Pantelion’s ‘Transborderscapes’. Borders, Gender and Genre in No se aceptan devoluciones and Pulling Strings

Abstract

This essay concentrates on two bilingual immigration films, both of which conclude in a happy ending on the southern side of the border: No se aceptan devoluciones / Instructions not Included (Eugenio Derbez, 2013) and Pulling Strings / Amor a Primer Visa (Pitipol Ybarra, 2013) by the transborder media network Pantelion Films. In the context of cultural and economic politics of Latinx media within media, I examine the production and distribution company Pantelion Films as a ‘borderscaping’ agent, which envisions melodramatic and comic solutions for common problems faced by Latino migrants and their children. Here, I discuss how Pantelion’s highly intertextual films aim to reach an international audience through the construction and deconstruction of cinematic clichés and mental and physical boundaries. In my analysis, I assess their transbordering aesthetics and narratives and define the concept of cinematic ‘transborderscapes’. Corresponding with ‘borderscapes’ – which are more concerned with the restrictions in people’s mind than with the ones on the ground –, ‘transborderscapes’ are constantly established and re-established through narratives, images and imaginations, but also focus on the crossing of geographical and linguistic boundaries and thus convey double, multifaceted perspectives, world views and memories from both sides of the border.

Keywords

• borderscapes
• transborder media companies
• pantelion films
• latinx stereotypes
• bilingualism