Tastemakers and Tastemaking: Mexico and Curated Screen Violence

Description

Considers how and why taste persists in the analysis of Mexican film and television by looking at key figures and their impact on the curation of violence. Tastemakers and Tastemaking develops a new approach to analyzing violence in Mexican films and television by examining the curation of violence in relation to three key moments: the decade-long centennial commemoration of the Mexican Revolution launched in 2010; the assaults and murders of women in Northern Mexico since the late 1990s; and the havoc wreaked by the illegal drug trade since the early 2000s. Niamh Thornton considers how violence is created, mediated, selected, or categorized by tastemakers, through the strategic choices made by institutions, filmmakers, actors, and critics. Challenging assumptions about whose and what kind of work merit attention and traversing normative boundaries between “good” and “bad” taste, Thornton draws attention to the role of tastemaking in both “high” and “low” media, including film cycles and festivals, adaptations of Mariano Azuela’s 1915 novel, Los de Abajo, Amat Escalante’s hyperrealist art films, and female stars of recent genre films and the telenovela, La reina del sur. Making extensive use of videographic criticism, Thornton pays particularly close attention to the gendered dimensions of violence, both on and off screen. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Tastemakers and Tastemaking: Questions of Taste, Violence, and Gender Screen Violence: Reimagining the Past, Understanding the Present Audiovisual Violence, Death, and the Value of Life Gore Capitalism and Framing Grievable Mexican Lives The Symbolic Power of Language: Cartels, Narcos, and Feminicide/Femicide Reflexive and Relational: On Good and Bad Taste The Culture of the National and Public Institutions Gendered Tastemaking: Intersectional Situatedness A Curated Selection of Tastemakers and Tastemaking Methodological Approaches to Tastemaking Conclusion Chapter One Cultural Institutions and Gendered Taste Formation: Nelson Carro and the Cineteca Nacional in 2010 1910 and 2010: The Long-Running Mexican Revolution Commemoration through Curatorship: Film Festival Research and Film Cycles Cineteca Nacional de México: Curating National and International Film Culture Film Cycles: Mexico and the World Curating War: Europe and the US Are the World Nelson Carro: Curating Unruly Archives Indispensable and Highly Selective: Curating a Tastemaker Mexico’s Battles On-Screen Opting In or Opting Out: Leduc, Calderón, and Estrada Gendering War Conclusion Chapter two Commonplace and Routine: Amat Escalante’s Extreme Realism in Los bastardos (2008) and Heli (2013) Amat Escalante: Prestige Filmmaker Los Bastardos: Good/Bad Victims Violence, Ambiguity, and Arthouse Prestige Cinema Heli: Routine and Commonplace Torture Slowness, Ethics, a\nd Point of View Editing: Rhythm and Eye-Trace The Sound of Slow Violence De-Dramatized Violence: The Tedious Labor of Torture Conclusion Chapter three Reversioning and Thick Contexts: Reversioning and Thick Contexts: The Cinematic Adaptations of Los de abajo Origins, Intertexts, and Transformations Falling Out of Taste: Chano Urueta and Servando González Videographic Criticism: Differences and Repetitions Differences and Repetitions Beginnings Endings Conclusion Chapter four Bodily Excess and Containment: Bordertown (Gregory Nava, 2006) and The Virgin of Juarez (Kevin James Dobson, 2006) Distasteful, Sickening, and Vulgar: Juarez as More Than Mere Crime Plot Overview: Bordertown and The Virgin of Juarez Femicides/Feminicides: Facts and Theories Star Status and Racialized Bodies Star Texts: Embodied Subjectivity Valuing Lives through Clothes, Ornament, and Taste Understanding Violence through Videographic Thinking Resurrection and Rebirth Fire, Revenge, and Justice in Bordertown Hybrid Horror and the Horror of Sexual Assault Conclusion Chapter five: Curating Cruelty and Criminality: The Radical Mediation of Kate del Castillo The Telenovela: Origins and Evolution Territorial Travels: Multiple Versions and Media Landscapes The Telenovela Narrative: Quality and Complexity Narrative Thread, Powerful Vulnerability, and the Melodramatic Mode Drug Trafficking and the Local-Global Marketplace Recalibrating Responsibility for the Global Drug Trade Violence, War, and Gendered Scripts Kate del Castillo Is Connected: Stardom, Celebrity, Social Media, and Drug Narratives Conclusion Conclusion: Ethical Reflections on Legitimation and Taste Filmography References Index