Popular music, resorts, and antagonisms in the Dominican comedy Sanky Panky 1 (2007) Rita De Maeseneer Dominican cinema is generally not well known outside of its country of origin. It is not a major representative of Latin American cinema, within which Glauber Rocha's ideas on the aesthetics of violence (Brazil), García-Espinosa's conceptions of imperfect cinema (Cuba), or Getino and Solanas's writings on third cinema (Argentina) have flourished. In the Dominican Republic, cinema is often seen as a means of entertainment, and its purposes are essentially commercial. As a result, the island's few successful films have often been comedies—for example, Angel Muñiz's Nueba Yol (1995), a movie about Dominican migration to the United States in search of a better life.1 The film that is the subject of my analysis, Sanky Panky 1, clearly belongs to this comedic current. Its filmmaker is José Enrique Pintor (1966), a Galician whose nickname is Pinky Pintor and who has lived in the Dominican Republic since 1997. He works in audiovisual media and has directed music revues, documentaries and several television shows, including a music competition entitled "Que viva el merengue" ("Long Live Merengue"). Among his films are the revenge story, La Cárcel de La Victoria, el cuarto hombre (La Victoria Prison: The Fourth Man; 2004) and a few comedies, such as Sanky Panky 1 (2007), Santi Cló. La vaina de la navidad (Santi Cló: The Christmas Thing; 2008) and Sanky Panky 2 (2013). Sanky Panky 1 tells the story of Genaro, a not particularly handsome Dominican mulatto. He works in a colmado—a combination of a store and a bar—in the slum of El Capotillo in Santo Domingo. The opening scene focuses on Genaro, who is trying with great difficulty to learn English. He is preparing to make his big dream of going to the United States with an old gringa come true. The traits of such women are later defined by his friend Carlitos as "flabby, cellulite, boobs, navel, boobs, white like milk."2 Genaro manages to find work at a family resort due to his friendship with its Italian manager. The fact that he has to dress up as a chicken to entertain the children does not prevent him from trying his luck with the women. Surprisingly, he manages to charm Martha, a young American who, in order to forget her boyfriend, is spending a week in the Dominican Republic in the company of her two aunts, Helen and Dorothy. To win Martha over, Genaro enlists the help of his two friends, Chelo and Carlitos, who meanwhile have turned the colmado into an open nightclub, despite Genaro having banned music being played during his absence. Chelo and Carlitos entertain the aunts, whose sexual fantasies they [End Page 126] try to satisfy, while Genaro sets about seducing Martha. In the end, Martha's boyfriend arrives, and after some complications Martha leaves, while the two friends accompany the gringas to the United States and Genaro stays with La Morena, a Dominican who has also been making a living in the resort and with whom Genaro has shared his woes. Sanky Panky 1 was a success in the island's cinemas, with attendance figures over 800,000. It was shown in Cuba, Spain, Puerto Rico, and the United States (Boston and New York) among other countries, and it was subtitled in several languages. The YouTube version has been watched more than three million times. However, its success with the public contrasts with its rather negative critical reception. The film's cinematographic value has been questioned, with some calling it cinematographed television or even advertising for the Barceló chain's Bavaro Beach Resort, where much of the film was shot (Vincenot 183; Brathwaite 17; Corniel 140). Critics have even described it as a series of music videos, or classified it as a musical or a failed comedy. In its entirety, the synopsis seems to suggest that Sanky Panky 1 hinges upon a series of very clear dichotomies, whether of a linguistic (English-Spanish), sexual (male-female), racial (white-nonwhite), geopolitical (North-South), identity (national-transnational/global), or socioeconomic (exploiter tourists-exploited Dominicans) nature. Despite the...