Exactly one year after its official premiere at the National Library, Tiempo Argentino will release its documentary “From resistance to existence” on its YouTube channel. Starting this Friday, April 26 at 8 p.m., the film produced by the Cooperativa de Trabajo Por Más Tiempo and directed by filmmaker Pablo Lecaros can be seen for free from anywhere in the country and abroad due to a clear decision by its filmmakers: make a massive story that reflects much more than the recovery of a media outlet that suffered a business collapse in 2016 and managed to launch a national media outlet. “The documentary not only tells our story but also that of a political moment in the country that is very similar to the present due to its protagonists and the feeling of constant attack on all workers,” introduced Malena Winer, president of Tiempo. Lecaros, who joined the media’s proposal for this project, expanded along the same lines about the importance of this story being known in difficult times. “In these moments where democracy is in danger and where we have seen a profound attack on freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and public media, the story of Tiempo serves to understand from the resistance how to organize in times of cruelty and dehumanization.”
The documentary was made between 2022 and 2023 after having been winners of a Competitive Media Development Fund (Fomeca) and narrates through a choral story with more than 40 interviews – among them the participation of human rights leaders, the journalism and self-management such as Norita Cortiñas, Taty Almeida, Víctor Hugo Morales, Alejandro Bercovich, Vasco Murúa, Ángela Lerena, Claudia Acuña, María del Carmen Verdú and Julia Megolini, more workers from Tiempo Argentino – the importance of the existence of a cooperative medium that is the owner of its words in times of resistance and enslavement of rights. Born in 2016 and like dejavu the story in 2024 becomes similar. “The documentary contains a story of resistance and collective organization that invites us to meet, debate and find a way out of times of darkness such as those proposed by Macri and those proposed by the current Government of Javier Milei with its policies of dismantling the State. and everything that generates more and better rights for people,” explained Lecaros, also director of the films “Photos of memory”, “Juana, bronze and freedom” and “Stories of pandemic”.
The path taken by the documentary
Since its premiere, “From resistance to existence” participated in festivals and toured the country through presentations in unions, theaters, public channels, universities and cinemas, as well as being seen in the Basque Country, in Peru, in Paraguay and in Costa Rica. By decision of those who carried out the project and by express request of teachers, students, partners and communication leaders who asked to use the material to analyze the media and current events, it can now be viewed on YouTube for free. “Releasing it is important in this context because it allows us to cross many more borders than we were able to physically cross. Especially for tertiary centers, unions and universities. Not only from communication and journalism, but from many careers that were interested in our project from various disciplinary perspectives,” said Winer, representative of Tiempo in many of the presentations made. “Telling this story of self-managed journalism is updated in these times of cultural battles and construction of meaning,” added Lecaros.
As happened in 2016 with Macrismo, the situation for the media in 2024 with the government of Javier Milei is suffocating from an economic point of view. With constant attacks on the press, the documentary not only reflects the attack suffered in the editorial office of Tiempo Argentino, but also the situation of other media that must juggle to survive, as well as the attempted closure of Agencia Télam in 2018. , a situation that the new government has tried to repeat from day one with the dispensation it ordered for its workers. “In the face of policies of planned misery and emptying, it is essential to unite among workers in pursuit of a defense of the most important values of the public,” Winer highlighted. “The documentary explores one of the disputed territories, which is communication and the media. It is not for nothing that this government took care of emptying and attacking public media such as Télam, INCAA and its capacity to construct thinking about identity and memory, culture, public universities and education. Time in that sense a banner of quality journalism and commitment to the truth, and the rights of the people in general. All this is reflected in From Resistance to Existence,” Lecaros noted.
Eight years after its recovery and almost 14 years after its creation, Tiempo Argentino continues to grow. In the newspaper, on the web, on the radio, on the networks, in streaming to debate important issues of the situation and also with audiovisual productions, which will now have the first Tiempo documentary. “We did many things to get here, but the first was wanting to continue supporting a medium that tells from the perspective of the workers not only the situation but the agenda that makes us proud: Human Rights, gender, environment, health and education” said the president of the Time Cooperative. For Lecaros, “From Resistance to Existence” takes on a new value in 2024 and is constantly updated. “Watching the documentary we feel a much more violent and rapid deja vu than what we experienced under Macri. We have that experience and the strength of what we know we have left to build collectively and as a assembly. As a solution for how to react, we have the great Taty Almeida who in one of the interviews in the documentary told us very clearly that the only fight that is lost is the one that is abandoned.”
Data sheet
Production of the Work for Longer Cooperative
Address: Pablo Lecaros
Script: Guido Molinari
Production Manager: Ayelén Barberis
Executive production: Malena Winer
Mounting: Pablo Tomasello and Daniel Baca
Cameras: Daniel Baca and Soledad Quiroga
Direct sound: Pablo Tomasello
Direction of photography: Pepe Peralta
Gaffer: Roman Tkachuk
Original music: Federico Schujman and Ariel Schujman
Visual effects and credits sequence: Raul Moreschi
Design and art: Alejandro Barella
Color correction: Pepe Peralta
Sound post-production: Gige
Still photo and backstage: Daniel Baca and Soledad Quiroga
