Argentine Cinema and National Identity (1966-1976) (original) (raw)
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The nation as the mise-en-scène of film–making in Argentina
Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 2005
Recent Latin American film criticism has been marked by an emphasis on the transnational in film production and reception. Noting a convergence between the language and structures of such criticism and the interests of the global market, this article makes a case for retaining the nation as a framework for film criticism. The argument draws on an empirical study of film production and exhibition in Argentina, tracing a dramatic increase in state support for national cinema over the past decade; it also explores the articulation in contemporary Argentine films of certain forms of nationalism in the context of the recent Crisis. Daniel Burak’s Bar El Chino (Argentina, 2003) exemplifies the reterritorializing strategies of such films, which frequently reappropriate transnational themes for national uses.
The thesis aims to uncover some of the many ways in which contemporary Argentine and Brazilian cinema have registered and helped to construct national identity since the mid 1990s, when, after almost collapsing at the height of the debt crisis of the previous two decades of military dictatorship, film production experienced a boom as a result of new film legislation. The transition from dictatorship to democracy and the adoption of the neoliberal economic model were accompanied by the erosion of the nation-state, an increase in international agreements and the formation of regional blocs such as Mercosur. The thesis draws primarily on postcolonial and film theories to show how the socio-political aspects of the transition engendered changes in the ways in which the nation is constructed. The thesis does this through engaging with discourses pertaining to the formation of supra-national communities via case studies of selected films. Among the questions addressed are the following: How have Argentine and Brazilian films negotiated the impact of globalisation on identities? How have cinematic practices and filmic representations in contemporary Argentine and Brazilian cinemas encouraged critical reflection on the countries‟ position in a global system? I construct an argument in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 for the continued relevance of a critical focus on the nation in a globalised era in which trends in criticism are set toward a transnational approach. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 explore how films have re-constructed the national in the face of the growing impact of globalised identities, by engaging with supra-national entities such as diasporic, Lusophone, Ibero-American, and regional communities. Contemporary Argentine and Brazilian films are shown to display complex identity-negotiations in a globalised context and, in turn, pose meta-critical questions for filmic (and more general cultural) analysis in a transnational context.
Iconic Fictions: Narrating Recent Argentine History in Post-2000 Second-Generation Films
This article examines a recent trend in Argentine post-dictatorial cinema that has not received sufficient critical attention: post-2000 fictional films by second-generation film-makers that go back to a child's or a teenager's perspective, and to an 'archaic' pre-1990s format. By focusing on a political thriller that I find paradigmatic of this recent trend, Gastón Biraben's Cautiva/Captive , I argue that these films (which I call 'iconic fictions') should not be read as additional examples of contemporary second-generation narratives. Instead, I propose that their formal exception attests to an intragenerational tension regarding the representation of recent history (in particular, regarding the representation of 1970s political activism). In these films, the use of fiction (and of a child's or a teenager's perspective) allows for a predominance of iconicity over indexicality -a predominance that entails crucial ideological connotations for contemporary Argentina and that demands a re-examination of the efficacy of representing history through a child's or a teenager's lens.
"Cinema and Recent Past in Argentina"
In Argentina, the last military dictatorship ruled between 1976 and 1983. Since the return of democracy in December of 1983, a variety of means have—to a large extent—made it possible to unravel and represent the horror endured during the years of the so-called “National Reorganization Process.” The aim of this presentation is to address the different discourse strategies used in motion pictures representing the kidnapping, torture, and forced disappearance of persons during the last military dictatorship. To this end, I have selected Argentine films that, having been produced in different decades, allow me to trace an historical evolution in the treatment of this topic. These films portray the adaptation to life in illegal detention centers in different ways. From an analytical perspective, my starting point in each chapter is a “memory cycle” (Da Silva Catela 2006), a concept I shall often resort to, since it defines the different socio-historical periods in post-dictatorship Argentina.
Journeys in Argentine and Brazilian Cinema
There is a large body of South American films that use the popular road movie format to examine regional culture and attitudes, especially in Argentina and Brazil. These films, made from the 1990s onwards, take into account the neoliberal post-dictatorship context of the Southern Cone as well as the impact of globalization on Latin American cultures. Pinazza performs a careful cultural analysis of the films and investigates how road movies deal with narratives on nationhood whilst simultaneously inserting themselves in a transnational dialogue. Her comparative approach to national cinemas in South America provides insights on the mediation of the economic, sociological, and cultural elements that affect and are reflected in the films produced in the region.