7/21/2012: The north of Argentina in the year 2000: At a congress the peasant and indigenous communities organized within the Movimiento Campesino in Santiago del Estero (MoCaSe-Via Campesina) decided something previously unheard of: They will build and operate their own radio stations. No longer will they endure the mass media’s ignorant and erroneous coverage of their life situation. Today five stations are already operating. The campesinos use them to exchange uncensored messages across the entire country. The radio stations provide a sense of community. They strengthen the struggle of the peasants against land theft and oppression. And of course the five stations bring the music that the campesinos love.
It’s all about finally being listened to. In her documentary Viviana Uriona gives a voice to those who have been robbed of their rights and are standing up against disenfranchisement. It is up to them to tell the story of the film trough their own narratives. And they do say what they have to say with just as much self-confidence which helped them start the radio stations. Now these stations aid their struggle for self-determination and against injustice and land grabbing. In the documentary, the peasants engage in the subversive act of tearing down the barbed wire fences belonging to the big corporations, dissipating the previously conceived notions of what is possible in the minds of the public. Now, all across the country, justice, previously thought of as an unattainable utopia, seems within reach.
The film gives courage to stand up against all social injustices, big and small, that used to seem so insurmountable – even in the western world.
Just as the old Eloisa says in the film: “My husband almost wanted to give up. Poor boy.”
In the mid-90s the filmmaker Viviana Uriona was involved with the Cologne Filmclub 813. Lately she focused on the production of radio features. Her interest in radio and its democratic power drove her into the north of Argentina for filming. Nora Wetzel (Editor) is a free director and editor since 2006. She recently finished a documentary on Cuban street musicians. The Kameradists are a free association of documentary filmmakers and photographers with a critical view of politics and society.
