Celebrating Groundbreaking Cinema: Smith Hosts Producer of “Kiss of the Spider Woman”

For most films, a 30th-anniversary celebration is a decided look back on a moment in history, now dated and definitively of the past.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is not such a film. This groundbreaking work transcends the anchors of its era, timelessly capturing the essences of sex, politics, art and suffering that are part of the human condition. As such, Kiss of the Spider Woman remains as relevant and moving today—perhaps more so—as it did upon its first showings in 1985.

On Wednesday, April 29, the Film Studies Program will host film producer David Weisman on the 30th anniversary of the release of Kiss of the Spider Woman. The film will be screened at 5 p.m. in Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall, followed by a question and answer session with Weisman.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute’s short-term project Cross-Cultural Collaboration, organized by Alexandra Keller, professor of film studies, and Malcolm McNee, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese.

Kiss of the Spider Woman was the first independent film to receive Academy Award nominations in four top categories, including Best Picture for Weisman as producer; Best Director for Hector Babenco; Best Adapted Screenplay by Leonard Schrader and Best Actor for William Hurt, who won the Oscar. The film also stars Raul Julia and Sonia Braga.

Adapted from a novel of the same title by Manuel Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman follows the complex and multi-layered relationship between two fundamentally different men with opposite life views, who share a prison cell in Brazil during the country’s authoritarian military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s. Betrayal, obsession, political turmoil, torture, sex and love are embroidered within the men’s developing relationship, building to an ironic and tragic ending that painfully portrays reality.

Kiss of the Spider Woman broke ground in several ways. It moved independent film significantly into the mainstream of U.S. culture, while also shedding light on LGBTQ issues and Latin American politics.

The film also stands as a model of collaboration among artists of different cultural backgrounds, including Puig of Argentina, Babenco of Argentine-Brazilian descent and Weisman, an American—along with an international cast.

Kahn project fellows will meet with Weisman on Thursday, April 30, to discuss questions the film raises about cross-cultural collaboration, translation and adaptation, as well as political, social and historic issues.

The campus film screening is also part of the 22nd annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival.