Looking Over Your Shoulder

Looking into Looking Over Your Shoulder

For my final project, I’ve chosen to write a short screenplay titled Looking Over Your Shoulder. My screenplay follows Roger, a 26 year old Mexican-American living in Passaic, New Jersey. It pertains to themes including that of double consciousness, the assimilation of Latino Americans, and gentrification. I explore these themes through methods done in popular mind games media such as Us (2019), Atlanta (2016-2023), and includes an ending thematically similar to that of Cronocrimenes (2007). Through my short screenplay, I sought to explore these themes as they pertain to Latino-American existence. I believe that this unexplored territory lends itself to mind game cinema by way of Afro surrealism, or I at least sought to connect them through Afro surrealism. Through the lens of mind games cinema conventions, I offer what most mind games films seek to do, a critical reflection of society, in this specific case a critical reflection of American society and how Latino-American communities have manipulated identities because of corporate and national influences.

A major source of inspiration for myself, and a major point of reference as well is the movie Us (2019) by Jordan Peele. I use a lot of the same mind games conventions to speak about similar themes, but as they relate to Latino-American communities. I think there is a natural connection between the black American experience and the Latino-American experience as I believe the same force that connects communities and nations to each other apply. Both communities often exist within the same neighborhoods and exist as marginalized communities. 

Both communities share similar percentages of population below the poverty line and thus, often experience similar disparities in resources. Historically, both communities have experienced similar forms of marginalization, but still different enough to create their own distinct communities. I believe this distance allows for a unique ability to apply a film as racially nuanced as Us (2019) as a mold for a Latino-American story like Looking Over Your Shoulder.

Atlanta (2016-2023) also molds Looking Over Your Shoulder by way of a satirical style and an urban setting while also incorporating socio economic struggles and, as previously mentioned, racial identity. While the looming presence of a whole foods does not exist in Atlanta (2016-2023), the ever looming threat of cultural annihilation or assimilation does hang over the heads of both stories.  I believe the horror genre best represents the mind games cinema category and I employed it most similarly to some episodes of Atlanta (2016-2023), more sparsely and as more of an underwhelming feeling. As opposed to a masked killer picking people off one by one there’s a (metaphorical) cloud slowly swallowing neighborhoods and communities whole. This form I feel most closely represents the Latino-American experience as, though, there definitely do exist out right horrors against us, the reality is the existence of Latino-Americans is most directly threatened by the slow assimilation by way of corporations.

I also looked towards Bell Hooks as a direct inspiration through her book “Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies,”. I believe this reading very closely examines the role of  race, as it comes to American society. There is no secret that American society has wrapped itself around corporations, and that is one of the larger aspects of my script. While the inclusion of a Whole Foods is rather tongue-in-cheek, the intentionality is like that of Bell Hooks in her reading. She speaks in depth about the manipulation of society, by way of corporations, and as previously mentioned, I believe the annihilation of the Latino American community often comes by way of this overt capitalism. Hooks refers to how the interests of corporations often are at odds with that of marginalized groups and that is done by way of physical manifestation of a whole food, a transformative being in my script.

While more of an indirect source, Cronocrimenes (2007) does play a role in Looking Over Your Shoulder. I use similar effects as in Cronocrimenes (2007) as to truly certify my script in the realm of mind games. Looking Over Your Shoulder exists in a transformed world similarly to that of Cronocrimenes (2007), the whole foods acts in a similar capacity to that of the time travel machine in the film and acts as the direct catalyst in transforming the existence and the mindscape of the characters. 

Altogether, I’ve incorporated mind games techniques from sources such as Cronocrimenes (2007), Us (2019), and Atlanta (2016-2023) and Bell Hooks to tell the story of Looking Over Your Shoulder.

Works Cited

Glover, Donald, creator. Atlanta. FX Productions, et al., 2016-2022.

Hooks, Bell. Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. Routledge, 1996.

Peele, Jordan, director. Us. Universal Pictures, 2019.

Vigalondo, Nacho, director. Cronocrímenes. Magnolia Pictures, 2007.

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