Traces contemporary literary analyses of Latin American melodrama and the romance, looking especially at the work of Peter Brooks and Janice Radway. Suggests that the film "Lejania" produces a spectatorship of shifting positionalities, which mitigate against a passive spectatorship that would serve as a reactionary force. (RS)

Presents an interview with Maria Luisa Bemberg, an important female Argentinean filmmaker and one of the most prolific Latin American directors of the 1990s. Focuses on two of her period films, "Camila" and "I, the Worst Woman of All." (RS)

Presents an interview (edited into a first-person form) with Margot Benacerraf, known for two prize-winning films in the 1950s but not as well known for her active promotion of film culture in Venezuela. Discusses her education in Venezuela, travels outside Venezuela, production of her prize-winning films, and her efforts at promoting the…

Discusses two films ("Dos veces mujer" and "Intima raiz") of Patricia Howell. Demonstrates how thoroughly the feminist themes Howell's films weave together around motherhood are inflected by the specific Latin American and Costa Rican contexts in which she works. (RS)

Offers an annotated chronology of Venezuelan films, representing a first step toward a general history of women's filmmaking in Venezuela. Suggests that the participation of women directors closely follows the curve of national film production in general. (RS)