Refocus: The Films of Lucrecia Martel - (Refocus: The International Directors) by Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha & Julia Kratje & Paul Merchant

About the Book

Collects critical essays on the influential Argentine director Lucrecia Martel

Book Synopsis

Lucrecia Martel has made only four feature films to date, but has nonetheless become one of the world's most admired directors. Her work is extraordinarily sensitive to the limits of sensory perception, the limits imposed by gender roles, and the limits of empathy and affect across social divisions. This edited collection broadens the critical conversation around Martel's work by integrating analyses of her features with the less frequently studied short films and her other artistic projects. This volume's fresh, holistic approach to Martel's career includes contributions from scholars in Latin America, Europe and the United States, and ends with a new interview with Martel herself.

From the Back Cover

Lucrecia Martel has made only four feature films to date, but has nonetheless become one of the world's most admired directors. Her work is extraordinarily sensitive to the limits of sensory perception, the limits imposed by gender roles, and the limits of empathy and affect across social divisions. This edited collection broadens the critical conversation around Martel's work by integrating analyses of her features with the less frequently studied short films and her other artistic projects. This volume's fresh, holistic approach to Martel's career includes contributions from scholars in Latin America, Europe and the United States, and ends with a new interview with Martel herself. Edited by Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha is an independent film researcher and programmer specialising in Latin American cinema. She is the author of Espaços em conflito. Ensaios sobre a cidade no cinema argentino contemporâneo (2019) and A experiência do cinema de Lucrecia Martel: Resíduos do tempo e sons à beira da piscina (2014. Translation into Spanish: 2020). Julia Kratje is a researcher at Argentina's National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), and teaches at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. She is the author of Al margen del tiempo. Deseos, ritmos y atmósferas en el cine argentino (2019) and editor of El asombro y la audacia. El cine de María Luisa Bemberg (2020), among others. Paul R. Merchant is Senior Lecturer in Latin American Film and Visual Culture at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Remaking Home: Domestic Spaces in Argentine and Chilean Film, 2005-2015 (2022) and the co-editor of Latin American Culture and the Limits of the Human (2020).

Review Quotes

A superb volume, full of new insights and innovative approaches. This is essential reading for anyone interested in Lucrecia Martel's fascinating work.

--Dr Joanna Page, University of Cambridge

Bringing together a select group of critics from Argentina as well as from Anglophone academia, this volume sheds new light on aspects and nuances that have gone unnoticed in the work of Lucrecia Martel, Latin America's defining filmmaker of the last twenty years.

--Jens Andermann, New York University

This book offers a very wide and thorough approach to Martel's cinema and her other visual productions. The introduction and final interview provide very interesting and thorough information to any reader who wants to dive into Martel's films [...] many of the chapters will surely become leading references in the study of her cinema.--Daniel Mourenza, Radboud Universiteit "Mistral"

About the Author

Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha is an independent film researcher and programmer specialising in Latin American cinema. She is the author of Espaços em conflito. Ensaios sobre a cidade no cinema argentino contemporâneo (2019) and A experiência do cinema de Lucrecia Martel: Resíduos do tempo e sons à beira da piscina (2014. Translation into Spanish: 2020).

Julia Kratje is a researcher at Argentina's National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), and teaches at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. She is the author of Al margen del tiempo. Deseos, ritmos y atmósferas en el cine argentino (2019) and editor of El asombro y la audacia. El cine de María Luisa Bemberg (2020), among others.

Paul R. Merchant is Senior Lecturer in Latin American Film and Visual Culture at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Remaking Home: Domestic Spaces in Argentine and Chilean Film, 2005-2015 (2022) and the co-editor of Latin American Culture and the Limits of the Human (2020).