UCLA Center for the Study of Women

U.S.-based Latinas have generally been included in film history through an analysis of their on-screen representations and contributions as directors of short, experimental, and documentary films. Unfortunately, as far as the filmmakers are concerned, the shorter formats I mention fail to receive the level of popular, critical, and scholarly recognition that feature films receive. Particularly since the 1990s, the number of Latinas working on features has increased significantly. To put this in perspective, Martha M. Lauzen’s, “The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women in the Top 250 Films of 2007,” found women represented only 6% of directors that year.1 Although there are no statistics available with regard to what percentage of these women were Latinas, they account for only a fraction of that 6%. It is also important to note that even Latina directors who do gain access to the means of production still have only limited opportunities within the industry.2 The small number of Latina-made feature films available for analysis reflects Latinas’ marginalization within the industry, which has been reproduced in the writing of film history.