Of Stars and Solitude: Two Mexican Documentaries

Authors

Paul Julian Smith, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Document Type

Review (of Book, Film, Etc.)

Publication Date

9-2017

Abstract

By happy coincidence, Mexico in 2016 yielded two expert and moving documentaries on women, sex, and aging: María José Cuevas’s Bellas de noche (Beauties of the Night) and Maya Goded’s Plaza de la Soledad (Solitude Square). Both are first-time features by female directors. And both are attempts to reclaim previously neglected subjects: showgirls of the 1970s and sex workers in their seventies, respectively. Moreover, lengthy production processes in which the filmmakers cohabitated with their subjects have resulted in films that are clearly love letters to their protagonists.

Comments

This work was originally published in Film Quarterly, available at doi:10.1525/fq.2017.71.1.73.