In memory of: Humberto "El Negro" Ríos.
In collaboration with
Ríos of the Patria Grande
If a man can´t dance, he will shout, if he can´t shout, he will sing,
if he can´t sing, he will dance, but he will always find a way to express his resistance.
For me, there is one thing that will always remain a mystery.
What is memory?
Is it an affection or a finding?
Or is a...
call to be present.
Images that retain their mark on your memory.
My early childhood was in Sucre.
Well, there... I cut myself off from the memory of that image.
I then went back to the memory of my home,
it was a house where I spent my childhood.
And that I recovered.
On a trip I made two years ago to Sucre.
I went to that very same place,
the front of the house has remained the same
but not inside.
The spiral staircase in the backyard has remained the same.
Did you live here 70 years ago?
Yes...
in 193...
from 192...
And I remember that spiral staircase very well,
it took me to the first floor where my bedroom was.
And there was a very long rope, running through the yard.
Where the sheets were hung,
the sheets used to move,
they gave the feeling of ghosts wondering around.
Those are the memories of my early childhood.
After that memory, suddenly, I was on a train...
through Southern Bolivia:
Uyuni, Potosí, Villazón, La Quiaca.
The most powerful memory...
is reaching the railway station of Buenos Aires.
I listened to the people: "The sea, the sea".
And when I looked out of the window, I saw the River of La Plata.
For me, that was the sea, I had never seen the sea before.
I was used to seeing the mountains as walls,
and the vast and deep horizon...
for me it was the sea.
Only now at 40 years old, am I beginning to know and understand...
what my father did for a job.
For certain reasons I never wanted to know.
Actually, I'm only starting to know who he was.
I know almost nothing...
I do remember something,
he always said, that had gone by boat...
to study paintings in Paris.
This is where he got an ear infection,
so he had to be hospitalized...
and at the Hospital he met a lady...
I do not remember who she was.
She showed him some photos, I don´t know what that the pictures where of
but for that reason, he decided to study cinema
and leave his artistic career.
I got sick...
my ears got swollen.
I was hospitalized, I had health insurance so...
I could go to the Hospital.
And there I had surgery.
A woman came to visit me, her name was...
Isabel Arguía.
She brought various photos with...
they were pictures of a movie that she made with Fernando Birri.
It's called "Tire Die".
social cinema...
She told me about her experiences of film.
And that gave me inspiration to think about...
studying cinema.
They went to "Tire Die"...
when they don´t go to school they go to "Tire Die".
Little by little, but they bought notebooks,
a few pencils,
they bought it with the money that people gave them in the train during the "Tire Die".
We are on earth, the filmmakers are there.
Dear friend,
as you know, I find myself recuperating after falling ill.
I think the street this time played a trick on me.
I have already returned home, determined to study at the Institute of Cinematography,
which I did not even know existed until a few days ago.
I'm studying French and algebra to pass the exam...
Do you know the relationship between these two subjects and cinema?
Anyway...
Putting aside the problem of my ear, I feel good here.
But let me know how are you in Argentina...
I only get news from friends and some reports.
Last moment! Urgent! Urgent!
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
...The Liberating Revolution mandate entrusted to me...
I knew that the situation has not improved much since I left...
it keeps fucking,
layoffs, factory shutdowns, prohibitions
And other things.
Note that I spend many hours in the Latin Quarter of Paris...
We have long talks with Latin Americans partners,
discussed enough,
but no one knows exactly what happens every day in our countries.
Just living there everyday could explain to us deeply what is happening,
and why.
I know you could inform me about it,
shed some light on this tangle,
that is life itself.
Send your wife a hug.
Au revoir,
Humberto Rios.
Contagion and inspiration, will create the unity of Latin America.
Indeed delegates,
It is likely that, when speaking, my accent says
something about me coming from Argentina.
I was born in Argentina, it is not a secret to anyone.
I am Cuban, and I'm Argentinian too.
And if the Illustrious Lordships of Latin America are not offended,
I feel so patriotic of Latin America, of any country in Latin America,
as anyone should be.
When someone needs me,
I would be willing to give my life,
for the freedom of any of the countries in Latin America.
Without asking anything from anyone, without demanding anything.
Without exploiting anyone.
In that popular disposition ...
Not only is this temporary representative to this meeting.
The people of Cuba, are with that belief.
...for showing the ICAIC,
but it will not be money that you have to pay for film rights.
Is the backlight well drawn?
Is it okay drawn with light?
Ok... 1, 2, 3, 4.
Let's see... is it recording?
Humberto can I ask if...
But, but...
No! It´s not recording.
audio only.
Ahhh!
He got scared...
We synchronize?
Good 1... 1, 2, 3.
The Cuban Revolution was a guide.
And much more Cuban cinema,
because the Cuban cinema had discovered that the revolution was also in cinema.
The Cubans had made some beautiful films,
and they taught us, somehow, how a film can be included within a socialist system.
That movement, was a huge movement...
It was completely different from commercial cinema.
Which moved and shook the structures of an undistinguished and commercial cinema...
entertainment, pure entertainment, escape...
It was the militant Latin American cinema.
Consolidate the idea of a Latin American Cinema, defending their values and points of views.
For those who fall, for those who suffer, for those who struggle and resist.
Documentary film...
It is the main foundation of a revolutionary filmmaking.
Latin hunger is not only an alarming symptom...
It is the nerve of its own society.
Intellectual engagement is measured by risks.
Not words or ideas only,
but with acts that run in the cause of liberation.
But they were not phased who came,
they were fugitives from a civilization that we are eating each other.
Resisting is overcoming.
And there, many of them had ideas...
and they said, "Well, let's see..."
And the call was formalized by the Meeting of Vina del Mar 1967
to Latin American filmmakers.
Finally, when the first meeting was finished...
it was a very important meeting because it lay the foundation of the background down,
about what would be the future of Latin American Cinema,
and then the New Latin American Cinema.
Regarding the projects, we had everyone inside our...
corresponding to a cinema that had to look at themselves.
When the second meeting was held in 1969, it had already been a long time since 1967...
and there it happened, a really rich formalized meeting...
in terms of aesthetic and ethical proposals.
The Cuban Revolution, located Vina del Mar 1969 at its peak.
What movies said, was the conception that cinema...
is an effective and powerful tool,
used to express the fact that it was excluded from the screens in general.
And as a tool to raise awareness for the viewers,
about the situation that was forbidden ...
this new cinema opened.
It was an open, investigatory and committed window.
A film made in the heat of the popular protests...
Recording clashes, recording repressions...
recording the torture to which they were subjected popular politicians.
We have experienced firsthand, the weight and burden of this destructive device,
that was the genocidal Argentinean dictatorship.
That took many victims of our cinema.
Not only preventing this film from being made,
but also...
having noticed, those people who, through the cinematic experience...
and through this film have
also developed a great personal commitment...
which led them to take active positions and revolutionary politicians, much more clarity.
Latin American cinema will be made from the flesh and blood of the people living in the territory.
...Press number 1 of the military meeting...
...It was communicated to the population...
TENSION: there is a military government.
...The population that is prohibited communicates...
...Anyone who violates this...
...Operational control of military forces...
"El Negro" had no stockings, my God...
or shirt either.
And there you see ... what else I'm going to talk about?
I just spoke... I just said.
I just told you...
Raymundo Gleyzer and Humberto Rios were brothers, dear friends... and nothing else.
Actually, Humberto taught cinema to Raymundo.
And then from Mexico, Raymundo called Humberto to make the film camera of "Mexico..."
Humberto, was his teacher.
This is a photo of the filming of "Ceramiqueros ..."
You can see "El Negro" with his brick tripod.
Raymundo was the director...
They had the same sync these two, for shooting.
And they were totally colleagues and...
so they filmed so many movies together.
And tell me Alcira, do you think that will help with this film?
And maybe you help us, because in all this time nobody helped us.
Nowadays I see...
Raymundo images,
and he is now living.
Today he is still living, and I talk to him.
and today I had a conversation with him.
I often spend time...
watching the movie "Mexico..."
at all times I remember how we set the camera,
what we said at that moment,
what was the anger...
the insult,
or... or the compliment
at that time it came to set the camera.
It was the point at which we left the camera.
There was a moment that I fell down with the camera in hand.
This was the moment that he picked up the camera.
This was the moment that I had the wrong diaphragm.
That memory suddenly comes alive,
takes on a life in which...
memory is much more attached to what one feels,
about what the image is.
The memory that the image brings is much more than the actual image itself.
What you could see, looked as if it were a bad horror movie.
I mean... a shoe thrown...
as a staging too raw for reality.
A shoe thrown, not two, only one...
I do not know why... you know? It is as if they had busted him... there is the shoe.
The carpet was not there... you think, they rolled him on the carpet.
With Greta, we started to collect and make...
because they threw everything except the movies.
For heavy rolls of 16mm ... they have said, "What is this?"
And the other donkey, thief, turd, gross, will be saying "I do not know ..."
"What is the value?"
They stole records, the record player... things they could sell, the robbers.
Which took them 10 to 15 people to do this barbarism.
The day that Raymundo disappeared...
is very particular and strange day.
Because I remember...
We had a... we had meet at 10 am.
I had to go to his house...
to chat, to adjust some things...
That we had discussed quite a few days ago.
Then I said, "Fuck the issues... let's meet sometime"
And I had another job to do at home...
I was photographing political material that we sent abroad,
to be published there.
And... I was late.
So I had to be at his home at 10am...
and I said... "I'll call him"
to tell him that I'll be a little late.
I had no phone, so I went to phone at the corner bar.
And nobody answered the call.
And that gut feeling of survival that one has...
when working underground,
always making us so cautious and aware.
Something told me inside of me "Do not go there Nerio..."
I did not know why, but I said "It's very strange that he does not answer the call."
We had hung many posters...
thousands of posters demanding the release of Raymundo Gleyzer.
Then we did a very important act in the Anthropology Museum.
It was here that Jorge Fons spoke on behalf of the Mexican cinema.
And Humberto Rios, on behalf of Argentina cinematography.
I have the words of Humberto for sure...
and Fons' words too...
and I have some images.
It is in film...
Where is that...
you have to...
It would be nice if you dedicate yourself to explore it with me, but you lift up the film cans...
That's not in the University of Mexico.
That's here.
And here...
here has to be...
And one of these...
so... it should be.
If you want to find it you have to put some work clothes on,
leave the camera and get to work here...
and in a couple of hours we found it.
Isn´t it?
It is not there... in the room, next to...
Press the button...
Hello?
Yes, who is it?
I have to use reading glasses because I do not see a damn...
I'm going to sit here...
Banananera, Nicaragua.
Uruguay.
Asturias.
artwork, Uruguay.
Chile.
Raymundo Act!
1978, Mexico, May...
Here's "El Negro".
Wonderful.
The audio record of Raymundo Act...
does not exist.
We've lost... originally existed.
I filmed that, the images you are going to have, I filmed them.
Freedom of Raymundo Gleyzer, Latin American Filmmakers Committee.
This letter was written by my father, from Mexico in 1982...
to remind Raymundo.
Just pieces of memory,
a picture emerges, another fades...
some other confusion in time and betrays me.
A feeling boundless
or maybe with limits close to fear.
I remind Raymundo daily...
that we met and shared conversations with coffees.
Strolling through the bright streets of Buenos Aires.
Or on dusty roads with a camera on our shoulder.
But I can´t do it...
I am not poet. I´m not able to recreate with words one atmosphere,
And I am not the historian who remembers every single moment...
and the echoes of shared life.
I think I'm just a man who appeared in Raymundo's life during certain times...
some privileged stages, for example, when we shared tasks,
we grew up simultaneously in a Latin American consciousness.
And I think...
When the time in which...
death...
has you... so caught,
that there's not...
a grip, no support towards life?
I thought many times.
Many times in which...
my people were passing away.
My friends were passing away.
Humberto, I very much appreciate your time, communication...
to be able to tell us a little more about what happened on May the 27th...
Documentarian Day in honor and pay tribute to Raymundo Gleyzer.
Well... if you want another day we can call you to ask...
What are the Argentinian documentaries like today?
You think?
Good...
I would like to add something:
today is a tribute to documentary filmmakers...
a special tribute to Raymundo Gleyzer.
But we must not forget that there are other...
documentary filmmakers, who also disappeared.
They were also killed.
Cedron case, the case of Enrique Juarez...
They are also documentary filmmakers,
who were kidnapped
and they were killed.
So, tribute to Raymundo extends...
to a whole generation of fearless filmmakers...
that somehow,
responded with their civil act,
against an unfair society that they were living in.
The image and memory of Raymundo...
fleet throughout the Latin American region, especially in Argentina.
But they are also present;
Enrique Juárez,
and Jorge Cedrón.
Humberto thank you very much.
Bye.
Good luck.
Exile is a new battlefront
I left Argentina, for a very fundamental reason...
the military dictatorship was tremendous.
In addition, the disappearance of my friends...
Raymundo Gleyzer, who was my student...
had disappeared.
And other comrades...
Pablo Szir, Jorge Cedrón...
all those people.
But also... there was a very strong situation in Argentina which was unknown.
Or was barely known, by news that we got...
But when Laura Bonaparte arrived in Mexico
and I heard how she had suffered...
I made a film,
logically, I did an interview with Laura...
but at the same time, I was showing and proving what happened in Argentina.
For the first time...
and that material was used as a political tool.
There are 8,000 dead people...
10,000 political prisoners.
There are 60 concentration camps...
there is a crematorium in La Perla, Province of Cordoba.
And a gas chamber, south of Buenos Aires Province.
We demand that the military government must stop torturing people.
Which it is of unprecedented cruelty.
We demand that the Constitution is respected.
We demand the list of disappeared people,
and they tell us where they are.
And... we also demand
to be informed about where our dead are.
And because... we were in a political situation in Argentina
where the dictatorship was at its peak and...
what we tried was that international solidarity
had to help stop that.
And we fought for social justice in Argentina.
No... no, exile was the extent of the struggle.
And the ability to keep doing things abroad...
it was the only way we had to support what was happening there.
We arrived to Mexico in 1976,
and "Roma 1" was already working...
was the "COSPA", was the House of Solidarity with the Argentine people.
And it was where we came, those who did not know where we were going to live...
we got to Mexico, it was a totally unknown country,
and in some cases there was no contact.
This is London Street...
This letter is dated July 17th,
one of the last letters written by "El Negro".
Dear Marta, I do not know if I will continue traveling...
so I still don´t remember that place.
It is the place I've always been to, since we arrived in Mexico...
was the building of "Roma 1" Street.
Every Saturday there were acts of exile made in different places
but emblematic were in "Rome 1".
COSPA then moved to Florida neighborhood.
And this was the funeral of Rodolfo and Campora.
Well, I think more than anything it is a challenge to my memory we're playing.
This was the entrance.
If someone is inside, it would have to be the janitor...
Reception...
This is the Campora´s funeral.
He arrived in Mexico very sick.
The funeral was in the other Argentina House, in the CAS.
You wonder why there were two Argentinean Houses...
and that was the result of different political lines,
internal debate,
different point of views about political work in exile.
The COSPA had split and...
it had generated the Argentine Solidarity Committee.
I was somewhere else, in another house...
and on the other hand, was the house of Montoneros,
the famous house of Montoneros on Alabama Street in Mexico.
And there,
"El Negro" circulated by any of the two areas.
"El Negro" was this great union, he managed to generated this union.
It was like the great link...
of Latin American filmmakers.
Because everybody knew him, the Cuban filmmakers of course...
Chilean filmmakers, Brazilian...
and he cultivated this friendship.
For him, the Latin American cinema was the center and purpose of his thinking.
Yes... the belief, integrity...
that was "El Negro" Ríos.
He got along with other people and filmmakers of Argentina,
fleeing this terrible time of the dictatorship.
We had already received film people...
From Chile,
Glauber Rocha was also in exiled here...
We, as a network of film people.
From...
as the New Latin American Cinema,
also we knew...
this was the Mexico that born with Lazaro Cardenas,
open to receive all.
And especially the politically persecuted...
That is the Mexico I want.
we have now become rabid dogs of the "gringos"...
with migrants.
And it's a terrible shame.
We must go back to how we were...
always open and...
and join together with everyone.
Latin America is the home of everyone...
So... for me it is very hard...
to see what happens today.
Living took them. They are not with us, 43.
38 ... 39 ... 40 ... 41 ... 42 ... 43
Justice!
Because they took them alive...
Alive we want them!
Fuck...
open course of Latin American Political Film.
June 30.
It concerns to the country Bolivia.
Topic: Political Cinema.
Speaker: Humberto Rios.
Filmoteca UNAM,
CUEC.
It was unfailingly...
creating a dialectical cinema.
That is, a cinema...
where conception, was not limited to simply show,
but to know;
Who?
how?
why?
how?
the film could become a revolutionary weapon.
How to make a revolutionary cinema?
Why does this misery occurs?
Who are the guilty?
How to fight?
how?
And with what weapons?
...Buy mattresses, washing machine, refrigerators...
Any time,
throughout the city... it's amazing.
These are like the "tamales" seller.
Mexico tied him forever...
"El Negro" was touched deeply, more than the entire history of Paris,
more than the his history with Europe...
Mexico touched him deeply forever.
Forever...
and from Mexico, Latin America.
Because somehow too, the ones that came to Mexico,
was another lighthouse... was another way to climb to see the big picture of what was Central America...
we lived all the Revolutionary Movement of Central America.
That link with the reality of Latin America, was decisive and really important...
for those who stayed and those who returned.
And I think that enriched us.
It was him, he was that...
because he was also a man who had so much joy...
so had the camera, he was always with the camera.
He wanted to have everything filmed.
He was living permanently by and for the cinema.
He was a camera...
was a...
an incredible human being.
...Together with other Mothers...
...608 Squad...
...We had gone there to ask...
...Development has been conceived...
...It is inhumane...
...The revolutionary bourgeoisie does not resolve anything, nothing is resolved, nor can it solve any of the problems...
...The results of the elections...
...And they told us we could give some information...
As a political activist...
there is something I'm missing.
And those...
are my streets, my people...
my relationship with my people,
sensations...
the experiences.
And all this comes together so I have to be there.
Because I believe it is my obligation to return.
And to take this risk with the people...
is a...
how do you say it...
It is a privilege for a committed man.
Board.
Final clapperboard.
Cut.
The idea is the Great Fatherland, which adds to the idea of liberation (which together is the same thing)
An agreement can not be a one-way road...
prosperity in one direction.
An agreement may not be an imposition based on...
the relative positions of strength.
Therefore, we still think that it will not be useful for that kind of integration.
Simply signing an agreement will not be an easy or direct path to prosperity.
We believe it is a threat from USA...
to Latin America and the Caribbean.
What should we do?
Unity plus unity
review the past great battles that our people suffered...
There are also ways of wanting to intrude.
The USA government must be convinced that we are no longer in an Imperial intrusion time...
And the neoliberal model is not useful for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Hopefully they understand that we will not accept countries of first, second, and third category...
They need some History courses and understanding...
that we no longer live 500 years ago,
this is the Latin America of the XXI Century,
it is free, independent, proud and sovereign.
Bush, fascist, you're the terrorist!
When there is a new government in the United States we are going to send an ambassador...
a government that respects the people of Latin America...
To the Simon Bolivar Latin American, fuck!
Fuck shit, Yankees!
here are worthy people.
The filmmaker will film as he can, where he can, as a duty, as a political activist of image.
It is not the trade-union structure, or the productive structure of Hollywood...
or any commercial production.
No, it is not!
Thus...
one may makes movies as you can,
and make movies when you can...
and make films as a duty.
As a political activist...
and political activist of the image.
Time goes by...
time goes by,
and the memory I remember is becoming less detailed.
If you ask someone who attended the school that "El Negro" was at...
I think no one will know what to say...
For us, "El Negro" was a part of a generation which we lived...
and that in recent years... the memories are gone, the people who were is passing away.
They are no longer... and possibly no one will remember him.
But if you talk to people of our age...
I think you can have a very wide answer of who was "El Negro".
And how was his participation here.
But nowadays, talk about a legacy of "El Negro"...
That was only in us.
Nearby people, those who lived with him, we shared and enjoyed him...
but now, at the latest...
In the same way I think it will happen to us...
Time advances and after 10 years no one is going to remember you.
So what to do to remember this...
Well, I think...
the cinema is completely suited to answer: who was "El Negro"?
Who was "El Negro" ?, What he did?, Where was he?.
The Humberto Rios proposal was: to be consistent...
and be committed with your film.
And finally, any documentary that you make...
It will be noticed by all the ideological, political and social commitment of the filmmaker.
Then it is part of the formation and history of Latin America.
I think...
Documentary conceptions, by Humberto Rios.
I understand that documentary film is something that can capture complex realities...
analyze and reveal the face of hidden situations,
behind the tangle of misinformation,
provided by the mass media...
aligned with the interests of the major imperialist powers.
Dominant mode, necessity to know and learn about our people...
people in many other countries, have been satisfied.
With few exceptions...
by mainstream media confinement, dedicated to mask...
the real causes of social problems.
The repetitive nature of these images cause a sort shock for people to get used to the horror.
But this image domain is not absolute,
There are possibilities for,
the underlying elements of a document emerge to reach the light.
Aided by the implicit contradiction, the ideological vehicle,
and the supposedly objective image,
and in particular for the efforts of honest journalists and filmmakers...
intensely dedicated to perform a task of counterinformation.
Dominant information and counterinformation, trigger a war of images.
Where everyone, those who seek and record, and those viewers...
they are immersed every day playing their consciences.
The documentary film allows us to examine the reality...
from a solidarity perspective on events that...
we just have fragmentary acknowledge.
Almost always partial, that's why it limits our ability to understand that reality...
and acting on it, transforming it.
This kind of cinema exposes a triple situation:
documents sores and social problems of a country and people...
strikes the face of self-satisfied social groups, with its unchanging vision of reality...
Basically, that kind of cinema is a witness of injustice.
Overcoming the effects that this cinema has by focusing on the cinema of causes,
of deepening, links, connection between people.
It comes to my mind a phrase I read somewhere and I can't remember who the author is...
"At this time of the image, death is not total...
documentary film images make the death less death. "
You want to add something, a word?
I want to know just how this miracle may have...
I think this miracle was given by the conjunction, at this historic moment,
wills youth who want to leave out the destructive process of being unable to do.
And to think that this can occur and reproduce in Latin America.
...We think the region that could be Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean...
They come together and unite in one word: Latin America.
Humberto Rios, thank you very much.
"El Negro" knew what we wanted...
"El Negro" knew it because he came from that history.
And "El Negro" was fundamental for me, because he knew Latin America as anyone...
and I think this was the important thing...
It gives me great happiness to know that he spent his last years watching...
what was happening.
It was what he wanted all his life...
and see so many young people producing, and viewing images of Latin America that reflect on screens...
It was for him a happiness.
Forest scene, shot 10, take 2.
Scene 7, shot 40.
Action.
Without debate, there is no possible film.
We are no longer so dependent, not so obedient to empires...
they fulfilled their role, historical, dominant...
some genocides and some made putsch.
That´s all.
Now is time for us, to be who we are in the future...
we are human beings standing.
We are human beings who have skin tanned by the struggle...
We are human beings who deserve all respect.
And a filmmaker today, who is studying film in schools,
has to know the History,
It is almost mandatory that they have to see it because they have to know...
It's like know your parents or ignore them.
And based on that, go the way they think necessary...
and not to betray old ideologies, and can create new values.
That is the possibility to dignify the Latin American being.
We are Latin Americans not because we are living here...
we can feel Latin Americans because...
we are making a great effort to create that fatherland.
And in that sense, young people have an inescapable obligation...
I'm not saying they have to make a cinema of battle, a film of a political fraction.
I say it has to be essentially political...
with this I mean: that beyond a colour for politics,
they must be politicians in action.
Move the threads of the History...
in order to create suitable spaces...
for debate, and a revival of Latin American thought.
That simple.
And difficult...
Good...
Did that camera also film me?
I was right here... and I filmed too.
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