Faculty Research Presentation: Cross-Border Hollywood: Production Politics and Practices in Mexico

CLLAS Research Series Faculty Research Presentation

Crater Lake Rooms, EMU

After World War II, Hollywood had a close and complex relationship to the Mexican film industry through investment, production, and talent exchange. Steinhart’s book project Cross-Border Hollywood: Production Politics and Practices in Mexico examines the fascinating history of Hollywood productions in Mexico from the mid-1940s until 1970. In this presentation, he explores a series of crises in the mid 1950s sparked by the U.S. government’s arrest and deportation of Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas, the Mexican Actors Union’s retaliatory attempt to ban Hollywood actors working in Mexico, and the Mexican film industry’s ongoing strategies to censor certain Hollywood productions filming in Mexico. This chain of events sheds light on a dynamic of collaboration and resistance that defined the relationship between Hollywood and the Mexican film industry.

Daniel Gómez Steinhart is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies. He is author of Runaway Hollywood: Internationalizing Postwar Production and Location Shooting (University of California Press, 2019). His follow-up research project examines Hollywood’s cross-border productions in Mexico from the 1940s–1960s. The project is the recipient of an NEH Senior Research Fellowship from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. His work on film and media has appeared in Cinema Journal, Film History, Film Criticism, NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies, InMedia: The French Journal of Media Studies, and various edited collections. He is a former film journalist and moving-image programmer.

Tags: Cinema Studies, Daniel Gómez Steinhart, faculty, Faculty Research