Film Adaption and Transnational Cultures of Production: The Case of Guillermo Arriaga

Authors

  • Daniel Chavez University of New Hampshire

Keywords:

Mexican Film, Transnational Cinema, Cultural Capital, Film Adaptations, Cultural Studies, Neoliberalism, Guillermo Arriaga

Abstract

The circulation of Latin American cinema in a transnational context has widened the options that actors and directors from the region have regarding their involvement in the different aspects of film production. In order to analyze Guillermo Arriaga’s transnational career as a writer of novels and screenplays I contrast his work with that of other writers and filmmakers who have participated in both the cinematic and literary fields. The fact that Arriaga has crossed the lines between writing, adapting, and directing his own works in Spanish and English leads me to review the current relations of film and literature in general. Finally, by comparing Arriaga’s novels and films, I propose that the contemporary practice of film adaptation contributes to the “flexibilization” in the roles writers, actors, and directors play in filmmaking and in the circulation of cultural capital between film and literature in the current media markets.  

Author Biography

Daniel Chavez, University of New Hampshire

Daniel Chavez is an Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Literatures and Visual Cultures at the University of New Hampshire. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Romance Languages and Film Studies. His book Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia will be released in 2015 through Vanderbilt University Press. He has published in the fields of television, contemporary poetry, comics, film and cultural studies. He is currently working on other volumes on new media representations of Latin American and Mexican history.

Published

2016-05-09

How to Cite

Chavez, D. (2016). Film Adaption and Transnational Cultures of Production: The Case of Guillermo Arriaga. A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 13(3), 129–158. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/1468

Issue

Section

Articles / Artículos