MargiNaciones: usos del documental en la narración de la nación

ÁLVARO FERNÁNDEZ BRAVO

Screening the Americas / Proyectando las Américas

WVT Wissenshaftlicher Verlag Trier

Lugar: Trier; Año: 2011; p. 157 - 172

This essay focuses on three Argentinean documentaries comparing the changing role of the margin in the filmic construction of the nation. Tire dié (1958), directed by Fernando Birri, can be considered as a direct precursor of Third Cinema political engagement and as such proposes a didactic approach of giving a voice to the voiceless. Dársena Sur (1997), directed by Pablo Reyero, and La libertad (2001), directed by Lisandro Alonso, both form part of the so called Nuevo Cine Argentino and are marked by a much less explicit political attitude.The text argues that in Tire dié the margin is indispensable for Birri?s image of the Argentinean nation, constructed as a bipolar world of a poor rural society ?living at the margins? overtly contrasting with a wealthy one, living in the urban centre. The opposite is true for Dársena sur and La libertad: although in both films margins are focused upon as lower social class members are portrayed, the margin no longer separates two distinct worlds. Instead, the division between centre and margin dissolve and everything turns out to be margin. The margin loses its implication of exclusion still predominant in Tire dié. In conclusion, the emancipatory discourse of overcoming the margins in Tire dié can be contrasted to Dársena Sur and La libertad which present a nation that is entirely marked by the margin and question this state of being without giving easy solutions or answers.