New Argentinian Cinema

new Argentine cinema

Sebastián Angeloni

During the 90s a new movement of young film-makers made a difference in Argentina’s seventh art. As a result of not having any money to support each piece, they created an aesthetic based on their own limitations. These movies don’t usually feature any professional or well-known actors, because they simply can’t afford them. No make-up is worn and natural light and outdoor locations are often used. Additionally, neither multinational media corporation’s money nor huge promotion campaigns are allowed. These youngsters opened up a new road.

The use of colloquial language and improvised speech are two more features of this style. Characters now speak as ordinary people and not as if they were saying a line learned by heart. Everything is spontaneous. Nothing is lineal or fake. What’s more, the camera moves as if it has a life of its own. Shoots are not conventional: necks, strange shapes and bizarre objects have taken the place of beautiful women or handsome men.

Despite the fact that these independent films have succeeded abroad and have been applauded by the critics, they haven’t been popular among the general Argentine public. Sometimes these movies have been labelled as boring or too intellectual as they require an active spectator who follows the senses or the ideas of the director by guessing or interpreting the scenes. Nothing is taken for granted.

With the intention of stimulating this new national film production and exhibiting remote and unknown cinematography, different sorts of festivals started happening. And The Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival (Bafici) is no exception. Created in 1999, Bafici has always tried to bring ‘these strange movies’ to a demanding audience, with a slow but certain success: nowadays it is almost impossible to get a ticket for any movie without booking it in advance. Although Bafici has offered a place to show directors’ pieces, it has also been the perfect excuse for making contacts or getting sponsors and money for new co-productions.

But this ‘cultural phenomenon’ is not a random occurrence. It has to do with the flourishing of cinema schools in Argentina during the last decade. In fact, there was an article published last year by the prestigious newspaper, Le Monde Diplomatique, which shows that 15% the world’s cinema student population (which means 12,000 of the total 80,000 students) is concentrated in Argentina.

Most of these new directors studied at such schools, differing from the previous wave of film-makers – the ones who filmed in the 80s: they used to learn on location or in a studio. Furthermore, they had no formal cinema education.

However, Argentina boasts two directors who bridge this gap and can be categorised neither as independent nor industrial. They belong to a point of transition between industry and lack of resources. They are Juan Josè Campanella, the man behind ‘The son of the bride’ and Fabiàn Bielinsky, creator of ‘Nine queens’, who has recently died from a heart attack. Their films contain both commercial and non-commercial elements, and their backgrounds and style have much in common:

• Both studied before directing: Campanella at the New York University and Bielinsky at the Argentine Institute of Cinematography School.
• Both work with famous actors and actresses.
• Both use a classic structure for telling a story: introduction, development and an ending.
• Their films have received plenty of awards at international and local film-festivals (‘The son of the bride’ was nominated for an Oscar)
• Both directors combine something very unusual in an Argentine film: recognition from both the critics and the wider audience.
• Social issues are involved such as unemployment and how the crisis and Menemism – with its neo-liberal measures – affected the middle class during the 90s.
• Money is presented as the key to get out of the crisis by cheating or swindling in ‘Nine Queens’ or selling the family restaurant to an Italian group of investors in ‘The son of the bride’.

Like Bielinsky, Campanella and independent directors, all these Argentine film-makers show once again that art is a good way to preserve the memory of a country and its population as well as entertaining an audience.

To see some new independent Argentine cinema, visit www.bafici.gov.ar and see the agenda for the Bafici festival, running from 3^rd-15^th April in cinemas all over Buenos Aires.