Skip to content
1981
Volume 18, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 2050-4837
  • E-ISSN: 2050-4845

Abstract

This article examines three films by Mexican filmmaker Alfredo Joskowicz (1937–2012) in the context of the emergence of independent Mexican cinema. As a direct product of the 1968 Student Movement, this filmic corpus stood in direct opposition to the industrial, state-subsidized cinema that was perceived as an emissary of national discursive hegemony. My analysis foregrounds the representation of corporeal abjection as one of the main tropes through which these films enacted countercultural insurrection. I also aim to demonstrate how these three films represent shifts in Joskowicz’s ideological perspective, and how they correspond to the State’s intensifying repression and the concomitant radicalization of leftist opposition. I argue that Jokowicz’s initial representation of bodily abjection first stood as the emblem of an authentic dissidence predicated on biopolitical insurrection, and later acquired a negative, necropolitical valence that effectively delimited a great part of independent cinema’s political-ideological horizon.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/slac_00061_1
2021-09-01
2025-06-18
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aviña, A.. ( 2014), Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside, New York:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Ayala Blanco, J.. ( 2017), La búsqueda del cine mexicano, , ePub ed.., Ciudad México:: CUEC;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barbosa, M.. ( 2015;), ‘ Urbanización espontánea y proyectos de vivienda mínima. ’, in Belén de las Flores: Historia, conflicto e identidad en un lugar al poniente de la Ciudad de México, siglos XVI a XXI (coord. M. Barbosa), México:: UAM, Unidad Cuajimalpa;, pp. 77108.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Butler, J.. ( 1993), Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’, New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Castellanos, L.. ( 2016), México armado: 1943–1981, México, D.F.:: Bolsillo Era;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Cazals, F.. ( 1975), Canoa: memoria de un hecho vergonzoso, Mexico:: Conacine;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Dabove, J. P.. ( 2017), Bandit Narratives in Latin America: From Villa to Chávez, Pittsburgh, PA:: University of Pittsburgh Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Dobbin, R.. (ed. and trans.) ( 2016), Antecdotes of the Cynics, London:: Penguin Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Janzen, R.. ( 2021;), ‘ El cambio/The Change, Joskowicz ([1971] 1975. ): Mexican counterculture and the futility of protest in the 1970s. ’, Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas, 18:3, pp. 15975.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Joskowicz, A.. ( 1970), Crates, Mexico:: CUEC-UNAM;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Joskowicz, A.. ( 1971), El cambio, Mexico:: CUEC-UNAM;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Joskowicz, A.. ( 1974), Meridiano 100, Mexico:: CUEC-UNAM;.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Kennedy, G.. ( 2007), An Ontology of Trash: The Disposable and its Problematic Nature, Albany, NY:: State University of New York Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Marroquín, E.. ( 1975), La contracultura como protesta: Análisis de un fenómeno juvenil, México, D.F.:: Editorial Joaquín Moritz;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Mbembe, A.. ( 2019), Necropolitics (trans. S. Corcoran), London:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Merino, J., and García Estrada, J.. ( 2012), Alfredo Joskowicz: Una vida para el cine, Ciudad México:: CUEC;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Nichols, B.. ( 2017), Introduction to Documentary, Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Pensado, J. M.. ( 2013), Rebel Mexico: Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture during the Long Sixties, Stanford, CA:: Stanford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Revueltas, J.. ( 2013), México 68: Juventud y revolución, México, D.F.:: Ediciones Era;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Sánchez Prado, I.. ( 2015;), ‘ Alegorías sin pueblo: El cine echeverrista y la crisis del contrato social de la cultura mexicana. ’, Chasqui, 44:2, pp. 5067.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Sartre, J. P.. ( 2004;), ‘ Preface. ’, in F. Fanon. (ed.), The Wretched of the Earth, New York:: Grove Press;, http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2632904&site=bsi-live. Accessed 18 February 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Sloterdijk, P.. ( 1987), Critique of Cynical Reason, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Tirado, F.. ( 1970), Las calles negras, Mexico:: Grupo Liberación;.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Vázquez Mantecón, A.. ( 2012), El cine Súper 8 en México, 1970–1989, Ciudad México:: Filmoteca UNAM;.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Yourcenar, M.. ( 1985;), ‘ Aphrodissia, the widow. ’, in Oriental Tales (trans. A. Manguel), New York:: Farrar Straus Giroux;, pp. 10315.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Tormos Bigles, Edgardo F.. ( 2021;), ‘ Alfredo Joskowicz: Corporeal abjection and counterculture in independent Mexican. ’, Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, 18:3, pp. 35163, https://doi.org/10.1386/slac_00061_1
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/slac_00061_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/slac_00061_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test