Austin Film Society Screenings - 3 Mexicanas en Hollywood: Dolores del Rio, Lupe Velez & Katy Jurado

Austin Film Society Screenings

Jan 8 - Feb 12, 2008
Tuesdays @ 7:00 pm Alamo Ritz (320 E. 6th St)
Tickets available on Austin Film Society website
www.AustinFilm.org
Admission free to AFS members
Admission $4 for all others
Remaining tickets available at Alamo on night of screening

Similar in theme to the Austin Film Society Essential Cinema series “Three Actresses in Europe” (spring 2006), this new series will look at examples of films featuring Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez, and Katy Jurado, three Mexican actresses who worked successfully in the film industries of Mexico and Hollywood. In fact, del Río and Vélez actually started their careers in the US during the silent era. The former returned to her homeland in the 1940s and created a memorable mid-life career in very different films than those of her youth in Hollywood. Vélez, on the other hand, made only two films in Mexico - the last one right before her lovesick suicide. Katy Jurado succeeded in moving back and forth between the US and Mexico in a film career that spanned nearly six decades, starting in 1943.

Besides being quite talented performers, each woman embodied particular characteristics, at least early in their film appearances: Dolores del Río as a beautiful, aristocratic “lady,” Lupe Vélez as a hyperactive bundle of energy and joie de vivre, and Katy Jurado as an earthy, sexual woman straight out of a Diego Rivera mural. They were always fascinating to watch and contemplate even when Hollywood tried to push them into stereotypical “Latin” roles.

Comparing their Mexican and American roles should provoke some interesting thoughts about ethnic and gender role stereotypes and how these three women shattered them.
– Chale Nafus, Director of Programming, Austin Film Society