The documentary by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw is released today, a film with exquisite photography but a somewhat complex, stylized narrative, and music that is not in keeping with what is shown
Chicoana Department, Salta, 2009. Jana Richtera young German documentary filmmaker, presents to the countrywoman the film she made there a year before, “Gauchos. “He who does not rise does not fall”a title that alludes to the first efforts of a Creole to ride a horse. Nice record of daily life in the Calchaquí Valleys, as warm and simple as the townspeople captured on camera. After Richter She films in Bolivia, Cuba, Mongolia and Nagorno Karabakh, she is a very pleasant globetrotter.
Chicoana again, and also Guachipas and San Carlos, 2023. Michael Dweck and Gregory KershawAmerican filmmakers, film “Gaucho gaucho”an expression taken from a child who dreams of being very, very gaucho like his father, who teaches him some tasks typical of the countryside. The theme is the same, people who preserve and transmit their traditions, but this time the registration is not so simple, or rather, it is not simple at all. It is strongly stylized and somewhat denatured, with somewhat forced situations and conversations.. They have not yet shown it to the locals, but it is known that this stylization fascinated audiences at festivals as different as Sundance and Locarno, and it is likely that something similar will happen here, now that it is released in commercial theaters.
“Experience the untamed beauty and fighting spirit of the Argentine Northwest”said the advertisement with which the authors announced their work at this year’s Sundance Festival. And they presented it accompanied by two very Creole people, Mr. Taty Gonzatamer and slaughterer, and his daughter Guadeloupewho follows in his footsteps in the local horse races. She is almost the protagonist of the film, and the only one who has a story outline. The aforementioned boy and other people appear practically as vignettes without further continuity. Of course, some of these vignettes are worthy of memory and stand on their own, such as, for example, the shot of a dance under the bower, where an 83-year-old man shows off in the farm while in the background you can see the crowd. drinking or preparing the barbecue.
The photography of that moment, and of the entire film, is exquisite, with high-contrast black and white in the style of Pedro Raota or Ansel Adams that turns the hills, the clouds, and the men into paintings worth seeing on the big screen. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is a real treat, which begins with a duet of “The Pearl Fishers” accompanying the gallop of three men, unreasonably intrudes folkloric pieces from other countries, and culminates with “The raft”whose lyrics do not match at all with what is being shown, since these countrymen do not feel alone or abandoned nor do they plan to go sailing (or whatever this means in the old rock jargon). It seems more appropriate, in all, “A happy day” in the scene where the girl manages to stay on the back of a bagual in full view of the other villagers.
Final details. The company of Dweck & Kershaw It’s called Beautiful Stories. They already did with her “The Last Race” (faithful of an abandoned Long Island speedway), “The truffle hunters” (old men from Piedmont who collect white truffles in places that only they know) and the one we now see, and whose poster refers to old cowboy movies. Besides, for those who still don’t know, at the Jesús María Dressage and Folklore Festival there have been women’s riding competitions for a while. This is how traditions evolve.
“Gaucho gaucho” (USA, 2024); Dir.: Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw; documentary.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
