711 Shortened Title Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 50 (2016) MATT LOSADA Before Bemberg: Eva Landeck, Gente en Buenos Aires, and the Gendered Division of Labor in Argentine Cinema During most of the twentieth century, a gendered division of labor made it very diicult, and during several decades impossible, for women to direct ilms in Argentina. Women have only recently enjoyed greater opportunities, a shift often attributed to the pioneering work of María Luisa Bemberg, who made six features between 1980 and 1993. But several lesser-known women preceded her in direction, one of whom, Eva Landeck, is the subject of this essay. Although Landeck’s work is not as widely known as Bemberg’s, an account of her career reveals speciic challenges faced by a politically committed woman ilmmaker in the 1970s. Her irst ilm, Gente en Buenos Aires (1973), is the only one she made without extensive state interference, so in the interest of including Landeck and her work in discussions of women’s ilmmaking and Argentine cinema, this essay examines its engagement with uneven modernization, social conlict and state violence. ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Women have directed some of the most highly regarded Argen- tine ilms of the last twenty years, neutralizing to a degree a gendered division of labor that had made it diicult, and for long periods impos- sible, for women to direct during the irst hundred years of Argentine cinema. Accounts of this gendered division of labor have centered on María Luisa Bemberg’s very successful career, during which she directed six ilms between 1980 and 1993. Such a focus, while merited, has diverted attention from other cases that might better illustrate the com- plex struggles with inancing and industry practices that women have faced. his essay ofers an account of the brief career of Eva Landeck— who directed three feature-length ilms prior to Bemberg—in order to reveal some of the challenges faced by a woman ilmmaker engaged critically with the Argentine cultural and political ield of her time. It