. Cinco días sin Nora is the film selection for "Ritos y tradiciones" and Entre nos is included in "Inmigracion e hispanos en Estados Unidos."

I was excited to see that the authors choose to pair Cinco días sin Nora with El día de los muertos by Octavio Paz, as I had done when I taught the film (it is nice to know that my ideas are not totally off base!). I like their Notas Culturales regarding the film and the vocabulary and discussion questions are helpful. Their article on La Virgen de Guadalupe is another great religious tie in with the film that I hadn´t thought of. I founds their statistics on Judaism in the Hispanic world helpful but those on religion in Mexico lacking in detail.

Not having created my own plans for Entre nos, I appreciate the detailed statistics and resources (including an interview with the director) and will likely use this plan in a future class.

This text would be a great add on for a high intermediate language class or as the main text for a culture class.

The second textbook is the newly released 4th edition of Focus Publishing's Cinema for Spanish Conversation. I have used the 3rd edition of this book in my courses, and will be using this latest edition in my film course this upcoming fall. I like the plans in this book, which includes the following components for each film:

• Vocabulario 
• Antes de ver la película 
• Investigación
• Exploración
• Notas Culurales
• Temas de conversación o de composición
• Una escena memorable
• Hablan los personajes
• Hablando de la cultura
• Hablan los críticos y los directores  

The third edition of this book included 2 films by female directors: La misma Luna (Patricia Riggin, 2007) and Flores de otro mundo (Icíar Bollían, 1999).  The newest edition also includes these films, but adds a second film by Bollían: También la lluvia (2010). I had written and used my own plan for También la lluvia  (discussed in this previous blog post) but will now use a hybrid plan in future semesters, which combines elements of my own plan and that presented in Cinema for Spanish Conversation. The text offers some high quality cultural notes that will help make the movie even more accessible for students, and more detailed vocabulary and comprehension activities than I had in my plan.

Cinema for Spanish Conversation has many other great films in the 4th edition, including the film No by Pablo Larraín (discussed in my post from last week).  It´s entire table of contents is available on the Focus Publishing website.

References:

Gill, Mary McVey, Deana Smalley. ¡De Película! Focus Publishing, 2009.

Gill, Mary McVey, Deana Smalley, and María-Paz Haro. Cinema for Spanish conversation. 3rd ed. Focus Publishing, 2006.

Gill, Mary McVey, Deana Smalley, and María-Paz Haro. Cinema for Spanish conversation. 4th ed. Focus Publishing, 2014.

No (Pablo Larraín)

Over winter break I watched No by director Pablo Larraín (2012), and decided to include it in my upper-level culture course this semester. The film stars Gael García Bernal and is inspired by the real-life TV ad campaign (la franja) that lead up to the 1988 plebiscite that ousted Chilean dictator August Pinochet.

The film makes use of documentary footage from the ad campaign, which is virtually undetectable from the fictional story-line, thanks to fact that the rest of the movie was shot using only the technology of the 80s. With the grainy picture, the frequent over-exposed light (think home videos of the 80s), and the details of the wardrobe and set, the film allows the viewers to feel that they are viewing the events of Chile 1998 unfolding before their eyes.

The film has its critics, including those who rightly claim that it that it distorts reality by over-emphasizing the role the TV ad campaign played in the results of the plebiscite.  However, when properly framed, and with this criticism presented to students, the film is appropriate for the Spanish-language classroom that wishes to study the dictatorship of Pinochet and Chile´s transition to democracy post-Pinochet.

Because I showed this film in an upper-level culture course the plan's organization is a bit different from other films that I have highlighted in this blog. It should be noted that this film is included in the new edition of the textbook Cinema for Spanish Conversation (Focus Publishing, 4th edition), which has a variety of excellent resources related to the film.

Previewing:
My students had already studied details related to the government of the dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1989), including the human rights violations that were inflicted on the citizens, in their textbook (Gac-Artigas, Priscilla. Hoja de Ruta: Cultura y civilización de Latinoamérica. 5th ed.  New Jersey: ENE Academic Press, 2010.) . They also read information regarding the transition to democracy precipitated by the referendum of 1988. This textbook information will serve as the background information necessary to understand the context of the film.  This information can also be found in other sources, including many of the film-reviews about the movie. This review from NPR gives a good high-level overview in English, and this article from The Telegraph interviews some of those who participate in the actual No campaign in 1988.  If you are looking for detailed information in Spanish, the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile has a collection entitled Memoria Chilena which contains extensive information on Pinochet. The Bibliografía Nacional de Chile also has very interesting information on the panfletos of the dictatorship, including those used during the campaigns leading up to the plebiscite.

The New York Times English-language review is the most comprehensive that I have found.  It discusses the controversy that the film has caused by those who believe it to be an over-simplification of the role the TV campaign played in the plebiscite, the adaptation of the movie from a play "El plebiscito" by Antonio Skármeta, the controversy surrounding the political tendencies of Larraín´s family and more. In the end, I had my students read this review, despite the fact that it is in English, as it is so comprehensive in its analisis of the film. 

While viewing outside of class:
Students answered questions related to the portrayal of General Pinochet in the film, noting the difference in the portrayal of the Sí and the No campaigns. They also took notes on how the film portrayed the censorship of the press and political oppression under Pinochet and the themes presented in the No song La alegría ya viene...

Post viewing:
We devoted only one class period to this film, so our post-viewing activities were a bit limited. In addition to group-discussion of the comprehension / analysis questions, we also watched some of the original footage of the Sí and No campaigns are available on Youtube.  We discussed the criticisms of the film, specifically what the film doesn´t show about the many other important aspects of the No campaign, and we briefly mentioned Chile's current president, Michele Bachelete, whom we will study in more detail later in the semester.  Finally, students did a brief (15 minute) writing assignment in which they answered the question "Explica cómo esta película ayuda a recuperar la memoria colectiva de la sociedad Chilena."

Other information of interest:  

• Spanish-language interview (8 minutes)with director Pablo Larraín in which he talks about his use of cameras 
• Spanish-language review of the film from the site Historia y Cine.
• This review/news article, in Spanish, has many quotes from Pablo Larraín  and Gael García Bernal about the movie and the movie making process.

References:
Gac-Artigas, Priscilla. Hoja de Ruta: Cultura y civilización de Latinoamérica. 5th ed.  New Jersey: ENE Academic Press, 2010.

Gill, Mary McVey, Deana Smalley, and María-Paz Haro. Cinema for Spanish conversation. 4th ed. Focus Publishing, 2014.

Hirmas, María Eugenia. “The Chilean Case: Television in the 1988 Plebiscite.” Television, Politics, and the Transition to Democracy in Latin America. Ed. Thomas E. Skidmore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Neira, Camila Cárdenas. "“Mi alegría es distinta a la tuya”: No La Película y las transformaciones del signo histórico."