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K-State Today

October 20, 2015

Professor DePaoli presents at 2015 Literature Film Association conference

Submitted by María-Teresa DePaoli

LFA 2015 Annual Conference

María-Teresa DePaoli, associate professor of modern languages, presented "Adapting the Real and the Ethics of Objectivity in Enrique Rosas' 'The Gray Automobile' Prose-Based Treatment and Film" at the 2015 Literature Film Association annual conference at York College of Pennsylvania, Oct. 15-18. 

"The Gray Automobile," 1919, reached global attention because of its interesting blend of documentary and fiction genres, including footage of an actual firing squad execution. While there is general consensus concerning the use of the term "documentary" during the initial phase of Mexican cinema — and that "The Gray Automobile" follows, in great part, the techniques used in actualities — the ethical implications associated with the nonfiction film elements in Rosas' prose-based treatment, and in the surviving film have not been explored. By exploring the practice of combining national and international approaches to fictional and documentary genres, I emphasize the tensions that exist between objectivity and fiction in Rosas’ work in light of the corruption of state institutions and their political interests invested in the project.