Gustavo Fontán

An elderly couple debates whether to cut down an ancient acacia tree that has witnessed the major memories of our lives.

La orilla que se Abisma is conceived as a journey, a trip along a river. Like rivers, like all journeys, the film has meanders, small riverbeds, detours and moments of rest.

A couple builds a space to live. When it is finished, before inhabiting it, they invite a group of people to visit it. The invited people circulate individually through this new and empty space. They look, they walk, they talk. The film tries to rescue the effect of that experience in each one of them. So the space itself becomes an experience. What will they leave of themselves? What will they take? What will they show of the human? What is a house? What do you do with the past? The series of people who briefly inhabit that place, recently built, still free of all traces, could be thought of as infinite. The space fills and empties. The residual of that transit remains: a luminous fragility.

A couple builds a space to live. When it is finished, before inhabiting it, they invite a group of people to visit it. The invited people circulate individually through this new and empty space. They look, they walk, they talk. The film tries to rescue the effect of that experience in each one of them. So the space itself becomes an experience. What will they leave of themselves? What will they take? What will they show of the human? What is a house? What do you do with the past? The series of people who briefly inhabit that place, recently built, still free of all traces, could be thought of as infinite. The space fills and empties. The residual of that transit remains: a luminous fragility.

A journey through everyday’s life. Streets, squares, zoos, houses, roofs, men, women, roads, but all of it seen as if that world was someone else's, as if it was lost in time. The world is there, but there is no place to settle. A film that speaks about everyday’s life, but with the voice of the sleepwalkers. Some sort of blind, nocturnal continuum that no one knows for sure what it is.

A man in a small boat reaches an island on the Paraná River. He heads towards a site where there used to be a house or small village. Now there is nothing. Slight signs of something old and lost: the place where he was born. His presence allows the things in the abandoned spot to materialize: huts and tables, animals and canoes. Soon others arrive on the island: his wife, father, friends, and children. This is a meeting of the Man and his loved ones. With the dead, the birds, the river's music and his pain.

A man in a small boat reaches an island on the Paraná River. He heads towards a site where there used to be a house or small village. Now there is nothing. Slight signs of something old and lost: the place where he was born. His presence allows the things in the abandoned spot to materialize: huts and tables, animals and canoes. Soon others arrive on the island: his wife, father, friends, and children. This is a meeting of the Man and his loved ones. With the dead, the birds, the river's music and his pain.

The omnibus feature SUCESOS INTERVENIDOS consists of shorts by a who’s who of Argentine documentary and experimental-film giants, including Edgardo Cozarinsky and Gustavo Fontán but also Claudio Caldini, Andrés Di Tella and Gabriela Golder. Each one of them created a piece of a few minutes in length using archival footage from SUCESOS ARGENTINOS (“Argentine Events”), a popular newsreel series from 1938 to 1972 whose episodes have recently begun to be digitized by Buenos Aires’s “Pablo C. Ducrós Hicken” Film Museum.

Nora and Javier have been hired to transport a shipment of cocaine in an ambulance. With the help of Wendy, Javier's transvestite brother, they rob a part of the shipment and escape from the police. Moulded by loneliness, indifference and a lack of communication, Nora, Javier and Wendy are three youths with no future who move on the outer rim of society and are helpless in the face of a corrupt power. They hide in El Marquesado, a seaside resort built by the military on dynamited cliffs where Rodolfo and Mercedes, Javier and Wendy's parents, survive by rustling pigs and cows from neighbouring farms. The conflicts and tensions in this marginal family resurface as they are reunited in this remote place with a sinister past.

In the house where several gererations used to live no one is living anymore At least apparently. Because if any one intensifies hearing and view, he can see He sees the footprints of formers inhabitants. He sees the marks of life and death in the deserted spaces He is the witness of the persistence of voices , bodies, ligths and shadows.

Bathed in the half-light, a bus station north of Cordoba in Argentina. Waiting, and the arrivals and departures of the local buses punctuate the lives of these workers and travellers. Far from making an observational documentary, Gustavo Fontán crafts the ghostly portrait of a place of transit where the traces of those who bring it alive resonate and are muffled, blending mystery with everyday life.

The poet Salvador Merlino didn’t live to see published April’s elegy, his last book, as he died when it was still in the printing press. His daughter Mary (72) and his son, Carlos (74), kept the parcels of copies of their father’s book stashed away for 50 years, high up, on top of a wardrobe. The curiosity of young Federico will force them to come face to face with themselves.

A family gets together for New year. Three sisters and their families who live by the river. One of them does not attend because she is still in mourning. Her sisters and her nieces try to convince her but she remains firm in her refusal.

La orilla que se Abisma is conceived as a journey, a trip along a river. Like rivers, like all journeys, the film has meanders, small riverbeds, detours and moments of rest.

A mixture of documentary and fiction as seen through the eyes of a non-participant observer, this drama presents the life of the fisherman Maldonado. After his wife Celia leaves him, we watch his lonely life in a series of cyclical everyday activities as we listen to Celia's voiceover. Although it tends to repeat itself, it reveals something new every day. We always observe a different part of the daily work of a fisherman, or see it from a different angle. This sense of conflict is heightened by contradictory motifs on-screen and in the voiceover. Words clash with images, the everyday with the extraordinary, space with time.

A mixture of documentary and fiction as seen through the eyes of a non-participant observer, this drama presents the life of the fisherman Maldonado. After his wife Celia leaves him, we watch his lonely life in a series of cyclical everyday activities as we listen to Celia's voiceover. Although it tends to repeat itself, it reveals something new every day. We always observe a different part of the daily work of a fisherman, or see it from a different angle. This sense of conflict is heightened by contradictory motifs on-screen and in the voiceover. Words clash with images, the everyday with the extraordinary, space with time.

Ana loses her mother after a sudden heart attack. He tries to avoid his feelings by feigning indifference. He doesn't stop doing anything he always did, until a message, left by his mother in a radio message box before she died, is accidentally deleted. Ana is forced to face reality.

Juan and Ismael are great friends, they work in a corralón in Moreno. Riding the truck they go through the winter and live with the harshness of work, they do it with humor, sometimes helped by alcohol. Friendship is a difficult wall to break between them. Juan, drives the truck and lives surrounded by dogs, Ismael, loads the truck and dreams of having money.

In front of the camera, the face of the poet Jorge Calvetti (Jujuy, Argentina, 1916-2002) is shown serene, worthy, deepened by the signs of the life.

The life of the writer Leopoldo Marechal through various testimonies collected at the Café Izmir, where Adán Buenosayres and his bar met, and which closed its doors a while ago in Villa Crespo, which includes the dramatization of some fragments of his works.

An elderly couple debates whether to cut down an ancient acacia tree that has witnessed the major memories of our lives.

An elderly couple debates whether to cut down an ancient acacia tree that has witnessed the major memories of our lives.

A story between a 65 years old man and a woman who is thirty years younger that him. The film, explores the human relationships through fully identifiable human beings, taking also into account the prejudices, the lust of life and all those everyday defeats.

A story between a 65 years old man and a woman who is thirty years younger that him. The film, explores the human relationships through fully identifiable human beings, taking also into account the prejudices, the lust of life and all those everyday defeats.

A story between a 65 years old man and a woman who is thirty years younger that him. The film, explores the human relationships through fully identifiable human beings, taking also into account the prejudices, the lust of life and all those everyday defeats.

Ani, an apprentice hairdresser who loses her job meets Danilo, a forty-something street scissors sharpener.

Bathed in the half-light, a bus station north of Cordoba in Argentina. Waiting, and the arrivals and departures of the local buses punctuate the lives of these workers and travellers. Far from making an observational documentary, Gustavo Fontán crafts the ghostly portrait of a place of transit where the traces of those who bring it alive resonate and are muffled, blending mystery with everyday life.

A man knocks on my door. I ask him what he needs. He doesn't answer. He looks at me for a few moments, with enormous eyes. He looks at me as one looks at an apparition. Rivers are born in that silence, in those hallucinated eyes, and they unfold a memory of water, a fragmented knowledge of tornadoes and banks, of creaking trees, of birds bathing in the rain, of men lost on some island, of drowning in the backwaters, of the splash of oars, of the shadow where the river narrows. A man knocks on my door. He says to me: You're not here, we're not here.

A man knocks on my door. I ask him what he needs. He doesn't answer. He looks at me for a few moments, with enormous eyes. He looks at me as one looks at an apparition. Rivers are born in that silence, in those hallucinated eyes, and they unfold a memory of water, a fragmented knowledge of tornadoes and banks, of creaking trees, of birds bathing in the rain, of men lost on some island, of drowning in the backwaters, of the splash of oars, of the shadow where the river narrows. A man knocks on my door. He says to me: You're not here, we're not here.

A man knocks on my door. I ask him what he needs. He doesn't answer. He looks at me for a few moments, with enormous eyes. He looks at me as one looks at an apparition. Rivers are born in that silence, in those hallucinated eyes, and they unfold a memory of water, a fragmented knowledge of tornadoes and banks, of creaking trees, of birds bathing in the rain, of men lost on some island, of drowning in the backwaters, of the splash of oars, of the shadow where the river narrows. A man knocks on my door. He says to me: You're not here, we're not here.

Sonia (45) and Jonatan (18), mother and son, share the house: a place for the mother's grief, a place for the son to escape. The husband is absent, gone, and attempts to find him lead nowhere. The son will leave at any moment. Anguish clouds the hours, shapes the mother's perception. Sonia drinks, gets drunk, tells strange dreams, and commits dangerous acts. Jonatan feels responsible. He takes care of her. If the episodes continue, if the mother becomes increasingly fragile and vulnerable, will the son be able to leave?

Sonia (45) and Jonatan (18), mother and son, share the house: a place for the mother's grief, a place for the son to escape. The husband is absent, gone, and attempts to find him lead nowhere. The son will leave at any moment. Anguish clouds the hours, shapes the mother's perception. Sonia drinks, gets drunk, tells strange dreams, and commits dangerous acts. Jonatan feels responsible. He takes care of her. If the episodes continue, if the mother becomes increasingly fragile and vulnerable, will the son be able to leave?

Mónica did not make a client's payments of the office where she works. The missing 15K pesos not only commit her but also a colleague, who is the one who discovers the fault. It seems that is not the first time that this happens, but the colleague, despite his anger, kept silence and chose to believe her again: Mónica commits to replenish the sum of money the next morning.

Mónica did not make a client's payments of the office where she works. The missing 15K pesos not only commit her but also a colleague, who is the one who discovers the fault. It seems that is not the first time that this happens, but the colleague, despite his anger, kept silence and chose to believe her again: Mónica commits to replenish the sum of money the next morning.

Between two rains, a film that is offered as a newspaper. Rains. It is night. The rain coils like a snake in the street lanterns. A neighbor, old lady, knocks on my door. It's eleven at night. She is desperate, ask for rivotril. A few days later he dies. Someone leaves their house. Objects are loaded coldly in a truck. The death of a neighbor, a move, the skies laden with clouds, the light on things and faces, the operation of an old man, a night trip ... It rains. The trees shake and tremble underwater. Between two rains, a look at human fragility.

The poet Salvador Merlino didn’t live to see published April’s elegy, his last book, as he died when it was still in the printing press. His daughter Mary (72) and his son, Carlos (74), kept the parcels of copies of their father’s book stashed away for 50 years, high up, on top of a wardrobe. The curiosity of young Federico will force them to come face to face with themselves.

The poet Salvador Merlino didn’t live to see published April’s elegy, his last book, as he died when it was still in the printing press. His daughter Mary (72) and his son, Carlos (74), kept the parcels of copies of their father’s book stashed away for 50 years, high up, on top of a wardrobe. The curiosity of young Federico will force them to come face to face with themselves.

"During several months of this senseless year I went out to the terrace to look at the ceilings. I would go at different times of the day, as in a ritual, perhaps trying to find at those ceilings some kind of explanation. Something that mitigates grief." (Gustavo Fontán)

"During several months of this senseless year I went out to the terrace to look at the ceilings. I would go at different times of the day, as in a ritual, perhaps trying to find at those ceilings some kind of explanation. Something that mitigates grief." (Gustavo Fontán)

"Several times a day, for many months, I went out to the terrace of my house to look at the terrace next door, which is the terrace of a nursing home. I went out as soon as I got up and before going to bed, as in a ritual. And soon, over the course of the weeks, I went out several times a day to look at that space, a window between two concrete blocks, a mysterious door, the light on the ceilings." (Gustavo Fontán)

"Several times a day, for many months, I went out to the terrace of my house to look at the terrace next door, which is the terrace of a nursing home. I went out as soon as I got up and before going to bed, as in a ritual. And soon, over the course of the weeks, I went out several times a day to look at that space, a window between two concrete blocks, a mysterious door, the light on the ceilings." (Gustavo Fontán)

"Several times a day, for many months, I went out to the terrace of my house to look at the terrace next door, which is the terrace of a nursing home. I went out as soon as I got up and before going to bed, as in a ritual. And soon, over the course of the weeks, I went out several times a day to look at that space, a window between two concrete blocks, a mysterious door, the light on the ceilings." (Gustavo Fontán)

The story of the rebirth of Federación, Argentina that in 1974 was flooded by the waters of the Uruguay River and subsequently destroyed by the government to be relocated and rebuild, told by its characters.

Documentary produced by and starring members of the Association of Former Detainees and Disappeared. Rather than the testimony of survivors themselves, the accounts of former detainees and disappeared are presented as informed and informative voices about the process of judicial impunity that ensures the freedom of those responsible for state terrorism in Argentina, from the final document of the Military Junta to the present day.

A German family unravels as they are forced to abandon their farm in Entre Ríos, Argentina.

The life of the writer Leopoldo Marechal through various testimonies collected at the Café Izmir, where Adán Buenosayres and his bar met, and which closed its doors a while ago in Villa Crespo, which includes the dramatization of some fragments of his works.

In front of the camera, the face of the poet Jorge Calvetti (Jujuy, Argentina, 1916-2002) is shown serene, worthy, deepened by the signs of the life.