Abstract
The final chapter turns again to journey narratives—but here to those narratives in which child characters traverse national borders, in particular an unusual Mexican film released in 2009, Pedro González Rubio’s Alamar. Many of the ways of understanding the child journey narrative which Chapter 3 revealed in relation to Central do Brasil and Viva Cuba can also be applied to Alamar and condition my reading of it. However, I am also particularly interested in my discussion of Alamar in placing it within a Mexican and Central American context of films about border-crossing children, as well as in arguing that in Alamar, we can understand the child as a figure for a form of mobile, oscillating spectatorship which is not evident in films such as Central do Brasil and Viva Cuba, concerned as they are with a linear trajectory. Lastly, I argue that the child in Alamar is used to validate the cinematic image, to assure us of its veracity, in a film which exists in a complex relationship to fiction and documentary.
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Filmography
A la media noche y media. 1999. Dirs. Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugas. Peru, Venezuela, Mexico: CNAC, Futuro Films.
Al otro lado. 2004. Dir. Gustavo Loza. Mexico: Adicta Films, IMCINE, Matatena Films.
Año uña. 2007. Dir Jonás Cuarón. Mexico: Esperanto Filmoj.
Bicycle Thieves. 1948. Dir. Vittorio De Sica. Italy: Produzioni De Sica.
Drama/Mex. 2006. Dir Gerardo Naranjo. Mexico: Canana, IMCINE.
El camino. 2008. Dir. Ishtar Yasín. Costa Rica: Producciones Astarte, DART/Cinequanon.
El chico que miente. 2010. Dir. Marité Ugas. Venezuela: Sudaca Films.
Ivan’s Childhood. 1962. Dir Andrei Tarkovsky. Soviet Union: Mosfilm.
Lake Tahoe. 2008. Dir Fernando Eimbke. Mexico, Japan, USA: Cine Pantera, Fidecine, IMCINE.
La misma luna. 2007. Dir. Patricia Riggen. Mexico, USA: Creando Films, Fidecine, Potomac Pictures.
Lecciones para Zafirah. 2011. Dirs. Carolina Rivas and Daoud Sarhandi. Mexico: Creadores Contemporáneos, Entera Post, Cuarto Armónico.
Los que se quedan. 2008. Dirs. Carlos Hagerman and Juan Carlos Rulfo. Mexico: Sombra del Guayabo.
Los rubios. 2003. Dir. Albertina Carri. Argentina, USA; INCAA; Fondo Nacional de las Artes; Universidad del Cine.
Mutum. 2007. Dir. Sandra Kogut. Brazil, France. Ravina Films, Gloria Films.
Niñas mal. 2007. Dir. Fernando Sariñana. Mexico: Columbia Pictures Producciones Mexico.
No se aceptan devoluciones. 2013. Dir. Eugenio Derbez. Mexico: Alebrije Cine y Video, Fulano, Mengano y Asociados.
¿Quién diablos es Juliette? 1997. Dir. Carlos Marcovich. Mexico: Alameda Films Betaimagen Digital.
Sin nombre. 2009. Cary Fukunaga. Mexico, USA. Scion Films, Canana, Creando Films.
Soba. 2004. Dir. Alan Coton. Mexico, La Chancla Producciones.
Trade. 2007. Dir. Marco Kreutzpaintner. Germany, USA: Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, Centropolis.
Un día menos. 2009. Dir. Daniela Ludlow. Mexico: Chamaca Films.
Which Way Home? 2009. Dir. Rebecca Cammisa. USA: Documentress Films, Mr Mudd, Reason Pictures.
Wings of Desire. 1987. Dir. Wim Wenders. West Germany, France: Road Movies Filmproduktion, Argos Films, WDR.
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Martin, D. (2019). Transnational Mobility , Authenticity and the Child: Alamar. In: The Child in Contemporary Latin American Cinema. Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52822-3_7
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