The Homeless Percentage - Festival Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata 2008 The Homeless Percentage By Ivonete Pinto

" N i g h t O v e r s l e e p e r s " ( D i e g o C a r a b e l l i , Á ng e l e s Casares, Hernán Pablo Khourian, Sebastián Martínez)

The current pr oduction s of the Argenti nean cine ma, a s reve aled in the 2 3rd edit ion of Mar del Plata Internat io nal Fil m Fest ival, find a comm on concern perme a ting seven of the fourteen movie s in t he competiti on. Whether as the m ain or underl yin g theme, the issue of homele ssne ss w as not iceable in fully h a lf of the Argentinean fi l ms sh owing in the Internation al, Latin Ameri can and Argentine a n competiti ons. These m ovies, which were the focus of atte ntion for the FIPRESCI jury, reflect an econom ic cri si s that reached its highest level during the government of Pres ident Fe rnando d e la Rúa f rom 199 9 to 2 00 1. In the las t months of thi s per iod, the country of the myt hic Eva Pe rón faced the bankruptcy o f private comp anie s an d banks, generating th e inevitable consequen ce of a paup erized population. Man y people found themselves jobless, without expectation for future empl oyment or government al aid , and found themselves liv ing on the streets. This "ho meles s percent a ge" in the festiv al pro gram i s not nece ss ari ly attached t o histor ic al re colle ction s o r the denunc iati on of a s pecific g overnment, bec ause so me of the homeless bel ong to a margin alized str atu m; in addition to pove rty, they are mentally unbal anced a nd soc ia lly dy sfunction al. At any rate, unde rstanding the context of the Argentinean econo my is fund am ental. Argentina is a c ountry which reached its f inanc ia l zen ith with agro -exportat io n at the tu rn of the 2 0th century. The impos ing Europe an -style architecture i s a re minder of this apex; however, the sidewalk s of these build ings are now filled with people wandering the city without a place to live. Night Oversleepe rs (Los Pernoctantes) and Retir o Shelter (Parado r Retiro) surely are the movies address ing this theme m ost vi sibly and in a di rect fash ion. In the first movie, four di rector s (H ernán Pabl o Khou ri an, Se basti án Ma rtínez, Diego Carabell i a nd Ángeles Cas ares) foll ow the trajectories of four chara cters liv ing on the streets of Buenos Aire s. Under the marquee of a the ater, there is a wo man, appr oximately 80 years of age, whose cl ot hes and speech reveal h er middle -cla ss or igin s. Like her, the other ch ara cters p ortray ed in the f ilm al so sha re the profile s of people who were not "born on the street s", b ut have ended up inh abi ting the streets out of c ircum stance. The approac h on the par t of the direct ors, h owe ver, is n ot s imply t o tell sad stor ies; instead, they want to explore their s ubjects' rela tionsh ips with the object s they carry, and with the people (an d dogs) with whom they share the ir sp ace. The narr ation is declar ative, not investig ative. On the other hand, Jorge Coles' Retiro Shelter has an even les s inva siv e process i n

relati on to the camera: It portrays its char act ers in open plain s, without betraying intim acie s. Nevertheless , by virtue of the extensive footage c aptured, it was po ssib le to shape the mater ia l by electing l ines and gestu res that let us under sta nd a l ittle of the background storie s, and why the character s s pend their nights in a sh elter. José Ca mpusan o's Vil e R omance (Vil R oman ce) fo llows a young ga y ma n i n sear ch of a father, a husband and a home who ends up finding all of these together in an older man, though at a very h i gh price. In this ho meles s scr ap, it is w orth point ing out that the central cha racter h a s a mother and a s ister with whom, it ap pear s, he could live. But it's not really an option, thanks to one sordid detai l: The family home is a brothel, and the two of them work there as prost i tutes. Pablo Agüero' s Sal ama nder (Sala mandr a) is a fic tional wo rk based on the director' s own ch ildhood. Set in th e 19 80 s, the st ory f inds the ma in ch ar acter's m other, just out of pri son, abducting her own son — who had be en livi ng with h is grand mother — and taking hi m to l ive in a hi ppie com munity on the b orders of Patagon ia cal l ed El Bo lsón. Surrounded by addict s and filth, the boy surv ives in a de lic ate m an ner reca lling Truffaut's young he roes. He never c ompla ins, eve n when hi s m other f inal l y gets out of this pl ace a nd rents a t iny hou se whi ch i s s o tr emendously awful th at makes a slum resemble a luxury ho tel. The search for a place t o call ho me goes on.

" R e t i r o S h e l t e r " ( J o r g e C o l es )

Mar iano Cohn and Ga stó n Duprat, the direct ors of The Artist (El Artista) , do not focus directly on the h omele ss ; instead, thei r fil m l oo ks at a senio rs' res idenc e, home to a gifted painter whose wo rks are signed and s old by a nurse with out his k nowledge. The metaphor ic p ower in thi s fil m h as the higher vo i ce and we a re led t o un derstand th at the house of the h ospi talized m an is h is own creat ive m ind, com mu nicat ing only through abstra ct drawing s. In The Assembly (La A ss emblea), the homeles s theme is als o obl iquely present. The scenar io of thi s docu me ntary, directed b y G ale l Ma idan a, is a psy chi a tric ho spita l where the is sue under discu ssi on i s the rem ov al of the pat ients fro m asylu ms and placement back at home with their fami lie s, where they might be treated in a more beneficia l environ ment. It is in B ack to Fortín Ol mos (Regreso a Fort ín Ol mos) th at the h omele ss get closer to realiz ing the drea m of h aving ho mes of their own . Patric io Co ll and Jorge Goldenberg's documentar y reflects upon an ill -conce ived experiment in co -oper ativi sm , which took place in Argentin a in the 19 60 s o n the lands of a lumber de aler. Forty yea rs l ater, the director s interview th os e who survived th is experience and le arn that the homele ss countrymen of th at ti m e never c ould im agine t hey would be come land owners. Their co-operativ ism and self -manageme nt indeed pro vided the opportunity f or thi s drea m to come true. Notwithst anding, the i mages of a bandonment seen toda y do not le ave any doubt that the experience of Fort ín Olmo s was noth ing more than utopia. The heirs of these co untry men form the lines o f homeless and landle ss people in

movements that are gro wing more and more in Latin Amer ic a. Perhaps thi s themat ic axis wa s not one c o nsci ously pr oces sed by the festival program mer. But there is no doubt that the s ubject points to a sign if ica nt soc ial concern. The dispos ses s ed street society we us ed to imagine being co nfined to the slum s of India i s now a g lobal re ality. And judgin g by the origins of the c urrent North Ameri can fin anc ial cr is i s, with banks forecl os i ng on defaulted mortgages, such a situat ion i s no longer th e "privilege" of po or nati ons. More mov ies ab out the homeless percentage will be comi n g. Ivonete Pinto