Argentine Early Sound Film (1933–1935)

FAIN: FT-259602-18

Kathleen Elizabeth Newman
University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)

Research and writing leading to publication of a book about Argentinian film (1910-1935).

"Argentine Early Sound Film (1933-1935)" is part of the book project, Transnational Modernity: Argentine Cinema and Society, 1910-1935, a study of the relation between silent and early sound film, early feminist movements, and democratization in Argentina. The book examines the competitive roles of (a) Argentine fiction feature films and newsreels and (b) imported, international cinema, mainly from the United States, in shaping a new political imaginary in Argentina in the early twentieth century, first, from the centenary of national independence in 1910 through 1930, the year of the nation's first military coup of the twentieth century, and, second, the dictatorship (1930-1932) and its aftermath (1932-1935). The central research question of this historical and theoretical book project concerns the role of cinema in social transformations of modernity in Argentina, which included a transformation of gender roles and a redefinition of citizenship.