DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES and the LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES PROGRAM in collaboration with the HOFSTRA CULTURAL CENTER present
Rethinking Race, Gender, and Urban Planning in Cinematic Imaginaries: The Case of West Side Story by ALBERZO BERZOSA This lecture will address the process of rethinking sociocultural imaginaries in dialogue with some tenets of American mythology embedded in Hollywood cinema, focusing on Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story (2021). In this film, the director recomposes and re-equalizes the classic 1961 film, enhancing the presence of racialized agents, opening up spaces for non-normative gender identities, and adding contemporary themes about the processes of economic and urban development in New York City, such as the gentrification of the West Side. Alberto Berzosa is a professor of Art History and Theory Art at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid and works at the intersection of the history of art, Spanish cinema, political archives, and curatorship. He is the author of Materiales para una utopía ecologista. Cartografía de archivos del movimiento ecologista en España (2023), and Cine y sexopolítica (2020). He is also the codirector of the documentary film Memorias de ultramar (2021) and has curated several exhibitions for La Casa Encendida (Madrid), the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, and the Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern in Spain.
Monday, May 5, 2025 2:40-4 p.m. and 4:20-5:45 p.m. Room 212, Roosevelt Hall With the support of the research project “Institutional Documentary & Amateur Cinema in the Colonial Era: Analysis and Uses” financed by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation/State Research Agency of the Spanish Government and the European Regional Development Fund. Admission is FREE and open to the public. To RSVP, visit events.hofstra.edu. For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669 or visit hofstra.edu/culture.