Introduction: Women filmmakers in Argentina: Reworking cinematic practices

In the introduction to the volume, Mirna Vohnsen and Daniel Mourenza argue that contemporary Argentine women filmmakers have reworked cinematic practices by innovating the aesthetics of films, exploring new themes, expanding the boundaries of film genres and focusing on women's experiences and voices. As they explain, the volume aims to create a gendered textual space to discuss films by women directors and to shed light on the ways Argentine women filmmakers have redressed the under-representation of females onscreen and the perpetuation of stereotypes. The authors discuss the concept of "women's cinema" and contend that the work of women filmmakers should be considered as departing from their own embodied experiences as women, while conceding them the aesthetic freedom granted to men. Finally, the introduction offers a survey of the presence of women in the Argentine film industry, beginning with the female pioneers from the silent era, continuing with María Luisa Bemberg and Lucrecia Martel, and ending with the surge of women filmmakers in recent years.