Join Assistant Professor José Chávarry for a talk and discussion about film, war and the representation of indigeneity in Paramount’s 1954 Secret of the Incas, the first Hollywood picture made in Peru and the inspiration for the Indiana Jones franchise. By tracing the history of the film’sproduction and the collaboration between the company and Peruvian politicians and artists, and through a close reading of its WWII and Cold War cinematic languages (airplanes! bureaucracy! romance!), we will explore how Peru’s Incan legacy and Andean culture was made into an object of tourist desire and expression of modernity – and backwardness – during the geopolitical context of the mid-20^th century. All are welcome!

Free and open to all. Lunch will be provided.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library and the Honors College.