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.