Networks of empowerment: Women in the early Ibero-American Film Clubs (1909 to 1959)

This thesis project aims to study the international networks established among women who participated in film clubs in Ibero-America during the first half of the twentieth century. It aims to analyse film club networks, the women mediators involved, and the international role that film clubs played in the emergence of multiple film cultures in Ibero-America, including a women’s film culture. I have chosen three case studies: 1) first documented film clubs in Barcelona (the Club Cinematográfico de Horta 1923, the Barcelona Film Club 1929, and Sessions Mirador 1929-1930), the last two having María Luz Morales as a founder; the first film club documented in Buenos Aires (Cine club de Buenos Aires, 1929-1932), in which Victoria Ocampo was involved; 3) and the first three film clubs documented in Ciudad de México (Cine Club Mexicano 1931-1935, Cine club de Mexico 1934-1938 and 35 mm Cinema 1938) all of them co-founded by Lola Álvarez Bravo.