Directed by Fernando Solanas. (STC) 118 min. Opens May 13 at Camera Bar,
1028 Queen W.
Though Argentinian director/activist Fernando Solanas has a head for
politics and a heart in the right place, he has no talent for telling
stories. Social Genocide is a documentary about the tragic mismanagement of Argentina by military dictatorships and neo-liberal sellouts alike. Its basic argument is that decades of internal
repression by the military were nothing compared to the raping and
pillaging of Argentina's economy by the world banks after President
Carlos Menem "globalized" his country in the early 1990s, turning his
back on the workers who voted for him by selling off prosperous public
corporations to international bidders. Since the (relative) glory days
of union-friendly first lady Eva Perón, Argentina has declined from one
of the more progressive Latin American nations to one of the most
destitute and corrupt.
And
that's just the basic argument. Solanas has assembled a truckload of
them in his 40 years of making films about Argentina (minus the five
years he worked in politics as a national deputy, and time spent
recovering from six bullet wounds in his leg after he started
criticizing Menem). These experiences seem to have turned Solanas into
a blamenator instead of a filmmaker, intent on pointing out every
wrongdoing by every official over the last century. His narration and
title cards hurl so many names and numbers at you that you feel bad not
writing them down in case there's a quiz at the end.
If only
Social Genocide were about Argentinians instead of Argentina.
The brief interviews with people on the street give it a hint of human interest,
just enough to make you wish Solanas had gotten off his high horse and into
their lives. After all, it's better to cry for Argentina than to be exhausted
by it.