America Ferrera, known for her roles in Barbie (2023) and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films and as the titular character in the television series Ugly Betty (2006–2010), will not only star as the late Ana Mendieta but also executive produce a limited-series adaptation about the Cuban-American artist’s practice and the circumstances surrounding her death.
The adaptation pulls from Robert Katz’s 1990 novel Naked By the Window: The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta, which analyzes Mendieta’s impact as a performer and sculptor in the New York City art scene and her infamous eight-month marriage to Minimalist artist Carl Andre. Mendieta was best known for her feminist performance work highlighting the relationship between natural landscapes and the politics of the female body, especially in her Silueta series (1973–1985).
In 1985, during a heated argument with Andre that turned physical, Mendieta fell from the window of the Greenwich Village apartment and plummeted 34 stories to her death. Mendieta’s death was subject to a homicide investigation, and Andre was acquitted of all charges when a non-jury trial ruled her death a suicide in 1988. Andre maintained a high-profile arts career until he died at 88 earlier this year, though advocates and activists worldwide believe that he was guilty of murder.
“My wife is an artist, and I’m an artist, and we had a quarrel about the fact that I was more, eh, exposed to the public than she was,” Andre, who was found with scratch marks across his face, said in his 911 phone call after Mendieta’s fall.
Amazon MGM Studios and Plan B Entertainment are on board to join Ferrera as executive producers alongside Cuban-American screenwriter Charise Castro Smith, who is also slated to write the series, to be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Notably, a 2022 podcast about Mendieta yielded criticism for its “true crime sensationalism” and for focusing more on Andre than on Mendieta.
I don’t think Naked By The Window is a novel. Novels are works of fiction, and I believe the book is not meant to be considered fiction.