Collection consists of posters, lobby cards, and film stills from the Mexican Golden Age of Cinema.

The seeds of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema were sown with the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920. Hollywood producers filmed many revolutionary events, and Pancho Villa signed a contract with the U.S. studio Mutual Film Corporation in 1914 to allow cameras to follow him into battles. The film-centered exchange continued outside of the Mexican Revolution, as the sharing of cinematic talent and technology became an essential element of U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy. The effort to strengthen the Allied effort against the rise of fascism included the strengthening of the United States' bonds with the Mexican film industry. With the time leading up to World War II in the 1930s, the film industry in the United States and Europe halted to use materials for the arms industry. Many countries also began to focus on making films about war, leaving an opportunity for Mexico to produce commercial films for the Mexican and Latin American markets. This cultural environment led to the emergence of a new generation of directors and actors, with the first classic of Mexican cinema being Fernando de Fuentes' film Allá en el Rancho Grande (1936).

114 Linear Feet 93 boxes and 7 map case drawers

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