Pilgrimages and Rite-of-Passage Trips in Four Iberoamerican Films

Abstract

The paper deals with pilgrimages and movies. The topic of pilgrimage is an issue for very diverse disciplines and scientific approaches. Among other, anthropologists and geographers can positively make joint studies on the film representation of pilgrim and pilgrimages, which are sound expression of popular culture and its connections with space and place geographical concepts. Iberoamerican movies are a fertile field of investigation, allowing interpretation of identity, power subjugation, poverty, rebellion as well as acceptance of human pains through religion and religious festivals. After a theoretical framework, and literature brief review, the paper critically deals mainly with four Iberoamerican movies: the episode El Tuerto of the movie Roots by Benito Alazraki (1954), Talpa by Alfredo B. Crevenna (1956), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada by Tommy Lee Jones (2005), and Bajo California: El limite del tiempo by Carlos Bolado Munoz (1998). ReferencesAcevedo-Munoz, E. R. (2003). Bunuel and Mexico: the crisis of national cinema. Berkeley, LA, London, University of California Press. Alazraki, B. (1954). Roots, film, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047395/?ref_=nm_knf_i1, accessed 13 September, 2019. Anderson, J. (1998). The reality of illusion: An ecological approach to cognitive film theory. Carbondale and Edwardville, SIU Press. Badone, E., Roseman, S. R. (Eds.) (2004). Intersecting journeys: the anthropology of pilgrimage and tourism. Champaign, IL, University of Illinois Press. Barrientos, J. (2000). Versiones. Mexico City, Conaculta. Briley, R. (1996). Sergei Eisenstein: The Artist in service of the revolution. The History Teacher, 29(4), 525-536. Bunuel L. (1969). The Milky Way, film, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066534/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1, accessed September 13, 2019. Cohan, S., Hark, I. R. (Eds.) (1997). The road movie book. London, New York, Routledge. Collins-Kreiner, N. (2010). The geography of pilgrimage and tourism. Transformations and implications. Applied Geography 30(1), 153-164. Crevenna, A. B. (1956). Talpa, film, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242928/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_127, accessed 13 September, 2019. Cunqueiro, A. (1959). Las cronicas del sochantre. Barcelona, Editorial A.H.R. Deren, M. (1960). Cinematography: the creative use of reality. Daedalus, 89(1), 150-167. Dixon, D. (2016). Film. In P.C. Adams, J. Craine, (Eds), (2016). The Routledge Research Companion to Media Geography. London, New York, Routledge, 39-52. Dixon, D., Grimes, J. (2004). Capitalism, masculinity and whiteness in the dialectical landscape: The case of Tarzan and the Tycoon. GeoJournal, 59(4), 265-275. Durgnat, R. (1977). Luis Bunuel. Berkeley, LA, University of California Press. Fernandez, J., (1974). The Mission of Metaphor in Expressive Culture. Current Anthropology, 15(2), 119-133. Ginsburg, F. D., Abu-Lughod, L., Larkin, B. (Eds.) (2002). Media worlds: Anthropology on new terrain. Berkeley. LA, University of California Press. Gray, G. (2010). Cinema: a visual anthropology. Oxford, UK, New York, Berg. Hood, R. W. (2005). Mystical, spiritual, and religious experiences. In R. F. Paloutzian, C. L. Park (Eds) Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality, London. New York, The Guilford Press, 348- 364. Howard, D. R. (1980). Writers and pilgrims: medieval pilgrimage narratives and their posterity. Berkely. LA, University of California Press. Jablonska A. (2007). Identidades en redefinicion: los procesos interculturales en el cine mexicano contemporaneo. Estudios sobre las culturas contemporaneas, (26), 47-76. Kearney, R. (Ed.) (1996). Paul Ricoeur: The hermeneutics of action. London, Sage. Lee Jones, T. (2005). The Tree Burials of Mequiades estrada, film, https://www.imdb.com/title/ tt0419294/, accessed 13 September 2019. Lison Tolosana, C. (1992). Individuo, estructura y creatividad. Etopeyas desde la antropologia cultural. Madrid, Akal Universitaria. Lois-Gonzalez, R. C., Santos, X. M. (2015). Tourists and pilgrims on their way to Santiago. Motives, Caminos and final destinations. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 13(2), 149-164.197