Constructing Memory in the Wake of Tragedy: An Analysis of Film as a Tool of Collective Memory in the Aftermath of the Dictatorships in Argentina and Chile

Acting as an audiovisual vector of catharsis, film has proved an innovative and effective tool in the process of reconstructing collective memory in the aftermath of traumatic events. This thesis focuses on the emergence of filmmakers and their movies in the post-dictatorial periods in Argentina and Chile as both nations sought to confront their violent pasts. A general overview of the process of memory construction is included to provide background for the subsequent analysis of film as a vector of collective memory following trauma. An examination and comparison of various films produced for both domestic and international audiences detail each country’s engagement with the political and cinematic process of dealing with ideas of truth, memory, and identity. Central themes include the reconstruction of the identity of the desaparecidos and the challenges of producing films of a faithful, factual, reconstructive nature that also result in commercial success and appeal

El Cine y la Reconstrucción de la Memoria

Since the transition to democracy in Spain, many films and novels have been written about the Civil War. Even books that were written during the dictatorship but censored by the regime have again seen the light and have been widely read by an educated and uneducated population. But it is the space of film where public discussion of civil war and dictatorship has circumvented the restrictions imposed by the Pact of Oblivion. The film has become a kind of memorial that brings to light past violations, it presents it directly into the public sphere and draws our attention to what “really” happened. In this sense it is more effective than books and scholarly articles to bring the memory from oblivion, in protecting the dignity of the victims. Film shows us a side of the story, a version untold until now. In this article I want to introduce the discussion on memory as part of transitions to democracy and discuss three films that have entered the debate on the civil war and dictatorship, namely: Soldados de Salamina (David Trueba, 2002); Las Trece Rosas (Emilio Martínez- Lázaro , 2007) and Salvador Puig Antich (Manuel Huerga, 2006).Desde la transición a la democracia, muchas novelas y películas se han escrito sobre la guerra civil. Incluso los libros que fueron escritos durante la dictadura pero censurados por el régimen, han visto la luz de nuevo y han sido ampliamente leídos por una población educada y no educada. Pero es el cine el espacio en el que la discusión pública sobre la guerra civil y la dictadura ha eludido las limitaciones impuestas por el pacto del olvido. El cine se ha convertido en un instrumento de memoria, que trae a la luz las violaciones pasadas, las muestra directamente en la esfera pública y llama nuestra atención sobre lo que “realmente” pasó. En este sentido, es más eficaz que los libros y artículos académicos en traer la memoria del olvido, en la dignificación de las víctimas. El cine nos muestra una versión de la historia, una versión no contada hasta ahora. En este artículo quiero introducir la discusión sobre la memoria como parte de los procesos de transición a la democracia y analizaré tres películas que han introducido el debate sobre la guerra civil y la dictadura, a saber: Soldados de Salamina (David Trueba, 2002), Las Trece Rosas (Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, 2007), y Salvador Puig Antich (Manuel Huerga, 2006)

La représentation de l’histoire récente du Chili dans les séries de télévision du xxie siècle. Penser la valorisation éducative du public

Durant la première décennie du xxie siècle, la télévision chilienne a expérimenté une augmentation notable de la production et la diffusion de séries télévisées de fiction. Ces produits audiovisuels sont récurrents dans la programmation télévisée de la période. Ils sont programmés à des horaires de grande écoute et ont reçu des critiques positives du public et de l’industrie. Les fictions ayant une forte audience et celles qui ont suscité le plus de débat social, ont construit leurs arguments en s’appuyant sur l’histoire récente du pays. Des titres comme Los archivos del Cardenal, Los 80, Ecos del desierto et No, la serie s’intéressent à une période controversée et marquante pour l’actuelle société chilienne : la dictature civilo-militaire imposée en septembre 1973.La recherche présentée ici poursuit l’objectif d’analyser la représentation historique que construisent, dans ces récits, différentes générations de spectateurs et de spectatrices : celle qui a vécu le coup d’État, celle qui a grandi sous la dictature, celle qui a grandi en démocratie ; et la fonction éducative qu’elles reconnaissent à ces séries. Tout cela, en considérant que la dictature et son action répressive ont été des thèmes complexes à traiter dans l’éducation nationale et, jusqu’à très récemment, des sujets difficiles à aborder dans les échanges sociaux ordinaires. Si l’on prend en compte que la consommation télévisuelle est le loisir auquel les Chiliens et les Chiliennes dédient le plus de temps, ce texte pose la question de la valorisation de la fonction éducative des séries qui ont travaillé la représentation de l’histoire récente du pays, et ont contribué à la construction d’un imaginaire national sur cette période.During the first decade of the twenty-first century, Chilean television experienced a notable increase in the production and broadcasting of fictional television series. These audiovisual products are recurrent in the television programming of the period. They are programmed at prime time and have received positive reviews from the public and the industry. The dramas with the largest audiences and those that have generated the most social debate have built their arguments on the country’s recent history. Titles such as Los archivos del Cardenal, Los 80, Ecos del desierto and No, the series focus on a controversial and significant period for present-day Chilean society : the civil-military dictatorship imposed in September 1973.The research presented here aims to analyze the historical representation that different generations of spectators construct in these narratives : those who lived through the coup d’état, those who grew up under the dictatorship, those who grew up in democracy ; and the educational function that they recognize in these series. All this, considering that dictatorship and its repressive action have been complex themes to be dealt with in national education and, until very recently, difficult subjects to address in ordinary social exchanges. Taking into account that television consumption is the leisure activity to which Chileans devote the most time, this text raises the question of how to value the educational function of series that have worked on the representation of the country’s recent history and contributed to the construction of a national imaginary about this period

BUILT UTOPIAS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE: THE RURAL AND THE MODERN IN FRANCO’S SPAIN

Anchored by Hüppauf and Umbach’s notion of Vernacular Modernism and focusing on architecture and urbanism during Franco’s dictatorship from 1939 to 1975, this thesis challenges the hegemonic and Northern-oriented narrative of urban modernity. It develops arguments about the reciprocal influences between the urban and the rural that characterize Spanish modernity, and analyzes the intense architectural and urban debates that resulted from the crisis of 1898, as they focused on the importance of vernacular architecture, in particular the Mediterranean one, in the definition of an “other modernity.†This search culminated before 1936 with the “Lessons of Ibiza,†and was revived at the beginning of the 1950s, when architects like Coderch, Fisac, Bohigas, and the cosigners of the Manifiesto de la Alhambra brought back the discourse of the modern vernacular as a politically acceptable form of Spanish modernity, and extended its field of application from the individual house and the rural architecture to the urban conditions, including social and middle-class housing. The core of the dissertation addresses the 20th century phenomenon of the modern agricultural village as built emergence of a rural paradigm of modernity in parallel or alternative to the metropolitan condition. In doing so, it interrogates the question of tradition, modernity, and national identity in urban form between the 1920s and the 1960s. Regarding Spain, it studies the actuation of the two Institutes that were created to implement the Francoist policy of post-war reconstruction and interior colonization—the Dirección General de Regiones Devastadas, and the Instituto Nacional de Colonización. It examines the ideological, political, urban, and architectural principles of Franco’s reconstruction of the devastated countryside, as well as his grand “hydro-social dream†of modernization of the countryside. It analyzes their role in national-building policies in liaison with the early 20th-century Regenerationist Movement of Joaquín Costa, the first works of hydraulic infrastructure under Primo de Rivera, and the aborted agrarian reform of the Second Republic. Inspired by the Zionist colonization of Palestine and Mussolini’s reclaiming of the Pontine Marshes, Falangist planners developed a national strategy of “interior colonization†that, along with the reclamation and irrigation of extensive and unproductive river basins, entailed the construction of three hundred modern villages or pueblos between 1940 and 1971. Each village was designed as a “rural utopia,†centered on a plaza mayor and the church, which embodied the political ideal of civil life under the nationalcatholic regime and evolved from a traditional town design in the 1940s to an increasingly abstract and modern vision, anchored on the concept of the “Heart of the City†after 1952. The program was an important catalyst for the development of Spanish modern architecture after the first period of autarchy and an effective incubator for a new generation of architects, including Alejandro de la Sota, José Luis Fernández del Amo, and others. Between tradition and modernity, these architects reinvented the pueblos as platforms of urban and architectonic experimentation in their search for a depurated rural vernacular and a modern urban form. Whereas abstraction was the primary design tool that Fernández del Amo deployed to the limits of the continuity of urban form, de la Sota reversed the fundamental reference to the countryside that characterizes Spanish surrealism to bring surrealism within the process of rural modernization in Franco’s Spain

La lógica del dolor en los cuerpos parlantes: Una aproximación al han en el cine de Hong Sang-soo y Lee Chang-dong

Treball Final de Grau en Comunicació Audiovisual. Modalitat A. Codi: CA0932. Curs acadèmic 2020-2021Hemos olvidado el asombro provocado por lo distinto. Estamos en una era donde toda cinta cinematográfica precisa de un motivo excepcional, de algo excéntrico que sea capaz de trasgredir lo comúnmente conocido con el fin de conmovernos. Requerimos de historias dónde las imágenes sean puramente explícitas, dónde tan solo ejercer el acto de la mirada, marginando así la escucha. Es por ello por lo que, el presente trabajo de investigación tiene por objeto el estudio del lenguaje de lo distinto, tomando las narrativas de la industria cinematográfica surcoreana y la representación de lo emocionalconcretamente del dolor- en su traslación a historias acerca de un pasado interiorizado por individuos en permanente estado de duelo. De esta manera, hemos de incidir en un concepto inherente a los modos de representación del dolor del cine surcoreano, designados bajo la acepción: Han (恨). Se trata de un término atribuido a lo que por alma de la cultura coreana se refiere, una expresión que nos aleja del Yo para incidir en lo colectivo. La pérdida del objeto en una separación no deseada tan solo podrá ser comprendida en un marco teórico, donde, los precedentes históricos implicados en la consolidación del han- un constructo atemporal- nos guiarán en un análisis aplicado de los relatos escogidos, haciendo de la poesía y el testimonio, el discurso dialógico donde lo conocido y lo distinto se engendran mutuamente. En el presente estudio, nos sumergiremos en los universos cinematográficos de dos autores procedentes de la Generación del 386: Lee Chang-dong, y Hong Sang-soo. Para establecer la relación entre el han y las imágenes tendidas entre las piezas contemporáneas de cine surcoreano, recurriremos a su correlación con el modelo psicoanalítico de melancolía, en una alegoría común a la pérdida de la identidad e inhibición del yo. Serán pues entre la puesta en escena y los recursos narrativos de los filmes En la Playa sola de noche (Bamui haebyun-eoseo honja, Hong Sang-soo, 2017) y Burning (Beoning, Lee Chang-dong, 2018), donde estudiaremos la impronta de un término inefable, un dolor atemporal que vaga entre las voces de las ausencias

Women’s access to silent cinema in Portugal and Spain : the case studies of Virgínia de Castro e Almeida and Helena Cortesina

This dissertation (re-)constructs the ‘bio/careerographies’ of the writer Virgínia de Castro e Almeida (Lisbon, 1874 – 1945) and the performer Helena Cortesina (Valencia, 1903 – Buenos Aires, 1984). Coming from different backgrounds, both women owned film production companies in which they played various decision-taking roles during the early years of 1920s in Portugal and Spain, respectively. Although they developed long international and intermedia professional careers, their life-stories have largely remained untold. In this dissertation, I reflect on the reasons behind their absence in film histories looking at the historiographical, conceptual and methodological challenges that the research and narration of their ‘careerographies’ entails. In this sense, I problematize the conventional film history-writing, proposing a ‘new cinema history from below’ approach. Also, I identify traditional categories of ‘authorship’, ‘woman’ and ‘pioneer’ as frames that limit the inscription into silent cinema histories only to those cases that conform to a certain nationalistic and individualistic narrative of success or heroicism. Furthermore, I describe core characteristics of film historiography, such as its dependence on film as source, its territorial delimitation, and its focus on cinema’s specificity as medium, as methodological problems that prevented Almeida’s and Cortesina’s stories to be appreciated. Finally, using a comparative perspective, I analyse the characteristics that allowed Almeida and Cortesina to overcome difficulties and be among the few women that achieved film-making in the Iberian countries during the silent cinema period. In that sense, I identify the two models of access to film-making they represent. Moreover, I argue that it was the affective relationship of ‘relational autonomy’ they established with their matrilineal caring network which provided the security they needed for their leap into cinema. However, their familial film production system proved to be ineffective in a growing male-centered capitalist and professionalized film industries.Esta tese (re-)constrói as ‘bio/carreirografias’ da escritora Virgínia de Castro e Almeida (Lisboa, 1874 – 1945) e da atriz Helena Cortesina (Valencia, 1903 – Buenos Aires, 1984). Vindo de diferentes origens, ambas criaram companhias produtoras de filmes, nas quais tiveram diferentes responsabilidades, durante os primeiros anos da década de 1920 em Portugal e Espanha, respetivamente. Embora ambas desenvolveram longas carreiras internacionais e intermediais, elas não têm tido os seus percursos de vida narrados. Com esta tese, tenho como objetivo refletir sobre as razões por trás desta ausência nas histórias do cinema identificando os desafios historiográficos, conceptuais e metodológicos que a pesquisa e narração das suas carreirografias envolve. Neste sentido, problematizo a escrita convencional da história do cinema, propondo um avanço para uma ‘nova história do cinema desde abaixo’. Também identifico as categorias tradicionais de ‘autoria’, ‘mulher’ e ‘pioneirismo’ como enquadramentos que limitam a inscrição nas histórias do cinema mudo só àqueles casos conformados a uma certa narrativa nacionalista e individualista de sucesso ou heroicidade. Além disso, descrevo as características principais da historiografia do cinema, tais como a dependência nos filmes como fonte, a sua delimitação territorial e seu foco na especificidade do cinema meio como problemas metodológicos que tem vindo a colocar obstáculos na valorização de histórias como as de Almeida e Cortesina. Finalmente, usando uma perspetiva comparatista, analiso as características que permitiram a Almeida e Cortesina superar dificuldades e estar entre as poucas mulheres que conseguiram fazer filmes nos países ibéricos durante o período do cinema mudo. Neste sentido, identifico os dois modelos de acesso à produção cinematográfica que elas representam. Argumento, também, que foi a relação afetiva de ‘autonomia relacional’ com uma rede matrilinear de cuidados o que lhes permitiu o salto para o cinema. No entanto, o seu sistema familiar de produção de filmes provou ser ineficaz nas crescentes indústrias fílmicas que, cada vez mais, eram dominadas por um sistema profissional, masculino e capitalista

Landscapes of the Self: The Cinema of Ross McElwee / Paisajes del yo. El cine de Ross McElwee

A book about the films of American documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee. The book is in ENGLISH and SPANISH. The book opens with an ”Establishing Shot,” a prologue presenting an edited ver¬sion of an article published in 1994 by Stephen Rodrick, which sketches out a lively portrait of McElwee. In the second section, we sought greater depth of field. This is our “Wide angle”, with four transversal studies of McElwee’s filmography. First, Efrén Cuevas addresses the most explicitly autobiographical dimension of his films. Alberto N. García presents a study of Ross McElwee as an essayist. The voice-over forms the central topic of Dominique Bluher’s article. Josep María Catalá reflects on the role of the camera in McElwee’s ouvreu, and from this basis, goes on to work out a wider interpretation of McElwee’s intentions. The third section of the book turns to the “Close Up” in order to focus on each of the four autobiographical feature films made by McElwee. It begins with James H. Watkins’s analysis of Sherman’s March. In the next chapter, on Time Indefinite, Paloma Aten¬cia concentrates on how McElwee uses all the autobiographical elements to con-struct an identity understood in narrative terms. Gonzalo de Pedro examines the interesting reflections which Six O’Clock News offers on the relations between television and film. Finally, Gary Hawkins analyzes Bright Leaves from a very personal perspective, that of his double career as critic and documentary filmmaker. The book ends with a “mirror shot” in which Ross McElwee speaks in his own voice. First, we reproduce the only long text that he has written on his own work, “Finding a Voice,” published in 1995 by the French magazine Trafic. To finish, we include a collage of questions and answers from various interviews that he has given over the years