Film - "Memoria del Saqueo" (Social Genocide)

A.N.S.W.E.R. Film Series
Memoria del Saqueo (Social Genocide)

“The government must resign! Kick them out!” In December 2001, Argentina was in a state of siege—thousands of people filled the streets banging on pots and pans, protesting decades of corrupt leadership that resulted in devastating economic ruin. Director Fernando Solanas opens with this astounding scene and, in ten incisive chapters, shows how the Argentine government systematically betrayed its people through disastrous policies, saddling the country with “never-ending debt.”

Interviews with everyday people reveal the human cost—extreme poverty, chronic unemployment, starvation and lost life savings. Solanas coins the term “mafiocracy” to describe the people—from politicians and magistrates to businessmen and union leaders—who took kickbacks and made corrupt deals with astonishing impunity. For years, valuable state-owned utilities and industries were privatized and sold for a pittance, a process many Latin Americans call neoliberalism. Startling editing, compelling footage, pointed chapter headings—“A Chronicle of Treason,” “The Republic Deteriorates”—and the intense on-camera presence of Solanas himself convey his fury towards those responsible for Argentina’s social disaster, including corporations, the IMF and even a complicit, relentlessly upbeat media. Though Memoria Del Saqueo focuses on the systematic despoiling of Argentina, it also offers a measure of hope: with solidarity, protests, and resistance, citizens, can hold their government accountable for its failures. 2004, Argentina, Spanish with English subtitles, 120min.

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) http://www.actionsf.org