TCM Documentary Women Make Film Overlooks Many Latina Directors
Written by Roberto Leal
The past few weeks, I have been faithfully following a fascinating documentary series on Turner classic Movies titled Women Make Film. The multi-episode documentary showcases the films of women directors from around the world. Each episode focuses on a particular aspect of filmmaking such as staging, framing, dialog, encounters, and POV, and how different female filmmakers approach those subjects in their craft and stories.
The TCM docu-series coincides with the channel featuring films of women directors. This past weeks’ feature film was of particular interest to me: María Novaro’s 1991 Danzón.
Novaro’s director’s heart and eye focus on the stories of Mexican women and their personal journeys of self-discovery. Danzón is no exception. Julia, (María Rojo, Esmeralda Comes by Night), is a middle-aged, single mom, working as a telephone operator in Mexico City. Every week, Julia, goes to a dance club and meets her mysterious dance partner, Carmelo, (Daniel Rergis, Danzón).
A DANCEFLOOR DANDY
Carmelo is a courtly caballero dressed in an ice cream white suit and shoes, topped off with a sporty, white panama hat. Carmelo never speaks. He is like a ghostly, white, apparition. Julia and Carmelo dance the danzón, a highly stylized, slow, rhythmic, meditative baile, where the simple box steps are like a repetitive mantra of movement that underscores the subtle sensuality of the dance.
When Carmelo mysteriously disappears, Julia goes to Veracruz in search of her dance partner. In Veracruz, Julia meets Doña Tí (Carmen Salinas, Man of Fire), who runs a hotel populated with colorful misfits, including Suzy (Tito Vasconcelos, ,Al Borde), a drag queen who befriends Julia and helps her search for Carmelo.
Novaro’s film is told totally from the women’s POV. Almost all the dialog is spoken by the women in the film. The men, except for Suzy, are basically furniture, potted plants, chess pieces, incidental decorations in Julia’s search for Carmelo and her journey of self-discovery
Novaro shows Julia’s transformation in Veracruz by dressing her in bright red clothes. Suzy helps with some make-up tips resulting in garish, ruby red lips for Julia. Danzón, as seen through the lens of María Novaro, is a glorious, if subdued celebration of Latina women stories. Julia’s search ends the same way it began with the beautiful, hypnotic steps of the danzón. Kudos to Turner Classic Movies for screening a film by this highly acclaimed Mexican director.
You can find many of María Novaro’s feature films streaming on YouTube.
Danzón
Director: María Novaro
Writers: Beatriz Novaro, María Novaro
Stars: María Rojo, Carmen Salinas, Tito Vasconcelos
But wait…there is a plot twist to this narrative…
For years, Latino Hollywood has been begging, urging, pleading, demanding, screaming at the Anglo-centric powers that be in Hollywood to be more inclusive, representative of the vast, and growing Latinx community that buys a huge portion of movie tickets, either in actual theaters or increasingly in this new reality on streaming platforms. We want the power to produce our stories, our way, and use our talented artists and craftspeople to bring them to a wider audience.
But, for the most part, historically and recently, these cries in the wilderness—estos gritos en el desierto—have fallen on deaf, indifferent and unresponsive ears.
On the one hand, the TCM Women Make Film documentary series and the screening of films directed by women are a laudable, noteworthy effort and should be a part of any film studies course. But up to this point in the series, the glaring omission of Latina directors cannot be overlooked.
Photo: María Novaro’s Facebook page
Several American women directors are highlighted: Kathryn Bigelow, Sofia Coppola, Maya Deren, and Ida Lupino. But the cinematic contributions of American Latina filmmakers like Christina Ibarra, Aurora Guerrero and Cecilia Aldarondo were sadly left on the cutting room floor. (Despite her Latina sounding name, Lupino, was not a chola from East LA. She was born in England.)
SELDOM ESPAÑOL
TCM also routinely screens foreign films in Italian, French and German, but rarely any Spanish-language films. They also celebrate the innovative achievements of the French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, but, again, rarely the influence of Magical Realism or an exploration in the films of Mexico’s Golden Age of Film in the 40’s and 50’s. Turner Classic Movies does film retrospectives on Frank Capra and John Ford, why not a retrospective on the filmography of Luis Valdez?
In 2017, TCM announced Tiffany Vazquez would become the very first Latina host on their channel. Tiffany was given the Saturday morning hosting slot, and by all accounts, was being well-received by TCM loyal viewers, which includes yours truly. But not long afterward, Tiffany disappeared from the roster of hosts. In a subsequent tweet, Tiffany would only say her contract had not been renewed. Now, except for one African American lady, all the hosts on TCM are white. So much for diversity.
TCM’S PROS & CONS
I do not mean to be so harsh on TCM. Since their first broadcast in 1994, TCM has been a virtual Fort Knox of cinema gold for the lovers, and students of film. I am a big fan of Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley, which airs every Saturday night. But the movie channel is emblematic of the obstacles Latino Hollywood encounters in their struggle for greater representation and power in the entertainment industry.
Ideally, in some post-trumpvirus, post-pendejodemic future, Latino Hollywood will organize its vast resources of talent and demographics to create an independent entertainment behemoth entity to rival that of Traditional Hollywood and not have to settle for the crumbs from the master’s plate, but enjoy and share the whole enchilada of their own making. I envision a day when Latino Hollywood, like Julia in Danzón, will embark on a journey of self-discovery, but also one of self-actualization.