Mexican screen fiction - Paul Julian Smith

Mexican cinema is booming today, a decade after the internationalsuccesses of Amores perros and Y tu mam tambin. Mexicanfilms now display a wider range than any comparable country, fromart films to popular genre movies, and boasting internationallyrenowned directors like Alfonso Cuarn, AlejandroGonzlez Irritu, and Guillermo del Toro. At thesame time, television has broadened its output, moving beyondtelenovelas to produce higher-value series and mini-series. MexicanTV now stakes a claim to being the most dynamic and pervasivenational narrative.

This new book by Paul Julian Smith is the first to examine theflourishing of audiovisual fiction in Mexico since 2000,considering cinema and TV together. It covers much materialpreviously unexplored and engages with emerging themes, includingviolence, youth culture, and film festivals. The book includesreviews of ten films released between 2001 and 2012 by directorswho are both established (Maryse Sistach, Carlos Reygadas) and new(Jorge Michel Grau, Michael Rowe, Paula Markovitch). There is alsoan appendix that includes interviews carried out by the author in2012 with five audiovisual professionals: a feature director, afestival director, an exhibitor, a producer, and a TVscreenwriter.

Mexican Screen Fiction will be an invaluable resource forstudents and scholars and essential reading for anyone interestedin one of the most vibrant audiovisual industries in the worldtoday.