Piola

Andrés Sanjurjo García (Universitat Pompeu Fabra/Universidade da Coruña)

The representation of poverty has always been one of the great topics under study, especially from Latin America; Texts such as ¿Qué es la pornomiseria? written by Luis Ospina and Carlos Mayolo, Towards a Third Cinema by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino or The Aesthetics of Hunger by Glauber Rocha are some of these examples. These revolutionary writings sought an uprising of cinematographic language to get away from the capitalist claws of film production. However, they ignored the role of the filmmaker as a producer.

To date, the few studies on how characters are paid in documentary films have been limited to the controversial and sterile debate of whether to pay or not to pay them, but not on the question of how much they were paid and in what ways.  For example, Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán ´(2011) defends that documentary characters can never be paid because this fact would transform their relationship with these works and they would act to please or get more money.

If, as Didi-Huberman (2013) states, images take a position: What position does a filmmaker take when confronted with his characters’ poverty? And what is a poor individual? Where do we trace the limit to define poverty? It is precisely for this reason that we will ask ourselves, as Walter Benjamin (2015) did, about the author’s position as producer: “what is the position of a work with regard to the production relations of its time? and he would add: what is his/her position within them?”

Through some memories of my parents’ lives, the discarding of an unfinished first film, interviews with filmmakers and a selection of images from the history of cinema, Piola demands of herself and the authors a didactic behavior to reflect on our place in terms of class struggle.

Bibliography

• Barnauw, E. (2009) El documental: Historia y Estilo. Barcelona: Gedisa.
• Barsam, R. (1992) Nonfiction Film: A Critical History Revised and Expanded. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Benjamin, W. (2015) El autor como productor. Madrid: Casimiro.
• Brenez, N. (2012) Tratamiento del lumpenproletariado en el cine de Avant-Garde. LaFuga, 13.
• Bordwell, D. y Thompson, K. (1995) El arte cinematográfico: una introducción. Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós.
• Brecht, B. (1999) Poemas y canciones. Madrid: Alianza. 
• Didi-Huberman, G. (2013) Cuando las imágenes toman posición. Madrid: Antonio Machado.
• Getino, O.; Solanas, F. (1969). Hacia un tercer cine: Apuntes y experiencias para el desarrollo de un cine de liberación en el tercer mundo. La Habana: Tricontinental.
• Guzmán, P. (2011) “Seminario de cine documental con Patricio Guzmán”. Bogotá: Achiote Cocina Audiovisual.
• Ibarz, M. (2008) Buñuel documental: Tierra sin pan y su tiempo. Universidad de Zaragoza. 
• Ospina, L.; Mayolo, C. (1978) Manifiesto de la pornomiseria. Paris: Premiere de Agarrando Pueblo en Action République.
• Rocha, G. (2004). Por uma estética da fome. En A revolução do Cinema Novo. São Paulo: Cosac Naify.

Filmography

• Buñuel, L. (1936). Tierra sin pan (Las Hurdes).
• B. Brown, J. and  C.Stoney, G. (1978). How the myth was made.
• Costa, P. (2019). Vitalina Varela.
• Costa, P. (2020). Masterclass: Pedro Costa. IFFR [Fecha de consulta: 2021-05-24] Disponible en: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X42r8vB4tZE
• Fisherman, A. (1962). Quema.
• Flaherty, R. (1934). Man of Aran.
• Godard, J-L.; Truffaut, F. (1968). Intervención en el Festival de Cannes. [Fecha de consulta: 2021-06-02] Disponible en: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM8O_lKwOQI
• Mayolo, C.; Ospina, L. (1979). Agarrando Pueblo.
• Scelso, G. (2010). El modelo.
• Van der Keuken, J. (1981). Hacia el sur.