The first movie I saw at the San Francisco International Film Festival was Fernando Solanas’ latest documentary, Latent Argentina (Argentina Latente), which I think is closer to “Dormant Argentina” — about the privatization of companies, concessions to multinational firms, and the vast economic inequalities within the country — had promised to be less dry than the subject matter only because it was by Solanas, but no such luck. Nonetheless it was quite stimulating, if only because I kept thinking of the Philippines the entire time. (It’s wonderful how the last time I heard the phrase “el patrimonio nacional” was in a Spanish class reading Claro M. Recto — something worth thinking about there.) Visually, Solanas gets some beautiful images of the landscape, but this grandeur is dissipated once we get to the second half and we’re treated to shots of laboratory after laboratory. (They’re not contrasted ironically either, as they’re both classified under resources meant to be used.) One treat for Pacific Film Archive viewers: the one time the documentary leaves Argentina is to visit, of all places, Berkeley, and an interview with an Argentinean professor takes place right outside the lobby, a few feet behind where we were watching.
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