Our Disappeared / Nuestros Desaparecidos is a documentary film about the desaparecidos in Argentina. Written, produced and directed by Juan Mandelbaum. It is in English and Spanish with English subtitles. Another version of the film exists in Spanish and English with Spanish subtitles. Its running time is 1 hour and 39 minutes.

Synopsis

Our Disappeared / Nuestros Desaparecidos is director Juan Mandelbaum’s personal search for the souls of friends and loved ones who were caught in the vise of the military and “disappeared”

Forced disappearance

In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...

 in his native Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship

Dirty War

The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...

. The film is a personal journey into the past to reflect on the political and personal contexts that led so many young people to fight for a more just Argentina.

After finding out that Patricia, a long lost girlfriend, is among the “desaparecidos” Mandelbaum returns to Argentina to find out what happened to her and others he knew who also disappeared. As he revisits the dreams they shared for a revolution that would transform Argentina he grieves the tragic losses and examines his own choices: not signing up with any of the radical groups at his university and leaving Argentina in 1977 at the height of the repression, to escape the pervasive climate of fear. Using extraordinary archival footage, Mandelbaum brings the energy and tension of the time and place to life.

In this return voyage to Argentina’s past Mandelbaum learns much about his friends’ tragic stories, and about his own. Now we can hear from three generations affected by the state of terror, and the passage of time allows for deeper reflections. Thirty years after the military coup Mandelbaum explores what happens when brutal regimes attack the fabric of a country with great impunity, causing enormous suffering that lasts for generations. The pain that seemed so distant is still very much present.

Credits

Written, Produced and Directed by Juan Mandelbaum

Edited and Co-Produced by David Carnochan

Director of Photography Vicente Franco

Music Composed by Gustavo Moretto

Gustavo Moretto

Gustavo Moretto is a Argentinean composer, pianist, trumpet player and singer-songwriter.- Work and education :...

Festivals and screenings

Our Disappeared / Nuestros Desaparecidos has appeared at numerous film festivals, museums and cultural centers, including:

CINE Golden Eagle Competition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Worcester Latino Film Festival, Cartagena International Film Festival, Colombia, Athens International Film + Video Festival, Chicago Latino Film Festival, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Syracuse International Film Festival, Berkshire International Film Festival

Berkshire International Film Festival

The Berkshire International Film Festival was founded in 2005 by Kelley Vickery inGreat Barrington, Massachusetts. The four-day festival features independent films for filmmakers and film aficionados, with showings of features, documentaries, shorts, and animation—as well as panel discussions and...

, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles

It is scheduled to air on the television series Independent Lens

Independent Lens

Airing weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...

 in September 2009.

Articles and reviews

Our Disappeared review by Robert Koehler, Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

 (September 29, 2008)

Grieving the Personal and the Political Losses of a Revolution by Wesley Morris

Wesley Morris

Wesley Morris is a film critic at The Boston Globe where he reviews films alongside Ty Burr. Morris and Burr also make regular appearances on NECN to discuss the latest films and do the weekly Take Two film review video series on Boston.com...

, The Boston Globe (October 16, 2008)

Our Disappeared Revisits a Dark Chapter in Argentina's History by Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

 (September 12, 2008)

Searching for the Disappeared by Linda Matchan, The Boston Globe (October 12, 2008)

Brookline Filmmaker Turns Lens on Argentina's Vanished Residents by Ed Symkus, The Brookline Tab

Tab Communications

Tab Communications Inc. , based first in Newton, Massachusetts, USA, then in nearby Needham, was a weekly newspaper publisher in Greater Boston before being bought by Fidelity Investments in 1992 and dissolved into Community Newspaper Company in 1996.The company, founded in 1979, steadily expanded...

 (October 16, 2008)

(Spanish) Documental Nuestros Desaparecidos: La Necesidad de Remover el Pasado by Virginia Gómez, TuBoston.com (October 3, 2008)

Awards

CINE Golden Eagle Award

Gerald Peary's

Gerald Peary

Gerald Peary is an American film critic, who has been a reviewer and columnist for the Boston Phoenix since 1996. He was formerly the Acting Curator of the Harvard Film Archive and is currently the General Editor of the University Press of Mississippi Conversations with Filmmakers Series...

 Top 10 of 2008 for The Boston Phoenix

External links

• The Official Website of Our Disappeared / Nuestros Desaparecidos
• Kidnapped and Raised by a Military Family, a "Recovered Grandchild" Finds His Way Home - video report by Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...