Destabilizing Gender and Genre: Queering the Body in Libertarias and Land and Freedom

Abstract

Libertarias (1996) and Land and Freedom (1995) explore the complex situation of women militia during the Spanish Civil War. A queer reading of the female body in these films highlights wartime female masculinity (Halberstam) and female solidarity. In renegotiating worn expectations of sexuality and gender, the films question and ultimately redefine the wartime docudrama genre. The queering of gender and genre leads to alternative versions of history that upend the very idea of historical accuracy. The female bodies in the films transgress entrenched binary gender norms, thus creating a uniquely queer representation of female solidarity in the docudrama genre.