Watch the Film, Follow the Food. Food-Themed Films and Tourism: Mexico as a potential culinary destination for the U.S.A. audience
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2023-08-31
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Since the 1980s, food has been part of the film's narrative. Food offers more than flavors and aromas, as the eye plays an important role in taste. Films display images showing what, how, where, and with whom to eat. The images potentially create a relationship between a food culture projected in a film and the tourist destination decision. In this case, the films selected represent Mexico as a potential culinary destination for the U.S.A. audience through food presentations, interaction with the story's characters, and the movie's location. This thesis analyzes Mexican food in films to comprehend the traits the audience sees through its connotations so that later they could become potential tourists and seek to experience by visiting Mexico. Through the visual discourse analysis and autoethnography methodology, I analyzed seven films that contain food in their narrative. The movies Coco, Book of Life, Como Agua para Chocolate, Roma, Arráncame la Vida, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Off the Menu were chosen for their relationship with the Mexican culinary culture. The findings of this thesis resume Mexico portrayed as a hospitable country due to its family ties, dishes and preparations that are repeated through the movies (tamales, cochinita pibil, chilis, pan de muerto, nieves, and hot chocolate are the most recurrent), locations focus mainly on the north and center, and Día de Muertos as the most popular celebration.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren