From recording to intervention: history and documentary film-making in Argentina

PIEDRAS, PABLO

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

SAGE Publications

Lugar: California; Año: 2013 p. 1 - 20

0094-582X

This paper analyzes social and political Argentine documentaries, from the days of the Santa Fe School of Documentary Film back in 1956 to the Cine Liberación and Cine de la Base film groups toward the end of the 1960s. The article argues that the study of social documentaries from 1956 to 1974 allows us to trace the crisis and discredit of democracy, which begins in 1930 and intensifies after 1955 with the overthrow of Juan Domingo Perón. The reciprocal degeneration of legitimacy between antagonistic political forces can be distinctively found in the documentary image, as can patterns showing the radicalization of involved political actors and the configuration and affirmation of antagonistic social subjects. Toward the end of the 1960s, this process led to an imaginary of revolution and violence that energized documentary practices and forms.