One Hundred Years of US–Mexico Border Film
Abstract
This essay examines the structure, content and evolution of an emerging Border Film Genre derived from an examination of over one hundred years of film concerned with the US–Mexico borderlands and originating from both sides of the border. The task of this particular essay is to demonstrate how film themes change and evolve over time, based on evidence from the film catalogue. The essay examines examples of transition pertaining to: the changing representations of women in film; the difference between Mexican and American filmmakers’ portrayals of undocumented migration; generational shifts in bordertown racisms; and the catastrophic consequences of law enforcement’s loss of the war against drug cartels, including the ‘domestication’ of violence and the decay of communities occupied by cartels.
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