Staff Writer Christina Lin reviews the “We Were All To Be Queens” screening series from the “Cine-Memoria”: Past and Present in Latin American Cinemas conference.

This past weekend, Columbia School of the Arts presented “Cine-Memoria”: Past and Present in Latin American Cinemas, a conference exploring two distinct periods in the history of Latin American filmmaking. As part of the program, Associate Professor Elizabeth Ramírez Soto curated a program called “We Were All To Be Queens,” a double program of eight short films and two discussions. The title comes from Gabriela Mistral’s renowned poem “Todas íbamos a ser reinas” (“We Were All To Be Queens”), reflecting the unfulfilled promise of fairy-tale ideals in the journey to womanhood. 

I attended the second screening of “We Were All To Be Queens,” which showcased individual female filmmakers who made early efforts to challenge the dominant masculine narratives of their countries’ revolutionary eras in the 1960s. This screening was a celebration of four feminist films that were considered anomalies of their time, as they tackled subjects that had not been widely explored in Latin American society. The first half of the program featured films created through collaborative efforts among multiple creators.

Directed by María Luisa Bemberg in 1978, Jugetes (Toys) explores the sharp disparities between societal expectations for boys’ and girls’ toys and entertainment. The film juxtaposes scenes in rapid succession of items such as dolls and kitchen sets for girls and action figures and science kits for boys. It critiques how these toys impose early pressures on children to conform to societal roles, arguing that children’s toys are inherently political rather than neutral. I found this to align with many feminist ideas and studies in the past that focused on cultural norms for girls versus boy entertainment, clothing, and expectations. The film further examines storybooks, revealing how girls were often presented with fairy tales, while boys were exposed to science and adventure stories where male figures were the heroes. Due to its theme of early childhood, children’s music and colorful images were interspersed throughout the film, bringing a lively tone to the film despite its serious message.

A Entrevista (The Interview), directed by Helena Solberg in 1966, takes a different perspective compared to Jugetes. While Jugetes focuses on early childhood, A Entrevista is centered around women aged 19 to 27. The film is structured as a series of audio interviews that collectively represent the views of women within this age group while the visuals follow a woman as she goes to the beach and prepares for her wedding. One interviewee argues that women should be well-read and cultured but primarily attentive to their husband’s needs. Another interviewee suggests that a woman’s infidelity is more severe than a man’s, viewing it as a direct insult to a man’s masculinity, given that in many Latin American countries, it’s common for men to have multiple partners. These perspectives reflect the traditional views of many women and men and bring to light the large influence women have on maintaining the societal norm.

On the other hand, other interviews present a different view, stating that sexual intimacy is a natural progression in getting to know someone and developing a relationship and that a woman taking the dominant position is becoming more normalized. This perspective surprised me as an interview that stood out from the rest and showed how revolutionary ideas were affecting both the political and social canons. The progressive audio and traditional visual aspects of the film contradict each other and could suggest that what a woman thinks and does are often at odds with one another due to cultural norms.

Directed in 1973 by Valeria Sarmiento, Un Sueño Como El Colores (A Dream as if in Colours) addresses a challenging topic. The film starts with a dark screen while the voice of a young girl describes a dream in which she takes off her clothes and dances naked, expressing that she felt scared and nervous but that the crowd cheered for her. The narrative then shifts to the story of a woman working in this field, adding the visual of photographs and videos from her performances. She explains that she views her profession as a form of art. Her journey begins with her mother sending her to a nun school, where she later marries, has two children, and eventually divorces her husband, who curses her and hopes she will end up begging on the streets. However, she is self-sufficient and becomes financially independent, while her ex-husband faces financial difficulties. She concludes by expressing pride in her work but hopes that her children will pursue their education until they can achieve a profession of their own choosing. I find her perspective admirable. While other people often put limitations on her due to her profession, she chooses to treat her children the opposite way, allowing them to choose their own path and providing them with the means to do so.

Mi Aporte (My Contribution), directed in 1969 by Sara Gómez, takes place during the revolution in Cuba. Women take a large role in production, but are not able to consistently participate due to domestic responsibilities and single motherhood. The film includes an interview with a man expressing his frustration over the women’s low attendance rates. He blames the women’s laziness and seems to suggest that the women’s responsibilities at home are simply an excuse. I would say that this perspective is very likely produced from lack of personal domestic responsibilities.

The film then shifts focus to a group of young women in higher education discussing the revolution and evolving roles of women. They argue that the traditional family structure is disintegrating, giving way to a more progressive model, and note that patriarchy is not solely perpetuated by men but also by women. The film further transitions to a group of older women in a theater, seemingly reacting to the previous discussions by the younger women, reflecting on their concerns and ideas. One woman brought up an interesting point, stating that one of the young women who expressed progressive ideas about avoiding marriage was only suggesting her own solutions to problems and not taking the other young women’s experiences into account. While many might find this argument overly traditional, I personally felt that she had a good point: sure, deciding not to marry might be a solution to being dependent on other people, but it doesn’t take into consideration a person who might want to marry and have children.

During the post-screening discussion, a question arose about why these films had subtitles (the films were made in Spanish) while other Latin American films did not. Professor Ramírez explained that films with subtitles were specifically chosen for this conference, limiting the subset of Latin American cinema that could be presented. 

As a whole, the film sequence felt like it created a sort of timeline, starting with childhood, moving through young adulthood, then career stages, and concluding with mature adulthood. The final scene of the fourth film, with the group of older women in a theater discussing what they had seen, echoed the fact that the audience was invited to engage in a discussion with the panelists about the films. During the discussion, I asked if this arrangement was intentional.

Professor Ramírez confirmed that this was not planned, but she noted that starting with Jugetes created a connection to the screening’s title, “We Were All To Be Queens,” due to its focus on fairy tales. Ending with Mi Aporte was intended to end on a hopeful note for women and the feminist movement in Latin America. I would agree with this, as the groups of women at the end of the fourth film seemed to be looking to the future as they asked important questions echoing the title of the film, including what their contributions could be to society and how to improve cultural norms for women.

Many of these films have recently been restored and approved for circulation with the support of Cinenova, Harvard Film Archive, Museo del Cine de Buenos Aires, and other institutions. The event was incredibly successful, especially with Professor Ramírez’s wonderful curation. I was left thinking about my own contribution to society and how I could bring discussions of gender stereotypes and expectations to others —for starters, with this article! 

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