CSUN’s Cinema & Television Arts department has decided to host a LatinAuteur screening of various cinema from Latin America and Spain throughout the spring semester. The screenings will take place every Wednesday at 7 p.m., starting Feb. 6 at The Elaine and Alan Armer Screening Room which is located in Manzanita Hall, Auditorium Room 100.
The theme was suggested by Media Theory & Criticism Professor Dianah Wynter, who believes that the most powerful tool, when it comes to filmmaking, is language. She offered the idea of programming Spanish themed and Spanish language films to “use as a lens through which to examine the cultural expression of several filmmakers that share a certain commonality.”
The movies were selected for several reasons, the most important being language.
“The language is what will hold this collection of films together,” said Wynter. “We wanted to bring in people from different cultural expressions.”
One filmmaker that will be seen in the program is Pedro Almodóvar, who is from Spain. Almodóvar found success in filmmaking despite living during a dictatorship where the state had authority over what kinds of movies were being made. His movies were mostly about women and the hardships they faced like in his 1988 film, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”
Another featured filmmaker is Luis Buñuel, who was exiled from his homeland in Spain because of his conflicting views in politics. He fled to Mexico where he directed the movie “The Exterminating Angel” in 1962.
Both Almodóvar and Buñuel were from different times but they shared experience in oppression and denied giving into the exploitation of their art.
The films were selected because of the rarity in being able to find them. “Carmen” by Carlos Saura, in particular, “Was very difficult to find the rights to show,” explained Wynter. This movie was made in 1983 which means the technology to keep this film was not long-lasting. Finding films from even before the ’80s are considered rare finds.
Lastly, the film selection came down to their award-winning titles, ranging from Golden Globes to Oscar winners. The films are the best of the best in Latin America and Spain. Among them are films from The Three Amigos, who are Mexican directors that became very successful Hollywood directors: Guillermo del Toro, who directed “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Alfonso Cuarón, who directed “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” and Alejandro Iñarritu, who directed “Amores Perros.”
This screening event also hosts movies that celebrate Black History Month such as “City of God” by Fernando Meirelles, which “explores the diversity of Hispanic culture in South America, in Brazil.”
Wynter expressed her belief that because of the majority of the campus’s population being of Latino or Hispanic descent, it is very important for those individuals of the CSUN community to be exposed to films representing their own culture.
“It’s really incumbent on us to make sure that some of the best films of their heritage are shown so that they have the opportunity to see them on a big screen,” Wynter explained.
This event is not just for students or the CSUN community. It is open to the public, and anyone can invite their family or friends to the weekly screenings at no cost. The screenings are being shown until May 15. However, the week of spring break will be excluded.
“You don’t have to be Spanish to love these films or to be exposed to these films,” Wynter explained. The event is for everyone, film enthusiasts, Spanish film enthusiasts, anyone who is curious about the art of film — even the students who are just trying to entertain themselves before their night class.
All Wynter asks of event goers is to “seize this opportunity to use language as a lens to explore culture and art in this way.”
