Editors’ Introduction

This special issue is the result of a series of screenings titled Meeting the Directors: Dialogues Between New Argentine Cinema & Theatre, held in 2013 at Senate House in London. A joint venture between the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Institute of Modern Languages Research, both part of the University of London, the screenings were open to the general public and were designed to explore the dialogues and exchanges taking place between the so-called New Argentine Cinema and the less-well-known New Argentine Theatre. The series was the first time that such a range of diverse experimental productions had been shown in the United Kingdom alongside conversations with the young directors, who were either present at the venue or interviewed via video conferences on the day of the screenings.

This special issue builds on those conversations, identifying an upcoming genre in contemporary Argentine cultural production, one that is marked by a hybrid aesthetics, a blending of fact and fiction, a playful spirit, and transnational dialogues that take place on both stage and screen. The various contributions included in this publication highlight the innovative uses of technology, humour, live music, and dance in this up-and-coming body of work, one that, over the last few years, has challenged the rigidity of generic boundaries. The essays engage critically with a particular series of films and theatrical pieces by directors such as Romina Paula, Lola Arias, Mariano Pensotti, Alejo Moguillansky, Matías Piñeiro, Edgardo Dieleke, and Daniel Casabé, among others. While most of these pieces were screened at Senate House, some of them, such as Campo minado (Minefield), which debuted in 2016 in the UK, were included especially for this issue. It is our contention that together these works exemplify the emergence of a fresh and exciting generational, transnational, and trans-disciplinary voice within Argentine performing arts.

Beyond New Argentine Cinema and Biodrama

While the emergence and development of the so-called New Argentine Cinema during the 1990s and the new millennium have received considerable attention from local and international scholars, critics have suggested that this trend has recently reached a standstill. As Jens Andermann has pointed out: “[A]fter the cusp of social and political emergency in Argentina had passed and the initial excitement had worn off, critics could predictably do little but detect the ‘exhaustion’ of the very movement they had conjured up” (xxi). Thus, Andermann concludes, “the time has perhaps arrived for looking at new Argentine cinema without the capital letters” (xxi). In contrast to the arguable exhaustion of New Argentine Cinema, a community of Argentine theatre-practitioners and young filmmakers has fashioned a unique and lively creative space within both the domestic market and major international festivals. In the current post-New Argentine Cinema period, this collection of essays addresses the way in which cinema and theatre have been experiencing a fruitful exchange of interests, directors, writers, castings, and audiences, giving room to a new circuit that renovates and enhances both art forms.

More specifically, this dossier examines how a playful overlapping of documentary and fiction has managed to push forward and reanimate not only the ostensible wave of neo-realist stories and dry humour introduced by New Argentine Cinema, but also a particular form of documentary theatre that has come to be known as “biodrama.” The term was originally coined by director Vivi Tellas to describe a series of biographical pieces in which performers re-enacted episodes of their real lives on stage. As Philippa Page points out in her contribution, Tellas coined the term “biodrama” in 2002 as a response to the critical aftermath of the economic and political crisis of 2001. Page argues that biodrama “uses theatre to explore the possibilities of rebuilding a sense of community [. . .] in what was, at the time of its inception, a severely debilitated post-crisis social fabric.” For Tellas, the return of experience was also the return of the personal, albeit a particular type of self, one immersed in politics and culture.

Many of the films and theatrical plays studied in this issue could arguably be considered enhanced forms of biodrama. However, they have acquired...