[URBANTH-L]
ANN: New Film Documentaries from the Argentinian Cooperative Movement
Angela Jancius
jancius at ohio.edu
Thu Dec 6 15:07:54 EST 2007
Buy a DVD and support Grupo Alavío!
Grupo Alavío would like to send a special holiday greetingand give a special
fund raising appeal. Keep the group's video production andwebsite Ágora TV
up and running by purchasing a DVD. We are completelyviewer-funded and
volunteer based: your contributions help us to produce groundbreaking videos
from the Third World. Ágora TV providesa radical space for cutting edge
video activists all over Latin America.
Ágora TV is a community television production collectivethat currently
broadcasts over the internet. The project reaches a globalaudience of
grassroots activists and citizens tired of status quo media. Wework on
issues including Argentina'srecovered factory movement, labor conflicts,
social movements, indigenousstruggles, and gender equality. The Buenos
Aires-based video collective GrupoAlavío built the website
(www.agoratv.org)in 2006 as an organizing tool and alternative media space
for groups that wouldnot otherwise have access to the airwaves.
For more than 15 years, Grupo Alavío has participated inworking-class
struggles and dedicated efforts to supporting them with socialand political
documentaries. Making technologies and skills accessible andavailable to
exploited sectors by democratizing audiovisual production is apriority of
Grupo Alavío. Through Ágora TV, Grupo Alavío is radically changing how media
is created, managed, and distributed.
All films have English subtitles and are in U.S. DVD format.
Cost: $15 plus shipping for individuals, $30 plus shipping for universities
Contact: Marie Trigona
mtrigona at msn.com
FILMS available for purchase:
1. Chilavert Recovered, 38 minutes, 2004 Newly released withENGLISH
SUBTITLES
Chilavert is a leading member of the 'recoveredfactories' movement which
developed during the collapse in 2001 when manyfactories in Argentinawere
taken over by the workers. As the owner of a printing plant began to shutit
down and turn it over to his creditors, the workers seized control andformed
the Chilavert Cooperative. The documentary gives a realistic overview ofthe
recuperation movement and workers' self-management.
2. Obreras en lucha (The struggle of Brukman workers).Spanish with ENGLISH
SUBTITLES
This documentary tells the story of the'recuperation' of Brukman textile
factory in Buenos Aires by its workers, after its owners decided toclose it
down in December 2001. Workers (most of them women) decided to occupythe
plant on December 18, 2001to protest their reducing and delayed salaries.
Only two days after, theeconomic and political crisis exploded in
Argentina.This documentary contains impressive images of the expulsion of
the workersfrom the factory by the police in 2003, the massive popular
protests whichfollowed and the brutal repression with which Duhalde's
government replied. Itcontains as well interviews with workers and images
from the assemblies at thefactory.
3. Hotel BAUEN: Workers' Cooperative
20min, 2004 Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
The Hotel BAUEN was an emblematic symbol of neoliberalism inArgentina.
Thehotel was constructed in 1978, in the glory of the military dictatorship,
withgovernment loans and subsidies. In the height of Argentina'seconomic
meltdown, the owners ransacked the hotel and closed the hotel's
doors,leaving the workers in the streets. In March 21, 2003 the workers
decided to occupy the hotel. The workerscleaned up the hotel and slowly
began to rent out services. With over 150workers employed at the hotel,
BAUEN hotel has become a symbol for the workingclass.
4. Zanon (Constructing resistance)
18min, 2003, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Argentina'sPatagonian province of Neuquén,is home of the Zanon ceramics
factory. In 2001 Zanon's owner fired the workersand abandoned the factory
for greener pastures. After resisting outside theplant, the group of workers
decide collectively to recuperate and put the plantto produce. Since 2001,
the workers at Zanon have occupied and managed theplant, which is Latin
America's largest ceramicsfactory. In the film, Zanon ceramists narrate
their day-to-day work, strugglesand hopes to continue production under
worker control.
5. La Foresta belongs to the workers
52min, 2005 Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
The film tells the story of a group of workers who arefighting to recuperate
La Foresta meatpacking plant in La Matanza, on theoutskirts of Buenos Aires
city. Most of the factory's employees have workedtheir for decades, through
the good times and bad times. In 1999, the plantwent bust, a series of
businessmen rented the facilities, making quick profitsand then abandoning
the factory for greener pastures. Grupo Alavío's filmfollows the 70 workers
who've put up a legal fight to keep their factory andstart up production
without a boss or owner, under worker-self management.
6. Music in Solidarity with Zanon,
90min, 2005 Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
This film was produced as part of a video work shop for theworkers. Music in
solidarity with Zanon: musicians León Gieco, RallyBarrionuevo, Ciro (Ataque
77) and other artists performed a concert inDecember, 2004. The workers
organizedthe super event, with more than 10,000 supporters from the
community of Neuquén.
7. Argentina:30 years after the military dictatorship (compilation of short
films)
Letter to the Military Junta, 6min, 1996
Rodolfo Walsh wrote the "Open Letter to the Military Junta"on the first
anniversary of the military coup in 1977 reporting the tortures,mass
killings, and thousands of disappearances. The political writer
wasdisappeared just one day after the letter was distributed. This 6 minute
videoessay reconstructs Walsh's powerful report, imagery from the
bloodydictatorship and the writer's disappearance.
Escrache a Videla, 12min, 2006
Events to mark the 30 years since Argentina'smilitary junta kicked off with
an escrache or "exposure" protest against thecoup's first dictator, Jorge
Rafael Videla. Over 10,000 people participated inthe protest in front of
Videla's home, where he is under house arrest inconnection with numerous
charges of human rights abuse. Human rights groupH.I.J.O.S. brought a crane
and gave the ending remarks directly in front ofVidela's fifth floor
apartment.
Memories of Struggle and Resistance: RioSantiago Ship Yard, 10min, 2006
The dictatorship attempted wiped out an entire generation ofworking-class
resistance, which the nation decades later is still recovering.This year for
the first time, over 1,500 workers from the Rio Santiago ShipYard in Buenos
Aires commemoratedthe ship yard's 48 disappeared.
8. Compañeras
45min, 2005, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Compañeras brings together four working women who givetestimony of their
lives and daily struggles. MAGDALENA,works on a small farm in the province
of San Juan. KARINA is a trainconductor. REGINA lives n VillaFiorito, she
collects cardboard from the streets, classifies and then sells it.NINA is a
militant from the 70's, during which she exiled from Argentinato
Nicaraguaand participated in the Sandanista revolution. Stories that mix
with otherhistory, women who revidicate their identity as workers, but
without easing tobe mothers, without giving up thestruggle, continuing to
be compañeras.
9. The Face of Dignity, Memories of MTD Solano
58 minutes, 2002, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
In the shambles of an economically ruined Argentina,a new practice of
protest emerged, blockading roads. Since 1997, what is now known as
theunemployed workers movement has taken root. Without access to the factory
and utility of tools for liberation-strike,sabotage, and occupying the
factory, unemployed workers sought out new practicesfor struggle. Unemployed
confronted globalization by fighting for jobs. One ofthe most important
experiences that emerged in these years was UnemployedWorkers Movement-MTD
(Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados) in Solano (insideQuilmes, a city in
the province of Buenos Aires). MTD's formation was based on the
principlesof horizontalism, direct democracy, autonomy from the state and
power, and theintegral political formation among members. Work,
capacitation, democratic debate of ideas, sharing life in thestruggle for
work, dignity and social change are some of this memory's content.
10. For a 6 hour workday
20min, 2004, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Reducing the workday to six hours with a salary increase forall workers
would create jobs for more than 3 million unemployed and lift manyout of
poverty. Subway workers who havebeen organizing wildcat strikes for salary
increases have spearheaded Argentina'smovement for a six-hour workday. In
2003, subway workers (in all sectors fromticket office to train drivers) won
a six-hour workday. Since this victory,subway workers, other labor
conflicts, economists and unemployed workersorganizations have formed a
movement for a 6-hour workday for all workers, withincreased salaries.
11. Organizing Resistance (Chronicles of Freedom, Martin,Recuperating Our
Work) Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Chronicles of Freedom (organizing resistance) , 45min, 2002
June 26, 2002 two activists Darío Santillán-22 and Maximiliano Kosteki-25
from Argentina's unemployed workers' movement were killed during a road
blockade of Pueyrredón Bridge in police repression. The repression was part
of a known andannounced government plan to control growing social protest.
33 were wounded from lead bullets, 160 detained and hundreds injured from
rubber bullets. Unquestionably, the deaths and repressionhave left an
unforgettable mark on the movement-generating internal debates
andself-criticisms. Chronicles of Freedom includes interviews on the right
toidentity, self-defense and organizing to confront state repression.
Martín, 2002, 7 minutes
Synopsis: Martín, 27 years old, Argentine, brother,compañero from the barrio
Floridain Solano was killed during a fight with a neighbor. The
experimental narration exploresinner-violence and questions the absurdity of
the system's violence that isimposed on us.
Recuperando nuestro trabajo, 2003, 18min
Argentina's worker occupied factory movement has been an example of
resistance for workersall over the world. In response to theprocess of
deindustrialization and flexible labor markets, thousands of workershave
said enough to exploitation of the working class by bosses and owners.
Marie Trigona
mtrigona at msn.com
http://mujereslibres.blogspot.com/
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