Screening Mexico: Mexican Cinema, 1898 to Present

Catalog description

This course focuses on Mexican cinema, from its origins in silent film to the present, as a way to explore and consider important issues in Mexican culture, society, and history. Cinema provides a unique window on Mexico's changing social, cultural and political dynamics, past and present, and a context for discussing many topics, such as: indigeneity and the legacies of Spanish colonialism; changing conceptions of Mexican identity; gender and class dynamics and inequalities; political critique and revolutionary movements; and urbanization, migration and "drug war"-related violence and violence against women in contemporary Mexico. Two particular areas of focus will be films of the Mexican "Golden Age" (1930-1960), and "New Mexican Cinema" from the 1990s forward. This course meets the Dietrich Gen Ed "Contextual Thinking" requirement. Course Website: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/history/