Memories of the Looting: A Social Genocide in Argentina

Legendary Argentinean filmmaker Fernando E. Solanas' latest film, A Social Genocide, had its U.S. premiere at the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival. The 2001 collapse of the Argentinean economy and the following resistance, organized horizontally through assemblies in the streets, in the workplace and in the neighborhoods, captured the imagination of global justice activists around the world. San Francisco, being a historic epicenter of various incarnations of anti-capitalism activism, packed the sold-out theater.

Solanas' film is a deeply personal poetic reflection of the history of the neoliberal ransacking of the Argentinean economy. The Spanish title, Memorias del Saque, literally translates into “Memories of the Ransacking”. This title carries a double meaning as the film begins and ends with the ransacking of the supermarkets by a population robbed by generations of neoliberals.

A Social Genocide has some of the best footage of the street fighting that took place during the tense weeks at the end of 2001, but that is not the substance of the film. For almost a full 2 hours, viewers are treated to a systematic analysis of how neoliberalism robbed Argentina. From the setup by the military dictatorship to the governments of Alfonsin and Menem, the film is a history lesson about the privatization of Argentina as a result of blackmail by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), carefully orchestrated by the economic minister Cavallo. Cavallo had borrowed money in an attempt to maintain the unrealistic 1-to-1 peso-dollar peg, leading the country to request even more loans to pay the interest. These were granted on the condition of privatizing a few industries here and there, eventually leading to the privatization of nearly every industry in Argentina.

Solanas' first-person style filmmaking is brilliant, especially contrasted with that of nauseating Michael Moore. Unlike Moore's films, A Social Genocide is not about the filmmaker as the hero but as a member of society. We only see Solanas twice, one time for a brief moment during an interview and the second time from archival footage of the filmmaker on crutches. Solanas was shot with 6 bullets for being an outspoken critic of the privatization of YPF, the oil and natural gas industry of Argentina. He reminds us that Argentina was the only country in Latin America to sell its oil reserves to foreign multinationals. For Solanas, this is preposterous and is something that Argentineans need to know. News from Argentina is that the film is a huge success and provides essential information to young people who did not witness the ransacking but are feeling the effects firsthand.

Unfortunately it is unlikely that this film will get major distribution in the United States; the screenings will be left to the initiative of independent theaters such as the Roxie and the Red Vic, individuals who decide to organize screenings or BitTorrent websites such as indytorrents.org.