Being a Mexican-American has guaranteed struggles in America, throughout history. Using film was a way to show the injustices of Mexican-American people and the way they were being treated. Also, cinematography is used in a way to humor others and it is something that everyone can enjoy together; however, it started with theater. In Mexican-American Cinema there are many great cinematographers that came to be known to this day. With a rough start in building a name for themselves to Hollywood demanding their work. Mexican American cinematographers came to change the views of Hollywood. There are many known Mexican-American cinematographers who have come a long way to get to the position they are in now. Accomplishing and creating successful …show more content…
It was a huge improvement in the film industry to have Mexican-Americans be behind the scenes of a production as producers, writers, and directors. Most of the work was done without the help of major studios, instead as independent productions. Luis Valdez was an inspiration to many Chicano filmmakers that attended UCLA film school, who wanted to pursue a career in film production (Gonzales 2009, 257). Valdez’s film work was quite successful, especially in the movie he produced, “La Bamba” capturing the life that was of Ritchie Valens, which was a box-office success. This changed the movie industry’s perspective that Latino movies have the potential for more box-office successes. In the late 1990s, the Three Amigos came to be. The group of directors consisted of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Alfonso Cuaron, and Guillermo del Toro. Working their way into Hollywood with their new fresh ideas and interesting story telling explorations in their films. They were the first for the “New Mexican Cinema” era, and have since been keeping up their unique styled …show more content…
Born in Mexico City and raised by his Mexican father and American mother. His father met his mother while studying at NYU. Prieto is best known for his artistic collab in The Wolf of Wall Street, Argo, and Silence. He has also worked with quite some top-notch directors in Hollywood such as Curtis Hansen in 8 Mile, Spike Lee in 25th Hour, Ang Lee in Brokeback Mountain. Prieto has also worked alongside Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu on a couple of films, which both of these men are fine Hispanic cinematographers. His collaborations have earned him award nominations for Best Cinematography. Prieto is most known for having a unique, different perspective while shooting a film. Critics describe his work as having an unusual, strong, moody lighting in the frames he shoots. He uses vivid colors and other techniques that are seen as a dream-like image in films to distinguish that it is a memory or vision being viewed on screen. According to IMDb, Rodrigo Prieto has 15 wins, 2 Oscar nominations, and the total award nominations are 43. As a cinematographer he has 55 credits to his
Many Mexicans immigrated to the United States throughout the 1920’s forming their own communities like East Los Angeles. Throughout the years, they overcame hardships like segregation, bad stereotypes, etc. They created a movement for civil rights, where their culture began to flourish around the country, known as the Chicano Movement. One big contributor to the Chicano Movement is Cheech Marin. “Being a Chicano in Hollywood, my experience is that you're not given credit for any sophistication... You're just kind of some guy that just crossed the border, you know, on the back of a truck and that's it (Cheech Marin).” Cheech Marin has brought many talents to the Chicano community from the 1970’s to now. He is an author, actor, director, writer, and art collector. His most famous works include the famous comedy duo Cheech and Chong, his solo film Born in East L.A., and his wide-range collection of Chicano art.
Over the course of this past century, the depictions of assimilated Latino characters has improved a great deal. Early portrayals of Latino assimilation generally proved to be a montage of unrealistic caricatures which seemed to convey the filmmaker's creativity more so than true representations. This formed the manner in which the American people at large viewed not just Latino characters attempting to assimilate, but also those who were not. As Cine-Aztlan puts it, film "manipulates the human psychology, sociology, religion, and morality of the people, in a word the ideological super-structure of modern capitalist society" (pg.275, Chicanos and Film). As the years went by however, mainly because Latinos started gaining power in the film industry and depicting (as opposed to creating) Latino characters, the images of Latinos who were adapting (either by choice or by societal force) to the lifestyle and values of the United States, grew more and more representative of what was actually taking place outside of the film studios. Today, most portrayals of assimilated Latinos are fairly accurate. The forces to which their modification is portrayed are not so much representative of middle-class White America however, but rather that of Urban Hip-Hop culture.
The Chicano Movement was a time that pressed forth for the equal opportunity of the Latino community and proved to America that Mexican Americans were a force to be reckoned with. In the documentary Latino Americans – Episode 5: Prejudice and Pride, it centralizes on the success of the oppressed community through significant leaders in that period. Union activists César Chavez, along with Dolores Huerta, playwright Luis Valdez, teacher Sal Castro, US Congressman Herman Ballido, and political activist José Ángel Gutiérrez all contributed to egalitarianism of Latinos across the nation. This documentary reflects on the importance of equal prospects within the workplace, the academic setting, and the social and political features in society.
“Film is more than the instrument of a representation; it is also the object of representation. It is not a reflection or a refraction of the ‘real’; instead, it is like a photograph of the mirrored reflection of a painted image.” (Kilpatrick) Although films have found a place in society for about a century, the labels they possess, such as stereotypes which Native Americans are recognized for, have their roots from many centuries ago (Kilpatrick). The Searchers, a movie directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, tells the story of a veteran of the American Civil War and how after his return home he would go after the maligned Indians who killed his family and kidnapped his younger niece.
He is credited for being a pioneer in the visual effects realm of the filmmaking world. In his lifetime, he won three Oscars for his effect-based achievements.
The American film industry’s early attempts at the narrative Western were limited and in the early years were produced mainly in the east. During this early time in the film industry the...
Rosa Linda Fregoso. The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993
Largely influenced by the French New Wave and other international film movements, many American filmmakers in the late 1960s to 1970s sought to revolutionize Hollywood cinema in a similar way. The New Hollywood movement, also referred to as the “American New Wave” and the “Hollywood Renaissance,” defied traditional Hollywood standards and practices in countless ways, creating a more innovative and artistic style of filmmaking. Due to the advent and popularity of television, significant decrease in movie theater attendance, rising production costs, and changing tastes of American audiences, particularly in the younger generation, Hollywood studios were in a state of financial disaster. Many studios thus hired a host of young filmmakers to revitalize the business, and let them experiment and have almost complete creative control over their films. In addition, the abandonment of the restrictive Motion Picture Production Code in 1967 and the subsequent adoption of the MPAA’s rating system in 1968 opened the door to an era of increased artistic freedom and expression.
John Ford John Ford was an American motion picture director. Winner of four Academy Awards, and is known as one of America’s great film directors. He began his career in the film industry around 1913. According to Ellis, Ford’s style is evident in both the themes he is drawn toward and the visual treatment of those themes, in his direction of the camera and in what’s in front of it. Although he began his career in the silent film area and continued to work fruitfully for decades after the thirties, Ford reached creative maturity in the thirties.
In Making Cinelandia American Films and Mexican Film Culture Before the Golden Age, Laura Isabel Serna compellingly argues that rather than acting as a “form of cultural imperialism” (1), American films and film culture engaged city dwelling Mexican moviegoers (on both sides of the border) in ways that ultimately molded their identities as modern Mexicans beyond the cinema. Borrowing the title of a popular Mexican film magazine from the time,
... his work with famous actors and actresses, and his classical style of camera usage are reasons that he is an auteur. Wilder takes ownership of his works and each one of his films reflects off of each other in some way. An auteur is an “author” of their work and they have certain characteristics that help to define that it is their work. Wilder enjoys mixing cynicism and comedy in not only his characters but also through the theme of the movie. Wilder’s talent with being able to work with famous yet difficult actors and actresses is another reason to call him an auteur. He was able to create unique characters that no other film had. Lastly, his classical style of moving the camera during production helps to set him apart from other directors. In conclusion, Billy Wilder is a very influential director who made his mark on cinema and deserves to be called an auteur.
To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there were very obvious differences in their culture and the one that I belong. Mexican-American culture identifies with their family rather than individualized or spiritual identities and the culture has gone through significant changes because of discrimination and the changing demographics of the United States.
Sicario is a 2015 film starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro. The movie is directed by Denis Villeneuve and is a realistic take on the war against drugs on the border of US and Mexico. In many aspects this is a perfect movie: editing, acting, movement, photography and sound. Though the story is nothing to write home about, the subject matter remains serious enough to write to Obama about. As crucial as it is to win the war on drugs the movie does a great job at showing the dark underbelly of the US secret operations. Not everything is done by the books and the events that do make it onto the news may be a glossy fabrication of propaganda. The story does not have major plot twists or jaw dropping story elements and that is what makes it grounded. The plot understands what it is and makes room for the real hooks of the movie.
In 1915 the American film industry was forever changed as it took its first step toward modern filmmaking. It was the year D.W. Griffith’s A The Birth of a Nation was released, a racially insensitive film depicting life during the Civil War and Reconstruction in America. It is arguably first major success in American cinema as it was the highest grossing film of its time. It is no accident that the film destine to redefine the film industry in the United States would inevitable be a national historical epic, for the film was a response to the growing presents of foreign films dominating American cinema. Though ultimately The Birth of a Nation and D.W. Griffith were a product of circumstances created by corporate attempts to industrialize filmmaking.
Born on 30th of July 1970 in London United Kingdom to a British father and American mother. Because of that he has both British and American citizenship and has been living in both London and Chicago since his childhood. He found his passion for filmmaking at early ages and at age 7 he made his first short film with his father’s camera. Eventually just like most directors he did not attend film universities, instead he went on to study English literature in London, his hometown. One of his early short films which is probably his best also, is ‘Doodlebug’ which he made in