Border Witness: Reimagining the US-Mexico Borderlands through Film

Description

What a century of border films teaches about the real and imagined worlds of the US-Mexico borderlands—and how this understanding helps build better relations across boundaries.   Border Witness is an account of cultural collision and fusion between Mexico and the United States, as seen on the ground and in films from the past hundred years. Blending film studies with political and cultural geography, Michael Dear investigates the making of cross-border identity and community in the territories between two nations.   Border Witness introduces a new "border film" genre just now entering its golden age. A geographer and activist, Dear adopts an accessible and engaged perspective, combining the stories told by these films with insights drawn from his own decades-long research and travel. From early silent films to virtual reality, and from revolution to the present global crisis, border films provide fresh evidence for real and imagined politics and for envisioning future transborder architectures carved from in-between spaces. In an era of global geopolitics that favors walls and war over diplomacy, Dear's insights have relevance for borders around the world. Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction Part 1: Origins 1. Border Witness: From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico 2. Bisected Bodies: Early Silent Films 3. Making Filmscapes 4. Using Film as Evidence 5. Revolution and Modernization 6. The Great Migrations 7. Border Film Noir Part 2: Fusions 8. Borderlands before Borders 9. From Final Girl to Woman Warrior 10. Narco Nations: Men at War 11. Lives of the Undocumented 12. Moral Tales, Border Law 13. Border Walls: Screen Folly and Fantasy 14. The Mexican Dream/El Sueño Mexicano Part 3: Witness 15. A Golden Age for Border Film 16. Ways of Seeing the Border (Beyond Film) 17. Border Witness of the Future Acknowledgments Appendix 1: Chronological Filmography Appendix 2: Alphabetical Filmography Appendix 3: Map of US-Mexico Borderlands Notes References Index