Directing
A chronicle of two crime families' struggle to control the Reus neighborhood of Montevideo, Uruguay.
To grow old in Rivera is to grow old on the border. The protagonists of this documentary tell us in Portuguese as well as in Spanish about their lives far from the bustle of the capital city. Their days are long, their work is hard, they have few opportunities to improve their situation, but they still haven't lost the ability to smile or their love of life. The aim of this documentary is to show what the process of growing old in Uruguay is like, and to raise people's awareness about the situation of the elderly. It shows, without prejudice, just what old age is.
This documentary takes us back to the events surrounding 1958 when the University Organic Law was passed. We hear the testimony of three university teachers who took part in the debates and the student activism at that time: the experiences of people who were young “back then”, the cultural context of the period and the connection between the students and the worker's movement.
Baltasar Brum is a town of three thousand souls in the department of Artigas. In 1986 the train station was closed down and the community was in danger of disappearing altogether, but today it is still there and in fact it is growing. The local samba “schools”, which are similar to these organizations in Brazil except that they speak Spanish, tell the story of the town and its outstanding figures against a background of local and more universal events. The documentary shows how carnival is celebrated in this Uruguayan border town.
Ethel is a 60-year-old psychoanalyst who chose to access documents declassified by the Uruguayan goverment to know the identity of the perpetrators of the death of her husband. His death occured on August 17th 1961 at a University ceremony where Che Guevara delivered one of his first speeches after the revolutionary triumph of the Cuban revolution. The bullet that killed a history teacher was considered a failed attack against Che Guevara planned by the CIA.
