Cómo se pone la actividad especial

New York University in Buenos Aires

Cinema in Latin America: Contemporary Argentine Cinema

ICINE-UT 105001 / SPAN-UA9750001 (Section 1) ICINE-UT 105002 / SPAN-UA9750002 (Section 2)

Profesor: David Oubiña August - December 2011 [email protected]

Schedule Section 2: Tuesdays and Wednesdays 3:30-5:00 PM (Room: to be con fir m ed) Sec t i o n 1 : Tuesdays and Wednesdays 5:15-6:45 PM (Room: to be con fir m ed)

Of f ice Hou r s: Wed n esd ays 2:30-3:30 PM

Scr een in gs: to be con fir m ed.

Course Description The course is designed as an overview of Argentine Cinema during the last fifty years. The aftermath of World War II, the downfall of Peronist government, and the decline of the studio system produced a series of political, social, and cultural transformations that have been reflected in the films made since then. In the following years, some facts acquired great importance: the emergence of an independent cinema (on the margins of the industrial system), the connection to other continental cinemas, the relationship with artistic avant-gardes around the world, the experimentation, the social testimony and the political militancy. Cinema is a privileged path to study not only the aesthetic transformations but also the social and political changes at the end of XXth Century. The syllabus will concentrate on these mutations produced during the second half of the century. Through the study of some representative films by Leopoldo Torre

Nilsson, Leonardo Favio, Fernando Solanas, Adolfo Aristarain, Lucrecia Martel, and Martín Rejtman, among others, we will analyze the aesthetic innovations of the so- called Generación del '60; the rise of political cinema at the beginning of the '70s; the complex relationship between films and society during the military dictatorship; and the explosion of the New Argentine cinema in the '90s. Special attention will be given to certain topics: cinema and avant-garde movements, high culture and mass culture, films as political weapon, and, finally, cinema as a privileged aesthetic witness of historical processes.

Course Requirements and Grading The course will comprise two weekly sessions of one hour and a half. In addition to this, a weekly screening will be scheduled so that students will be able to watch the films included in the syllabus. The course will be conducted in English. Bibliography will be composed by critical texts in English (but it will also include some texts in Spanish at the end of the semester).

Attendance Policy and Class Participation Attendance to both weekly sessions and screening is compulsory. Students are expected to perform an active participation during class. Final grades depend singnificantly on this aspect. No unexcused absences are permitted. Students are responsible for making up any work missed due to excused absence, and they should contact their class teachers to catch up on missed work.

• NYU Buenos Aires has a strict policy about course attendance. No unexcused absences are permitted. • Students should contact their class teachers to catch up on missed work but should NOT approach them for excused absences. • Absences due to illness must be discussed with the Assistant Director for Academics Affairs, María Pirovano Peña within one week of your return to class. A doctor note excusing your absence is mandatory. If students get sick on an exam day, they must let the Assistant Director for Academic Affairs know in advance about this, and they must see a doctor the same day in order to have their absence excursed. • Absence requests for non-illness purposes must be discussed with the Assistant Director for Academics Affairs, María Pirovano Peña prior to the date(s) in question. • The first unexcused absence will be penalized by deducting 1.5% from the student’s final course mark. After that each unexcused absence will be penalized by deducting 3% from the student’s final course mark. • Students who have perfect attendance (100%) during the semester and have fulfilled all course requirements, i.e. class participation, meeting all deadlines, etc. will get extra points equivalent to 2 % of the final grade. • Students are responsible for making up any work missed due to absence. • NYU BA. also expects students to arrive to class promptly (both at the beginning and after any breaks) and to remain for the duration of the class. Three late arrivals

or earlier departures (10 minutes after the starting time or before the ending time) will be considered one absence. • Each class has a duration of one hour and half or two hours. Missing one class represents one absence. For those courses that meet once a week (three hours block), missing one class represents two absences. • Please note that for classes involving a field trip or other external visit, transportation difficulties are never grounds for an excused absence. It is the student’s responsibility to arrive at an agreed meeting point in a punctual and timely fashion. • Holidays’ make up classes are mandatory as regular scheduled classes.

Classwork Classwork includes both attendance to classes and significant contribution to all learning activities. In order to perform an adequate participation, students should prepare each lesson before class, as it is indicated below.

Homework Students must fulfill the expectations required for their homework. They should carefully organize their lessons before class, complete their exercises, read the required texts and watch the required films according to what is indicated in the syllabus.

Written Works Wr itten exer cises, essays an d paper s sh ould be subm itted in printed form. Written works must be submitted in timely fashion and it is not allowed to send them by email.

Exams and Submission of Work Students must give an oral presentation during the semester, must take a mid- term exam, and must write one final research paper at the end of the semester.

• Final Exam dates cannot be changed under any circumstance. • Mid term exam dates will be scheduled with each professor. • Unexcused absences from exams are not permitted and will result in failure of the exam. If you are granted an excused absence from examination (with authorization, as above), your lecturer will decide how you will make-up the assessment component, if at all (by make-up examination, extra coursework, or an increased weighting on an alternate assessment component, etc.). • Written work due in class must be submitted during the class time to the professor. • Late work should be submitted in person to the Assistant Director for Academics Affairs during office hours (Mon – Fri, 9.30 am to 5 pm), who will write on the essay or other work the date and time of submission, in the presence of the student. Another member of the administrative staff can accept the work, in person, in the absence of the Assistant Director for Academics Affairs and will write the date and time of submission on the work, as above. • Work submitted within 5 weekdays after the submission time without an agreed extension receives a penalty of 10 points on the 100 point scale. • Written work submitted after 5 weekdays after the submission date without an

agreed extension fails and is given a zero. • Please note end of semester essays must be submitted on time • Final essays must be submitted to the professor in print and electronic copy. If the student is not in Buenos Aires, he / she must send a printed copy via express postal mail (i.e. FeDEX, DHL, UPS, etc) to the NYU Center in Buenos Aires – Anchorena 1314 - (C1425ELF) Argentina. This copy must arrives before or on the date of established deadline.

Final Grades Students will be evaluated and graded according to the followin g per cen tages:

• Attendance and class participation 20 % • Or al pr esen tation 15 % • Homework 15 % • Mid-ter m exam 25 % • Final paper 25 % ----- • Total 100

Plagiarism / cheating Wr it t en wor k s, essay s an d p ap er s m u st be t h e r esu lt of t h e student’s personal reflection. Quotations and bibliography must follow the MLA, APA or Chicago formats. Th e pr esen tation of an oth er per son ’s wor d s, id eas, ju d gm en t , images or data as though they were your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes an act of plagiarism. NYU-BA uphold the University’s code of academic and personal conduct for all instances of plagiarism. Please find this Code in NYU policies at NYU website.

Bibliography Required readings (and som e secondary readings) are available at Copies: centro de copiado, Av. Santa Fe 2653, local 3, Capital Feder al, tel: 4821-2127. m ascopies@iplanm ail.com .ar

Readings Barnard, Tim, "Popular Cinema and Populist Politics", in Barnard, Tim (Editor), Argentine Cinema, Nightwood Editions, Toronto, 1986, pp. 5 - 63.

Castagna, Gustavo, "From one vanguard to another: Is there a tradition?", in Horacio Bernades, Diego Lerer and Sergio Wolf (editors), Nuevo cine argentino. Temas, autores y estilos de una renovación, Fipresci / Tatanka, 2002.

Falicov, Tamara, “Young Filmmakers and the New Independent Argentine Cinema” in The Cinematic Tango, Wallflower Press, 2007, pp. 115-150.

Foster, David William, "Camila: Beauty and Bestiality", in Contemporary Argentine Cinema, University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 1992, pp. 14 - 26.

Foster, David William, "The Official Story: Truth and Consequences", in Contemporary Argentine Cinema, University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 1992, pp. 38 - 54.

Gordard, Jean-Luc y Fernando Solanas, "Godard por Solanas, Solanas por Godard", Cine del Tercer Mundo n° 1, Montevideo, octubre de 1969, p. 15. (There is an English version in Cinefiles)

Horton, Robert, "Silvia Prieto", Film Comment vol 36 nº 2, marzo - abril de 2000.

Kohan, Martín: “ La apariencia celebrada” , in Punto de vista nº 78, abril de 2004.

Kriger, Clara, "The Official Story", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López (eds.), The Cinema of Latin America, Wallflower Press, London, 2003, pp. 177 - 183.

Mestman, Mariano, "The Hour of the Furnaces", en Alberto Elena and Marina López (eds.), The Cinema of Latin America, Londres, Wallflower Press, 2003

Morán, Ana Martín, "The Swamp", in Elena, Alberto and Marina Díaz López (eds.), The Cinema of Latin America, Wallflower Press, London, 2003, pp. 231 - 239.

Pick, Zuzana, "Reviewing Women's History: Camila", in The New Latin American Cinema. A Continental Project, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1993, pp. 82 -89.

Podalsky, Laura, "High-Rise Apartments, Arcades, Cars and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse and the Reconstruction of the Public / Private Divide in 1960s Buenos Aires", in Stock, Ann Marie (Editor), Framing Latin American Cinema: Contemporary Critical Perspectives, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1997, pp. 1 - 25.

Quintín, "From one generation to another: Is there a dividing line?", in Horacio Bernades, Diego Lerer and Sergio Wolf (editors), Nuevo cine argentino. Temas, autores y estilos de una renovación, Fipresci / Tatanka, 2002.

Reati, Fernando, "Argentine Political Violence and Artistic Representation in Films of the 1980's", in Latin Am erican Literary Review, Ju l y -Decem ber 1989, pp. 24-39.

Schwarzböck, Silvia and Hugo Salas, "El verano de nuestro descontento. Género y violencia en La ciénaga", in El amante nº 108, March 2001, pp. 10 - 12.

Solanas, Fernando and Octavio Getino, "Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World", in Martin, Michael (Editor), New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1997, pp. 33 - 58.

Stam, Robert, "Hour of the Furnaces and the Two Avant Gardes", Millenium nº 7/9, 1980/81

Suárez, Pablo, "Martín Rejtman: la superficie de las cosas", en Horacio Bernades, Diego Lerer y Sergio Wolf (editores), El nuevo cine argentino. Temas autores y estilos de una renovación, Fipresci / Tatanka, Buenos Aires, 2002.

Taylor, Diana, "Damnable Iteration: The Traps of Political Spectacle", in Modern Language Quarterly 57:2, June 1996, pp. 305 - 323.

Secondary readings Aguilar, Gonzalo, Otros mundos, Santiago Arcos Editor, Buenos Aires, 2006.

Bernini, Emilio, "Ciertas tendencias en el cine argentino. Notas sobre el 'nuevo cine argentino' (1956-1966)", in Kilómetro 111 nº 1, november 2000, pp. 71 - 88.

------, Estudio crítico sobre Silvia Prieto, Pic Nic Editorial, Buenos Aires, 2008

Castagna, Gustavo, "La generación del 60: Paradojas de un mito", in Wolf, Sergio (ed.), Cine argentino. La otra historia, Ediciones Letra Buena, Buenos Aires, 1993, pp. 245 - 263.

Castor, Nick, "Argentina: 1976-1983", in King, John and Nissa Torrents (Editors), The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema, British Film Institute, London, 1987, pp. 81 - 91.

Feldman, Simón, La generación del 60, Centro Editor de América Latina / Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía / Ediciones Culturales Argentinas, Buenos Aires, 1990.

Foster, David, "Contemporary Argentine Cinema", in Martin, Michael (Editor), New Latin American Cinema: Studies of National Cinemas, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1997, pp. 464 - 479.

Getino, Octavio, "Some Notes on the Concept of a Third Cinema", in Barnard, Tim (Editor), Argentine Cinema, Nightwood Editions, Toronto, 1986, pp. 99–108.

Kathleen Newman, “Cultural Redemocratization: Argentina, 1978–89,” in On Edge: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American Culture, George Yúdice, Jean Franco, and Juan Flores (Editors), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992, 161–186.

King, John and Nissa Torrents (Editors), The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema, British Film Institute, London, 1987.

------, Sheila Witaker and Rosa Bosch (eds.), An Argentine Passion: Maria Luisa Bemberg and her Films, Verso, London, 2000.

López, Ana, "Argentina, 1955-1976: The Film Industry and its Margins", in King, John and Nissa Torrents (Editors), The Garden of Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema, British Film Institute, London, 1987, pp. 49 - 80.

Mestman, Mariano "Entre Argel y Buenos Aires: El Comité de cine del Tercer Mundo" (1973- 1974), en Gerardo Yoel (compilador), Imgen, política y memoria, Buenos Aires, Libros del Rojas, 2002

Oubiña, David, "Pop Rebel. The Cinema of Leonardo Favio", in Film Comment vol. 37 nº 5, New York, September - October 2001.

------, Estudio crítico sobre La ciénaga, Pic Nic Editorial, Buenos Aires, 2007

Paul Willemen, "The Third Cinema Question: Notes and Reflections", en Jim Pines and Paul Willemen (comps.), Questions of Third Cinema, Londres, British Film Institute, 1989

Wolf, Sergio (ed.), Cine argentino. La otra historia, Ediciones Letra Buena, Buenos Aires, 1993.

Zuzana M. Pick, "The Collective and the Nation: The Hour of the Furnaces", en The New Latin American Cinema: A Continental Project, Austin, University of Texas Press, 1993.

Films La casa del ángel (The House of the Angel, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, 1956) Crónica de un niño solo (Chronicle of a Boy Alone, Leonardo Favio, 1966) La hora de los hornos (The Hour of the Furnaces, Fernando Solanas, 1968) Tiempo de revancha (Time for Revenge, Adolfo Aristarain, 1981) Camila (Camila, María Luisa Bemberg, 1983) La historia oficial (The Official Story, Luis Puenzo, 1984) Un muro de silencio (A Wall of Silence, Lita Stantic, 1993) Pizza, birra, faso (Pizza, Beer & Smokes, Adrián Caetano y Bruno Stagnaro, 1997) Mundo grúa (Crane World, Pablo Trapero, 1999) Un oso rojo (A Red Bear, Adrián Caetano, 2003) Silvia Prieto (Silvia Prieto, Martín Rejtman, 1998) La ciénaga (The Swamp, Lucrecia Martel, 2001) Los rubios (The Blondes, Albertina Carri, 2003) Oscar (Oscar, Sergio Morkin, 2004)

Course Schedule

Week Su b j ect Lectura/ Película 1 Unit 1. Brief historical overview. 29 de The studio system and the Hollywood classical model. agosto al 4 Cinema and popular culture: de tango, gauchos, sainetes, septiem br e folletines. Argentine films and Latin American market. The decline of film industry. 2 Unit 2. The loss of continental Barnard, Tim, "The Decline of the Argentine Film Industry: 1942-1955" 5 al 11 de hegemony. The New Wave: La Generación del '60 and the rise of septiem br e Screening: La casa del Ángel independent cinema. Film as

spectacle vs. film as artistic expression. Authorship and cinéma d'auteur: Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. 3 Cinema and social commitment: Podalsky, Laura, "High-Rise

12 al 18 Fernando Birri. Modernism and Apartments, Arcades, Cars and Hoteles de citas: Urban Discourse de mass culture. The unclassifiable films of Leonardo Favio. and the Reconstruction of the Public septiem br e / Private Divide in 1960s Buenos Aires"

Screening: Crónica de un niño solo 4 Unit 3. After the New Wave. Solanas, Fernando and Octavio Getino, "Towards a Third Cinema: 19 al 25 Cinema and avant-garde. The film industry and its margins: Notes and Experiences for the de Development of a Cinema of underground cinema and militant septiem br e Liberation in the Third World". cinema. Argentine filmmakers and the New Latin American Cinema Screening: Tiem po de movement. Fernando Solanas and The Hour of the Furnaces. revancha 5 Third World and Third Cinema. Robert Stam, "Hour of the Furnaces and the Two Avant Gardes" 26 de Political radicalism and / vs. formal experimentation. septiem br e Jean-Luc Godard y Fernando al 2 de Unit 4. Cinema during the Solanas, "Godard por Solanas, octubre Solanas por Godard" (There is an military dictatorship. Dirty war, English version in Cinefiles) repression, exile, and

desaparecidos. Cinema of Screening: Camila resistance and cinema of complicity. Adolfo Aristarain: the allegorical style. 6 Unit 5. The re-democratization Foster, David William, "Camila: Beauty and Bestiality" 3 al 9 de period: the 1980s. The critique of military dictatorship. octubre Pick, Zuzana, "Reviewing Women's History: Camila"

Screening: La historia oficial

10 al 16 BREAK de octubre 7 The debate between those who Foster, David William, "The Official Story: Truth and Consequences" 17 al 23 were forced into exile and those who remained in the country de octubre during the dark years of Kriger, Clara, "The Official Story" repression.

Special Event: Lecture (Tuesday 18th, 19:00 – 20:30 hs. TBC) (Mandatory students attending this course)

8 Mid-term exam Screening: Un muro de silencio

24 al 30 Films as cultural and social de octubre documents. Memory and oblivion. Opportunism, denunciation, and testimony. Luis Puenzo's official version of the years of dictatorship and Lita Stantic's critique of the official version. 9 Unit 6. From the 80s to the 90s. Taylor, Diana, "Dam nable 31 de Industrial productions and Iter ation: The Traps of independent cinema. octubr e al Political Spectacle". 6 de Reati, Fer nando, “ Ar gentine n oviem br e political violence and artistic representation in films of the 1980s”

Screening: Pizza, birra, faso 10 The New Argentine Cinema: Falicov, Tamara, “Young Filmmakers and the New 7 al 13 de between breakup and tradition. Independent Argentine Cinema” n oviem br e Screening: Un oso rojo 11 Young filmmakers and the rebirth Castagna, Gustavo, "From one vanguard to another: Is there a 14 al 20 of independent cinema: low- budget movies vs. professional tradition?” de movies. n oviem br e Quintín, "From one generation to another: Is there a dividing line?”

Screening: Silvia Prieto 12 Two generations of independent Suárez, Pablo, "Martín Rejtman: The surface of things" 21 al 27 cinema: la Generación del '60 and the new cinema of the '90s. de Horton, Robert, “Silvia Prieto” n oviem br e Screening: La ciénaga 13 Mapping Menem's neo-liberal Schwarzböck, Silvia and Hugo Salas, "El verano de nuestro descontento. 28 de politics: new social configurations, new urban Género y violencia en La ciénaga" n oviem br e landscapes, new collective al 4 de identities. Martín Rejtman, Ana Martín Morán, "The Swamp" diciembre Lucrecia Martel, Pablo Trapero. Screening: Los r u b i os

14 The year 2001: the crisis. Martín: Kohan, “ La 5 al 7 de New cinema and politics. apariencia celebrada” diciembre

Closing remarks 13 de diciembre Final Exam