Cine Argentino Unido, the new coalition group representing Argentinian film organisations, has called for a show of solidarity in Berlin amid an arts funding crisis in the South American country.
On Thursday the group issued a statement in which it hailed Argentina’s artistic presence in the Berlinale this year.
“What should be a source of pride for our entire industry, however, comes in a context of alarm and emergency for the cinema and culture of our country,” the statement said, in reference to firebrand president Javier Milei’s efforts to course-correct a stricken economy buckling under hyperinflation, huge debt, and alarming poverty levels.
“The far-right government is attempting to eliminate and defund all of our national cultural institutions,” the statement continued. ”This has generated a scandal in the world cinematographic sphere, arousing massive and forceful support from the main international figures.”
Last week lawmakers rejected proposals to cut funding to arts and other sectors in the so-called Omnibus Bill. However the film community remains on high alert.
National audiovisual body INCAA, a co-sponsor with the Marché du Cannes of the annual Ventana Sur market in Buenos Aires, remains without a leader and because of that is currently unable to allocate funds to new projects.
Milei recently walked back proposals to slash INCAA funding and eliminate film schools. Yet his broader policies have shocked the country as he devalued the peso by 50% to combat a financial crisis that has created annual inflation of 254%.
Cine Argentino Unido said the proposed law not only attacked culture but “undermines democracy by granting the president special powers and dismantles environmental and social structures, among many damages to the Argentine people”.
It continued, “For three days in a row, the police repressed us with pepper gas and rubber bullets, leaving more than 20 journalists injured, which shows that what is most at stake is freedom of expression.”
There are world premieres in Encounters for Matias Pineiro’s You Burn Me (Tu Me Abrasas) on February 21, and Nele Wohlatz’s Sleep With Your Eyes Open (Bra-Tai-Arg-Ger) co-production on September 17; while Ingrid Pokropek’s The Major Tones (Arg-Sp) plays in Generation on September 17.
Eureka director Lisandro Alonso is one of three people serving on the Encounters jury.
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