\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Back in 2010, Argentina\u2019s most internationally renowned filmmaker Lucrecia Martel was browsing YouTube videos when she suddenly got the chills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Salta-born director was looking for footage of unreached indigenous communities, as part of her research for her 2017 period drama Zama, which took place in the 18th century Spanish colony that would later become Argentina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While browsing, she came across the footage of a crime: the murder of indigenous leader Javier Chocobar in Tucum\u00e1n. He was shot to death by former police officer and mining entrepreneur Dar\u00edo Am\u00edn in 2009, during a faceoff over ownership of the land where the Chuschagasta indigenous community lives. Two other men from the Chuschagasta community were also shot in the attack.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized I had already seen it,\u201d said Martel to the press on Wednesday. \u201cIt was chilling \u2014 I couldn\u2019t believe I had forgotten about it. That\u2019s when I began researching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martel\u2019s first documentary feature, Landmarks follows the trial for Chocobar\u2019s murder and the life of the Chuschagasta community, as it navigates legal disputes over territory, displacement and the fragile preservation of memory. Combining family photographs, legal files and aerial observational scenes, the film examines how documents and images construct history while also revealing what they actually omit.<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s timeline stretched across roughly 15 years, during which production overlapped with Martel\u2019s other projects, including Zama, a literary adaptation that premiered at the Venice film festival in 2017. The initial encounter with the video in YouTube, though, remained the documentary\u2019s starting point. While both of Martel\u2019s latest films share thematic echoes, they address different historical moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe built a nation that has repeatedly rejected Indigenous people and their descendants. These are people we know, they live among us. So while there\u2019s a connection with Zama, this film is about today and about the future. Colonialism laid foundations we as a nation have never changed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The issue, also, is not merely local. As Martel reminded, the conflict that triggered the film \u2014 \u201cthe murdering of a person who was defending what is traditionally his home\u201d, in her own words \u2014 is something that has happened for centuries in this country. In that sense, she said, the current global circumstances are \u201cvery telling\u201d of the importance of land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have witnessed how you can obliterate entire towns in order to obtain land, or nations making decisions about other countries with absolutely selfish purposes. The planetary context is pretty revealing of the huge asset land is, and the need for people to defend the place where they live,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Argentina, Martel said, the indigenous communities\u2019 struggle for their territory is a continuous problem. \u201cWe as a nation cannot drag such an unjust situation endlessly. This condemns us to failure as a country,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n
Following the Chuschagasta community\u2019s story over years deepened her perspective on the issue. \u201cI hope the film encourages people to have patience before judging communities claiming land \u2014 before assuming they\u2019re opportunists,\u201d she said. \u201cMany moved to cities out of necessity or displacement; migration doesn\u2019t erase their identity or their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visual decisions reflect that aim of widening perspectives on the matter. When the film crew saw the police using drones for judicial reenactments at the crime scene, they realized that while drones couldn\u2019t capture the human conflict \u2014 racism, land disputes, hate \u2014 they did reveal the beauty of what\u2019s at stake in that struggle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat beauty matters,\u201d stressed Martel. \u201cIn Argentina we need to reflect on how intolerant we are to the idea of poor people being able to enjoy beauty. We can\u2019t stand it, I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s imprinted in our Argentine nature,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sites Chuschagasta families often choose to build their homes are not what we might choose (thinking of things like water and power supply). Instead, they choose the place that is most beautiful. Perhaps urban planning should learn from that,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n
Stories that are not being told<\/p>\n
Martel\u2019s outspokenly-political fifth film lands amid uncertainty for Argentina\u2019s film industry, which has been particularly targeted by the current administration\u2019s austerity policies. In its latest blow, Javier Milei\u2019s government included inits recently passed labor reform a series of articles that removed the National Institute of Film and Audiovisual Arts\u2019 autonomous source of finance. The articles were later modified, postponing the enforcement of that decision until 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening with Argentine cinema is truly unfortunate because it\u2019s an industry that generates significant added value,\u201d said Martel when asked about the timeliness of her film\u2019s release. While she said efforts to make administrative spending more reasonable are understandable, she argued reforms should aim to \u201ccreate jobs, increase film production, expand conversations and diversify perspectives \u2014 and that isn\u2019t clear right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santiago Gallelli, one of the film producers from Rei Pictures, said the industry\u2019s main automatic funding mechanism remains at risk and has only been temporarily extended.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who produces films knows how long projects take to assemble,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat the industry needs most is predictability, and today we simply don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since most film production in Argentina now depends on streaming platforms\u2019 money, they determine what stories are told, something that Galelli describes as harmful to an industrial ecosystem built over decades of public investment that has been praised worldwide. \u201cMany people are being left out of this system and so many stories cannot even begin to be told,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In Martel\u2019s view, the weakening of local film production also risks erasing cultural representation. \u201cI miss watching actors,\u201d she said. \u201cI miss seeing Buenos Aires, our cities, those representations of ourselves. Not having that is dangerous,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The issue is cultural rather than purely economic. Cinema, she said, helps societies understand themselves \u2014 \u201cour lives, our cities, even our stupid Argentine habits.\u201d That shared symbolic space, she added, \u201cis what makes a country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s dangerous when a government misunderstands its link to an industry that is also part of our culture. What they are dismantling is also what allows us to understand ourselves not as isolated individuals but as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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