ARGENTINA: Documentary-Makers Reflect Unemployed Movement

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 24 2003 (IPS) - Young documentary-makers in Argentina armed with digital video cameras are staging a sort of revival of the militant filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s, with their films conveying the struggle of today’s organised unemployed workers.

The activist filmmakers are showing the stories of the members of the ”piqueteros” (unemployed) movement, how they began to organise and take to the streets, the role they played in the massive protests that overthrew the government of Fernando de la Rúa in December 2001, and the ”reoccupations” of factories.

Amidst the ongoing crisis in Latin America’s number three economy, the piqueteros movement – the name comes from ”piquetes” or roadblock, a frequent form of protest – has grown in strength.

A parallel phenomenon has been the occupation of factories abandoned by owners unable – or unwilling – to face up to their debts, by former employees who get the companies running again.

The young documentary-makers decided to contribute to the struggle by capturing it on film and showing their work not in movie theatres but in city squares, political party offices, soup kitchens, or at roadblocks, neighbourhood assemblies – another facet of today’s social movement in Argentina – and trade union meetings, explained filmmaker Hernán Martín.

Martín is a member of Ojo Obrero (Workers’ Eye) – affiliated with the leftist Workers’ Party -, one of several alternative filmmaking groups that emerged in 2001 with the aim of portraying the workers’ movement in a different light than that offered by mainstream TV news coverage.

The young documentary-makers identify with the political or militant filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s led by directors like Fernando Birri, Raymundo Gleyzer, Octavio Getino and Fernando ”Pino” Solanas.

The most notable difference is the technology used, which allows a greater sense of immediacy, and reduces the cost and complexities of producing films.

Martín told IPS that the aim of the new trend is ”to disseminate and collectivise the workers’ struggle at a national and international level, and to hold discussions and debates after each showing” of the documentaries.

After earning a degree in ”Design of Image and Sound” at the University of Buenos Aires, Martín directed a documentary about the unemployed movement, ”Un fantasma recorre Argentina, los piqueteros”.

He explained that Ojo Obrero links 25 filmmakers in Buenos Aires, and also has offices in the southeastern resort town of Mar del Plata, as well as provinces like Cordoba in central Argentina, Neuquén in the south, and Chaco and Salta in the north.

Other groups of young filmmakers involved in the new movement are Cine Insurgente, Contraimagen, Alavío, Boedo Films, Grupo 1 de Mayo and Adoquín, all of which are members of the Association of Documentary-Makers of Argentina, which also represents independent directors.

One of the films produced by Cine Insurgente was ”Devil, Family and Property” – a take-off on ”Tradition, Family and Property,” an ultra-conservative Catholic lay group – focusing on the vicissitudes of the lives of sugar mill workers.

The group also filmed ”Matanza”, which tells the story of a group of piqueteros in La Matanza, a populous, impoverished neighbourhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

The economic and political meltdown of December 2001 and the continuing crisis, which has tipped over half of the population of 37 million below the poverty line, was the key factor in the expansion of what has come to be known as the piquetero filmmaking movement.

”Documentaries are art, and Argentina’s crisis, with all its particularities, has had a major influence on artistic production, in fictional films as well as documentaries,” said Martín.

But, he added, there are other factors underlying the upsurge in politically and socially oriented documentaries, such as the increasingly simple technology involved in producing films. ”With digital video technology, you have greater immediacy, and you can edit at home, without costs,” said Martín.

Another factor is the growing number of young new directors.

Filmmaking schools have mushroomed in Argentina, from just a handful in the 1980s to about 30 today scattered around the country, which have a total combined student body of more than 10,000.

Those two elements are also playing a part in the current boom of feature films, many of which also focus on the social impact of the crisis.

Due to the increasing number of young graduates of film schools, the average number of local productions premiering in Argentina has climbed from around a dozen a year in the first half of the 1990s to nearly 50.

Nationally-made films are not only popular in Argentina, but have been enjoying success in local and international film festivals.

Documentaries have also become inceasingly popular in Argentina in the past few years, and local productions have begun to be shown more frequently in film festivals in Buenos Aires and around the world.

Six films about the piqueteros were shown this year at the Berlin International Film Festival, and several were featured at the Latin American Film Festival of Toulouse, France, and in South Korea and the United States.

But despite their success, the alternative filmmakers have refused to take out loans or to accept government support, preferring to work in an almost artisanal manner, without financing, or simply with the help of a collection organised by the members of a political party or trade union.