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Dr. Rex Nielson, professor of Portuguese with an interest in Luso-Brazilian studies, elaborates on the “Upstairs-Downstairs” narrative in The Second Mother (2015) by zooming in starting with the migrations from Northeastern Brazil to the southeast, then the layout and position of the city, and finally the foundations of colonial-era homes. By drawing out what Brazilian audiences would recognize in accents, architecture, and articulation, Dr. Nielson presents a framework by which to read this film’s political critique.

Dr. Doug Weatherford, current co-director of the International Cinema and professor of Spanish language literature and film, gives a deep dive into the visual themes of The Milk of Sorrow (2009). Dr. Weatherford offers up not only a historical context for this Peruvian film but explanations for how the film’s setting and visual language build on that context to present a narrative he ultimately finds hopeful.

Dr. Daryl Lee, Chair of the Department of French and Italian and crime film connoisseur, speaks about why we love watching crime films and what they can teach us. Dr. Lee emphasizes that a crime film, while explicitly about breaking the law, is often implicitly about something very different such as artistic expression, capitalism, or voyeurism, and he encourages us to look for these underlying messages in this week’s films.

Professor of Law at J. Reuben Clark Law School, Michalyn Steele speaks about different theories driving the criminal justice system. Should we focus on punishment or rehabilitation? And how does state and federal funding fit? These are the kinds of questions that the film 16 Bars (2018) is directly interrogating by following a program where inmates participate in musical rehabilitation while serving time. Steele sees this film as extremely helpful for reorienting our view to see criminals as humans.