BETTY Y PANCHO

57 minutes

Director: Juan Mora Catlett
Country: Mexico

Year: 1998
Language: Alternates English and Spanish (subtitles opposite language)

Overview:

A portrait of the 50 year marriage of Elizabeth Catlett, the renowned African American sculptor, and the Mexican painter, Francisco Mora. Now in their eighties, the couple shares a studio in Cuernavaca, and they exhibit their work in New York, Mexico City, London, Berlin, and also in the Museum of Art at North Carolina Central University.

Previewing Activities

• What do you know about painting or sculpting?
• What kinds of activities allow you to express yourself?
• Think about someone you know who is from a different culture than you. How is your interaction with them influenced by this difference?

Post-Viewing Activities

• Where did Betty live growing up? What about Pancho?
• How did Betty and Pancho meet? Did the language barrier inhibit their relationship?
• Besides painting, what kinds of art has Pancho done?
• How many children do Betty and Pancho have? What types of art do they enjoy?

Class Projects

• Make a collage of artwork by Elizabeth Catlett and Francisco Mora.
• Research the most famous works of art by each of these two artists.

How to Borrow this Video:

The videos owned by the UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies are housed in the Outreach Office of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  They are lent free of charge.  For information on films and reservations, please visit http://isa.unc.edu/film/films_main.asp.

Suggested Readings

· Bearden, Romare Harry Henderson. A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present. Pantheon, 1993.

· Herzog, Melanie Anne. Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico. University of Washington Press, 2005.