''A stimulating collection of essays that will be invaluable to anyone who has ever used film in the classroom
or is thinking of doing so.''
--Susan Deans-Smith, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin
''This excellent volume will certainly stimulate an expanded use of film in the teaching of Latin American history.
A rich and provocative text for student discussion.''
--Lyman L. Johnson, Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
''Based on a True Story will be a valuable resource for teachers responding to their students' enthusiasm for film
as one of a variety of sources and thinking tools to complement their study of Latin American history. This collection
drives home the lesson that students of history are moved to think when the creatures of history appear before
them--as imaginable people from imaginable times and places.''
--Kenneth Mills, Department of History, Princeton University
''Scholarly and intriguing.''
--Midwest Book Review
Scholarly Resources, Inc. Web Site, September, 2000
Combining history with discussions of dramatic cinema such as The Mission and Like Water for Chocolate, Based
on a True Story: Latin American History at the Movies examines how film has portrayed Latin America from the
late fifteenth century to the present.
Professor Donald F. Stevens opens the book with an introduction on the visual presentation of the past in the movies.
The rest of the book consists of essays that explore the best feature films on Latin America from the professional
historian’s perspective.
The depiction of the elusive story of sixteenth-century conquistador Lope de Aguirre is considered in a discussion
of the film Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Nineteenth-century Argentina provides the setting for Maria Luisa Bemberg’s
Camila, a story of romantic passion and patriarchal terror. Another chapter looks at two Cuban films on slavery:
The Other Francisco and The Last Supper.
Historical debates on the family and politics are addressed in Argentine films, especially Bemberg’s Miss Mary,
set in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story, which takes place during the collapse
of the military dictatorship in 1983.
This accessible and enlightening text is ideal for Latin American history courses.
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