Introduction

This chapter explores the cinema made during the years of dictatorship. As anticipated in the previous chapter, many institutions such as the University Film Institute (ICUR) and the Third World Cinematheque (C3M) were closed down, and several filmmakers associated with political documentaries, such as Mario Handler, Mario Jacob and Walter Tournier, went into exile. However, the activity did not stop. On the contrary, filmmaking practices were more frequent – and even more diverse – than before. Films continued to be made both in institutions and independently. This chapter explores how opposing political tensions are present in cinema by analysing three specific contexts. First, it focuses on how independent filmmakers, gathered in Film Cooperative (CINECO), used Super 8mm film stock to subvert not only the original purpose of this technology but also the social function of children's animations through the analysis of El honguito feliz (The Happy Mushroom; 1976). Second, it approaches the cinema commissioned and supported by the state through the film Gurí (Eduardo Darino, 1980) to examine the versatility of the image of the gaucho, which serves both as an exotic character to the American education market and as a nation-building figure to the military trying to forge the new nation. Finally, it concentrates on Cinemateca Uruguaya and it analyses its production Mataron a Venancio Flores (Venancio Flores was Killed; Juan Carlos Rodríguez Castro, 1982) through an allegorical reading that emphasises the violence of the period, and the differences between official historical narratives and people's experiences of the past. Whereas the productions supported by the regime were filmed on 35mm film stock – or blown up to this film gauge – some independent filmmakers continued working with 16mm, others incorporated Super 8mm, and yet others, by the end of the period, had already started to use video. The characteristics associated with these materialities and the consequence of their current obsolescence will be analysed in depth. Films produced outside state institutions were the result of huge efforts made by filmmakers passionate about cinema. The majority of them believed that cinema was a good tool for resistance.

Twelve Years of Dictatorship

The beginning of the Uruguayan dictatorship brought a series of changes which affected society as a whole. The socio-political and economic situation of the previous years had already indicated that Uruguay could not be called the Switzerland of America any more.