Another documentary

Shannon & I spent last night visiting her brother in Hudson, better known in some circles as the first place in Canada to ban cosmetic pesticides. It’s a cute town on the St. Lawrence an hour west of here, easily accesible via commuter train. It appears to be populated largely by retired British dentists, though our hosts were none of the above. But first we watched yet another movie:

Trelew

On 22 August 1972 over a hundred political prisoners detained in the remote south of Argentina staged an incredible jailbreak and managed to occupy their high security facility from the inside, intending to escape via an airport in nearby Trelew. Tragically, their transportation arrangements fell through at the last moment: the six who arrived on time managed to hijack a plane as planned and flee to Chile (as it happened to be in between military dictatorships of its own at the time), but nineteen others remained in the airport, and the rest never left the prison. Those nineteen were promised to be returned to their cells if they surrendered, but were instead were taken by the regime to a naval airforce base for execution, although three survived their wounds. The injustice of the executions were a rallying cry for popular struggle throughout the country, helping to usher in a relatively democratic period between 1973 to 1976. Many of the witnesses to these events were “disappeared” or otherwise killed before the end of armed conflict in the 1980’s, but the filmmakers obtained interviews with an impressive number of those who remained, making for a compelling portrait. Shannon found the English subtitles were hard to follow at times, however.

Two more screenings and three movies tonight. As you can probably tell I’m looking forward to it.