Argentina, art, culture, and film sectors under attack by the government

*Adrian Jaime’s films recovers memories of popular struggles in Buenos Aires *The govt. has also established prohibitions for filming

Transcript

00:00And in Argentina, among the many attacks by President Javier Millet on everything related to art and culture,

00:05cinema is perhaps the most damaged.

00:07Our correspondent Fabián Felestibo with the details.

00:15This is Argentine film director Adrián Jaime.

00:18Telesur spoke to him to find out how things are going in the audiovisual world,

00:22one of the sectors under attack by the government of Javier Millet.

00:27It becomes difficult to counter everything because you are not on equal footing for the fight.

00:35His films recover, among other things, the memories of the popular struggles in Argentina,

00:40which makes Adrián Jaime one of the government's main targets.

00:47Adorni accused us of having received 15,000 US dollars to make a documentary film, which is not true.

00:53Our film is called Burn Them. It is about the Cordobazo.

00:57We reconstruct those two historic days with the pure archive material.

01:01We did all the sound, we were working on the sound during the whole pandemic.

01:05Less and less is being filmed.

01:07This year, five films were filmed via the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisuals, out of the usual 200.

01:16The Argentinean government has also established a series of prohibitions for filming.

01:21You can't talk about Perón, nor about the achievements of Kirchnerism,

01:25nor film with, for example, the popular singer Lali.

01:33There is a cultural battle, a battle that is not lost but is never settled.

01:37I don't believe that the 600,000 jobs that this industry generates,

01:41600,000 direct jobs, plus another 400,000 indirect jobs,

01:45an important portion of the GDP,

01:47where jobs are generated not only for those who are in front of the cameras,

01:51such as actors or directors,

01:53but for everything that is part of the audiovisual ecosystem.

01:56Those who are in front of the cameras, the directors, the actors,

02:00but for everything that is part of the audiovisual ecosystem,

02:07hotels, logistics, carpenters, electricians.

02:10All of that, at some point, due to the systematic attacks that have been taking place,

02:15is surely going to emerge as a second criticism.

02:26The director's concern is not only cinema, of course.

02:37Argentina's film industry is going to be diminished.

02:41Today, we are in a process of resistance,

02:44and of seeing how it can be sustained.

02:49We are trying to leverage what they are trying to destroy,

02:52or what they have broken.

02:54International entities, the most diverse in Latin America, Europe and Asia,

02:59have declared themselves in favor of sustaining,

03:02as Leonardo Sparaglia said, not only Argentina's cinema,

03:05but sustaining Argentina.

03:09From Buenos Aires, for Telesur, Fabián Restivo.