Estudios de Teoría Literaria (Jul 2022)
New narratives about the recent past: The montage of the archive in the works of Albertina Carri
Abstract
In this work we will analyze three recent pieces by the film director, producer and screenwriter Albertina Carri. We will give particular attention to works made from film archives and personal documents. To do so, we will focus on two of the pieces that were part of the installation Operación fracaso y el sonido recobrado (2015) presented at the Museo del Parque de la Memoria: Punto Impropio (2015) and Investigación del cuatrerismo (2015), putting them in dialogue with the later feature film Cuatreros (2016). We will investigate the archive reappropriation strategies developed to write her personal story, marked by the kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of her father and mother during the last military dictatorship. We will explore the ways in which Carri wonders about the workings of memory, and whether it is possible to reconstruct a story solely based on the testimonies or memories of those years. Finally, we aim to give an account of how these images return to the present, now accompanied by a political power capable of constructing a new narrative about a past marked by horror.
