Understanding National Borders Through Cinema

In this course we will focus on the border and its representation in cinema, especially the US-Mexico border, as well as other Central and South American borders. We will also include Spain/Africa borders as well as imaginary borders. The goal is to understand what borderland means, its liminality and political relevance. We will pay special attention to the representation of migrants on both sides by focusing on issues of racism, capitalism, neoliberalism, as well as bio- and necropolitics. For critics such as Sayak Valencia (gore capitalism) and Ariadna Estévez, forced migrations can be understood as political strategies to mobilize and depopulate rich regions. Among the movies included: Que viva México (1932), Espaldas mojadas (1955), El Santo en la frontera del terror (1969), Babel (2006), Sleep Dealer (2008), Sin nombre (2009), La jaula de oro (2013), 600 millas (2015), Savageland (2015), El desierto (2016), México Barbaro (selection of shorts 2014, 2017), Ánimas (2018), Culture Shock  (2019), Vuelven/ Tigers Are Not Afraid (2019), Pájaros de verano (2019), Adú, (2020), Sin señas particulares, (2020), 499 (2021), Noche de fuego (2021), La purga infinita (2021), Las leyes de la frontera (2021), American Carnage (2022)  and  El salto (2023). (1 unit) 

Required texts: Access to materials will be provided online.