March 22nd, 2017: 6pm - Tucson Museum of Art Lobby
The showgirls – the bellas de noche – of Mexico City in the 1970s and 80s were political and cultural icons. What propelled them beyond their cabaret stages to stratospheric levels of national fame? Mexico City-based director, writer and cinematographer Maria José Cuevas spent ten years examining the rich photographic archive of these showgirls, five of whom are the subject of her award-winning debut documentary Bellas de Noche/Beauties of the Night, making its Arizona premiere at Tucson Cine Mexico on March 24th.
In this talk, featuring sensational magazine spreads and film excerpts from the archive, Cuevas will discuss the powerful emergence of the showgirls in an era of economic crisis and the growing wave of women’s liberation, the history of this erotic art form, and what has become of it today. In conversation with Laura Gutiérrez, Associate Professor, Latin American Performance Studies, University of Texas at Austin.
When: March 22nd, 2017 at 6:00pm