I teach a variety of courses related to national cinemas, film history and theory, and some of the topics I have covered include Canadian, Latin American cinemas, documentary, women’s cinema, and film and society. Recently I have developed a new course dealing with the relationship of cinema and modernity during what is commonly known as the “Golden Age” of Mexican cinema (1935-1955.) I am interested in cross-cultural and comparative approaches, in particular on the connections between film, visual culture and other audio-visual practices. My research on the cinematic representations of the Mexican revolution in films made by Mexican and foreign, mainly US, directors appeared under the title Constructing the Image of the Mexican Revolution: Cinema and the Archive in January 2010.
My previous book is entitled The New Latin American Cinema: A Continental Project (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.) Some of my work on Chilean cinema in exile (1973-1983) has appeared in anthologies covering diverse topics in Latin American film studies. I have also had articles published in French, English and Spanish in various festival catalogues, periodicals and journals, such as Positif, Framework, Screen, Jump Cut, Cine-Action! and the Canadian Journal of Film Studies. Throughout my academic career, I have been an active member of the Film Studies Association of Canada, and have served in different capacities in its executive committee including the president position (1989-1992) and the editor of Canadian Journal of Film Studies (1993-1997). I have also contributed as a programmer, consultant and presenter at different festivals and events dealing with the cinemas of Latin America, including the Festival of Festivals in Toronto.
Selected publications:
Cinema and the Archive: Constructing the Image of the Mexican Revolution, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. For table of contents and introduction: University of Texas Press
The New Latin American Cinema: A Continental Project (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1993), 251 pp. (Reprinted 1995) For preview, including preface and introduction: University of Texas Press
Chapters in Books:
“Cine y Archivo: algunas reflexiones sobre la construcción visual de la Revolución.” (Translation by Julio Valdés), in La Revolución mexicana en la literatura y el cine. Díaz Pérez, Olivia, Florian Gräfe, Friedhelm Schmidt-Welle, (eds.), (Madrid, Berlin, Mexico: Iberoamericana-Vervuert-Bonilla Artigas, DAAD-C<tedra Humboldt, 2010), 217-225
“La escondida de Roberto Gavaldón: el espectáculo, María Félix y el glamour de la Revolución Mexicana,” (Translation by Gerardo García Muñoz), La luz y la guerra: el cine de la Revolución Mexicana, García Muñoz, Gerardo and Fernando Fabio Sánchez, eds., (Mexico: Arte e Imagen, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA), 391-418
“De exilio, desarraigo y exotismo,” (translation by Evelyne Briffault and Victoria Torres), in De los Rios, Valeria and Iván Pinto, eds. El cine de Raúl Ruiz, Santiago de Chile: Uqbar Editores, 2010, 35-39 (Originally published as “Raoul Ruiz: De l’exile, du dépaysement and de l’éxotisme,” Positif (Paris) No. 274, December 1983.)
“Jesús H. Abitía. Cinefotógrafo de la revolución y Epopeyas de la revolución mexicana,“ Miquel, Ángel, Zuzana M. Pick, Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro, co-authors, Fotografía, cine y literature de la Revolución Mexicana (Cuernavaca: Universidad Autonóma del Estado de Morelos, Facultad de Artes, 2005), pp. 31-48