I left for Erlian to get my visa on Thursday evening on a Mongolian Railways train.  I shared the berth with three Chinese guys.  Two were in the coal business and offered to give me a ride to the Mongolian Consulate when we reached town. It’s a long trip.  Eleven hours overnight riding, then two hours sitting at the border, and then a delay as public health officials took everyone’s temperature, checking for H1N1.

I was told by the university that everything was all set.  I just had to show up. I had checked several times to be sure. But things started immediately to go awry. The consulate official wanted a visa application with photo. Luckily, I had a couple of photos in my wallet, left over from my trip to the Chinese consulate. Then the bombshell:  I owed 2600 yuan, or roughly $400. I didn’t have it. The official said the invitation letter from the Ministry of Education was for three years. I said, I only wanted one. “Why three?” she asked. “It was a mistake,” I said. What was she...

Blog post written by Patricia Zimmermann, codirector of FLEFF and professor of cinema, photography and media arts at Ithaca College

More on Film Theory in Mexico

As several commentators both on this blog (thanks, Ruby, for reminding us about the importance and urgency of conversations beyond borders )and in private emails have pointed out, the discipline of cinema studies in the US could be enriched and truly internationalized through exchanges and dialogues with scholars in the rest of the world--especially Mexico and Latin America.

To continue the conversation, this blog features Part II of my interview with Dr. Lauro Zavala, where he further explains some of the issues in cinema studies in Mexico.

Meet Dr. Lauro Zavala

Dr. Zavala is on the faculty at Universidad Metropolitana (UAM) at Mexico City,where, since 1984, he has worked  on intertextual semiotics. He is the author of the only textbook on...