Argentine filmmaker and producer Jorge Denty dies | At age 79, in Mexico

Prestigious film and television director and producer George Denty died on Thursday night aged 79. He is one of many Argentines Had to go into exile during the dictatorship; In his case, he died in Mexico, the country where he settled permanently. An ardent defender of social and popular causesWith Dendy, part of the history of national politics and militant cinema is gone, but his documentaries are fully devoted to the central aspects of the continent and the most relevant social, political and artistic figures from Latin America.

Born in 1943, During the 70s, Denty was part of the legendary group Cine de la Pace, founded by filmmaker Raymundo Glazer. When Glazer was disappeared by the dictatorship, part of the Cine de la Pace group left for Peru to form. AAA is three arms (1977), a documentary inspired by Rodolfo Walsh’s open letter to the junta. As the 1978 World Cup approaches, This film is one of the kicks of the campaign to condemn the perversions of dictatorship. Denty spoke with George Cedron about the possibility of adapting “that brave testimony of Rodolfo” to the cinema, he once told this historian.

In 1978, in Nicaragua, the Sandinista Front called upon the cultural and political organizations and groups in Mexico (not only Mexican, but also Latin American), asking them to cooperate in a final struggle against the Somoza dictatorship. At the time, Cine de la Paz in Mexico followed suit and was part of the filmmakers reflected in the documentary. Victory of armed people. “It was a collaborative project with a lot of political pressure from all sides,” Denty described. In the late 79’s and early 80’s, a literacy campaign began in Nicaragua. The Central American country had an illiteracy rate of over 60 percent, and the nearly year-long campaign reduced it to 10 percent. That was history Cultural Rebellion, Filmed by Denty come in 1980 and 1981.

The first Argentine documentary about the Malvinas War was made by Mexican exile Denti: Falklands. A history of betrayals It was published in 1982, a year after the end of the war. The film was almost completely diffused during the government of Raúl Alphonse. What happened was different in Latin America and Europe, where it had stronger influence – and support – and was aired publicly on different occasions. At that time, the idea arose to create a film reflecting the political, social and economic causes of the Malvinas War, but with a specialty: analyzed by members of different departments on the Argentine and English sides. It is difficult to understand the extent to which the British were interested in a documentary made by an Argentine about the Malvinas War, which was only understood when Denty was working on the documentary when he met the English film critic Michael Shannon. George Sanchez, Dente’s distributor for the project, told Shannon the idea the filmmaker had. Shannon then put him in touch with the fledgling Channel Four in London. Finally he reached an agreement with that television signal. Even so, it was not easy as conservatives opposed the film’s distribution Daily news Under the title “Argentina stop the film”, the parliament asked to ban the exhibition. “But they couldn’t do that in England, and it happened,” Denty recalled.

Denty did not only film important social and political events. Inescapable images of Argentine and Latin American culture approached through the eyes of his camera. In HAMLET Lima Quintana, the poet and musician told his own story and read excerpts from his iconic works. His father also wrote poetry and was an admirer of Shakespeare. This led him to call his son not just Hamlet, but Romeo, something Lima Quintana insisted on hiding. His father was a musician like his mother, an accomplished pianist. From such a family came an important figure in the literary and musical history of Latin America.

In Juan Gelman and other issues, throughout ninety minutes, the poet created a series of memories related to his parents and his childhood in Villa Crespo, which made him a sympathizer of Atlanta and he was proud that the club’s library was baptized with him. Name. The highlight of this documentary is that it highlights the historical and political context alongside the various stages of the poet’s life. Some of the themes reflected in the film are Juan’s studies at the Nacional de Buenos Aires, life at fifteen in the milongas, listening to Angelito Vargas’ radio auditions, his beginnings in journalism, and his imprint on El Literary Group. Bon Dureau and his first contacts with poetry. After mentioning the admiration of César Vallejo and Raúl González Tuñón Violin and Other Problems He said that “the essential influence really continues” when creating poetry.

Another great documentary by Denty A raw and bruised countryRemembered Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti spoke from exile About your country and Latin America. Denti said that Benedetti and Daniel Viglietti will perform in two voices for the first time in Mexico. “It was a historic event, we recorded it with three cameras, but the lab burned the negative. We didn’t know if it was an attack. It was a matter of, every time we came together, we wondered if it was an attack or not,” commented the filmmaker. He said. But Benedetti’s interview with Denti in Havana in ’78 was saved from the fire.

George Denty was born in 1943. So, when the Cuban Revolution happened, he was a teenager. However, in January 1959, he read in a newspaper that his father had bought about Fidel Castro’s achievement, supported by Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Guevara. Of course, Denty was too young to understand what it meant to enter Havana. But the image was always marked on him. Years later, while in Paris with colleagues, Denty learned of Che’s assassination in Bolivia, which took place on October 9, 1967. And over the years he felt the need to make a film about the service. Denty got his wish in 2012 Footsteps of Dr. Ernesto Guevara Explores a lesser-known aspect of Chevin’s life because “the other aspect has been explored a lot,” the filmmaker admits.

The documentary begins in 1953, when Guevara embarked on his second trip through Latin America after producing Carlos “Galica” Ferrer with Alberto Granado. The filmmaker weaves together the testimonies of Guevara’s witnesses, peers and historians with a voice-over reading. Off He made public the letters young Ernesto sent to his mother and fellow student at the Faculty of Medicine, “Tita”. Fragments of his travels through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico have been reconstructed, as the doctor learned about the hardships people lived in underprivileged and socially vulnerable areas of other countries. His traveling companions are also heard: the remembered Alberto Granado and Calica Ferrer. Starting from that second trip, Footsteps of Doctor Ernesto Guevara Explores this Argentinian doctor’s motivation and how he came to understand his profession to serve those most in need. What is special about Denty’s film is that it approaches the man before the revolutionary: he is Che before he is Che. He is the hero before the hero.

George Denty has also worked for various television production companies and stations in Europe and America: Swiss Italian Television, RAI, Channel Four in London and Dutch Television, among others. For more than a decade he worked at Channel 40 in Mexico, where he became production director. Now history has taken hold of him.