Based on a True Story

Latin American History at the Movies

Edited by Donald F. Stevens

Publication date:

01 September 1997

Length of book:

253 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780842025829

Combining history with discussions of dramatic cinema, Based on a True Story: Latin American History at the Movies examines how film has portrayed Latin America from the late fifteenth century to the present. The book opens with an introduction on the visual presentation of the past in the movies, while the rest of the book consists of essays that explore the best feature films on Latin America from the professional historian's perspective.

Chapter 1 Never Read History Again? The Possibilities and Perils of Cinama as Historical Depiction
Chapter 2 Columbus Takes On the Forces of Darkness, or Film and Historical Myth in 1492: The Conquest of Paradise
Chapter 3 Whose Conquest Is This, Anyway? Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Chapter 4 I, the Worst of All: The Literary Life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Chapter 5 The Mission and Historical Missions: Film and the Writing of History
Chapter 6 Passion and Patriarchy in Nineteenth-Century Argentina: Maria Luisa Bemberg's Camila
Chapter 7 Recasting Cuban Slavery: The Other Francisco and The Last Supper
Chapter 8 Lucia: Inventing Women's History on Film
Chapter 9 Gabriela: An Evocation of Elite Culture in Early Twentieth-Century Latin America
Chapter 10 Why Tita Didn't Marry the Doctor, or Mexican History in Like Water for Chocolate
Chapter 11 Depicting the Past in Argentine Films: Family Drama and Historical Debate in Miss Mary and The Official Story
Chapter 12 Pixote: Fiction and Reality in Brazilian Life

This collection of essays will come as a useful guide for conducting classroom discussions about films focusing on Latin American history. The editor's choice of films is good, as are the introduction and most of the essays, which are by historians rather than researchers in the field of cinema studies.