Though cinema arrived in Spain and Portugal at the end of the nineteenth century, national and industrial problems as well as the dictatorships of Salazar and Caetano (in Portugal) and Franco (in Spain) meant Iberian cinemas were isolated from European cultural trends. Strict censorship in both countries limited the themes and artistic practices adopted, while a specific cinematographic language, in many cases full of metaphors and symbolism, sought alternatives to the imposed official discourse and preconceived definitions of supposed national identities. By contrast, the arrival of democracy from the 1970s onwards widened not just the panorama of film production and criticism, but also opened the film industry to women's participation in areas historically assigned to men. Focusing on Portuguese and Spanish cinema, this collection brings together research about women and their status in relation to Iberian filmic culture. The volume contributes to ongoing debates about the position of women in the cinemas of Portugal and Spain from interdisciplinary and feminist perspectives as well as new accounts of film history. It also aims to promote comparisons between Iberian cinemas and visual culture, a topic that is almost unexplored in academia, despite the similar histories of the two countries, particularly throughout the twentieth century.

Women's Cinema in Contemporary Portugal brings together scholars from Portugal, UK and the USA, to discuss 14 women film directors in Portugal, focussing on their production in both feature film and documentary genres over the last half-century. It charts the specific cinematic visions that these women have brought to the re-emergence of Portuguese national cinema in the wake of the 1974 Revolution and African decolonisation, and to the growing internationalisation of Portugal's arguably 'minor' or 'small nation' cinema, with significant young women directors such as Leonor Teles achieving prominence abroad. The history of Portuguese women's cinema only begins systematically after the 1974 revolution and democratisation. This collection shows how female auteurs made their mark on Portugal's post-revolutionary conceptualisation of a differently 'national' cinema, through the ethnographic output of the late 1970s. It goes on to explore women's decisively gendered interventions in the cinematic memory practices that opened up around the masculine domain of the Colonial Wars in Africa. Feminist political issues such as Portugal's 30-year abortion campaign and LGBT status have become more visible since the 1990s, alongside preoccupations with global concerns relating to immigration, transit and minority status communities. The book also demonstrates how women have contributed to the evolution of soundscapes, the genre of essay cinema, film's relationship to the archive, and the adaptation of the written word. The result is a powerful, provocative and definitive challenge to the marginalisation of Portuguese female-directed film in terms of 'double minority'.

Though cinema arrived in Spain and Portugal at the end of the nineteenth century, national and industrial problems as well as the dictatorships of Salazar and Caetano (in Portugal) and Franco (in Spain) meant Iberian cinemas were isolated from European cultural trends. The strict censorship in both countries limited the themes and artistic practices adopted. A specific cinematographic language, in many cases full of metaphors and symbolism, sought alternatives to the imposed official discourse and preconceived definitions of supposed national identities. By contrast, from the 1970s onwards, Spain and Portugal experienced a great change in their societies: the arrival of democracy widened not just the panorama of film production and criticism, but also opened the film industry to women participation in areas historically assigned to men. Focusing on Portuguese and Spanish cinema, this collection brings together research about women and their status in relation to Iberian visual culture. The volume contributes to ongoing debates about the position of women in the cinemas of Portugal and Spain through a revision of feminist theory as well as new accounts of film history. It also aims to promote comparisons between Iberian cinemas and visual culture from different regions, a topic that is almost unexplored in academia, despite the similar histories of the two Iberian countries, particularly throughout the twentieth century.

This volume examines the films of Hispanic and Lusophone women filmmakers from the 1930s to the present day. It establishes productive connections between film practices across these geographical areas by identifying common areas of concern on the part of these female filmmakers. Focusing on aesthetic, theoretical and socio-historical analyses, it questions the manifest or latent gender and sexual politics that inform and structure the emerging cinematic productions by women filmmakers in Portugal, Spain, Latin America and the US. With a combination of scholars from the UK, the US, Spain and Latin America, the volume documents and interprets a fascinating corpus of films made by Hispanic and Lusophone women and proposes research strategies and methodologies that can expand our understanding of socio-cultural and psychic constructions of gender and sexual politics. An essential resource to rethink notions of gender identity and subjectivity, it is a unique contribution to Spanish and Latin American Film Studies and Film Studies.

Gender-Based Violence in Latin American and Iberian Cinemas rethinks the intersection between violence and its gendered representation. This is a groundbreaking contribution to the international debate on the cinematic construction of gender-based violence. With essays from diverse cultural backgrounds and institutions, this collection analyzes a wide range of films across Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. The volume makes use of varied perspectives including feminist, postcolonial, and queer theory to consider such issues as the visual configuration of power and inequality, the objectification and the invisibilization of women’s and LGBTQ subjects’ resistance, the role of female film-makers in transforming hegemonic accounts of violence, and the subversion of common tropes of gendered violence. This will be of significance for students and scholars in Latin American and Iberian studies, as well as in film studies, cultural studies, and gender and queer studies.

In this volume, we are particularly interested in approaching theatre and performance as a dynamic and evolving practice of continuous change, regeneration and cultural mobility. Neither the dramatic texts nor their stage versions should be viewed as finished products but as creative processes in the making. Their richness lies in their unfinished and never-ending potential energy and their openness to constant revision, rehearsal, revival, and collective enterprise. This edited collection aims to create a dialogue on the artistic processes implicated in the various ways of working with the play text, the staging practices, the way audiences and critical reception can impact a production, and the many lives of Iberian theatre beyond the page or the stage. That is, its cultural and social legacies.

Under the Franco regime (1939-1976), films produced in Spain were of poor quality, promoted the regime’s agenda, or were heavily censored. After the dictator’s death, the Spanish film industry transitioned into a new era, one in which artists were able to more freely express themselves and tackle subjects that had been previously stifled. Today, films produced in Spain are among the most highly regarded in world cinema. The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Films features nearly 300 entries on the written by a host of international scholars and film critics. Beginning with movies released after Franco’s death, this volume documents four decades of films, directors, actresses and actors of Spanish cinema. Offering a comprehensive survey of films, the entries address such topics as art, culture, society and politics. Each includes comprehensive production details and provides brief suggestions for further reading. Through its examination of the films of the post-Franco period, this volume offers readers valuable insights into Spanish history, politics, and culture. An indispensable guide to one of the great world cinemas, The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Films will be of interest to students, academics, and the general public alike.

Pop culture portrayals of medieval and early modern monarchs are rife with tension between authenticity and modern mores, producing anachronisms such as a feminist Queen Isabel (in RTVE’s Isabel) and a lesbian Queen Christina (in The Girl King). This book examines these anachronisms as a dialogue between premodern and postmodern ideas about gender and sexuality, raising questions of intertemporality, the interpretation of history, and the dangers of presentism. Covering a range of famous and lesser-known European monarchs on screen, from Elizabeth I to Muhammad XII of Granada, this book addresses how the lives of powerful women and men have been mythologized in order to appeal to today’s audiences. The contributors interrogate exactly what is at stake in these portrayals; namely, our understanding of premodern rulers, the gender and sexual ideologies they navigated, and those that we navigate today.

Contemporary Spanish Cinema offers an essential analysis of the main trends and issues in Spanish film since the death of Franco in 1975. While taking account of cinema during the Franco dictatorship, the book focuses principally on developments in the last two decades. Acknowledging the sheer breadth and diversity of Spanish film production since the ending of the regime and the transition to democracy, this study includes chapters on Spanish film’s obsessive concern with the past on popular genre film (including the comedy and the thriller), on representations of gender and sexuality and the work of women film professionals, both behind and in front of the camera, as well as on film produced in Spain’s autonomous communities, particularly in Catalonia and the Basque Country. This book offers a unique and up-to-date focus on a wide range of materials, including work on such established directors as Carlos Saura, Víctor Erice, Pedro Almodóvar, Pilar Miró, Bigas Lina and Josefina Molina as well as exciting new talents such as Julio Medem, Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Alex de la Iglesia, Icíar Bollan, Isabel Coixet and Marta Balletbò-Coll.