Abstract
This essay focuses on a younger generation of Jewish Argentine artists born in the 1970s who present a type of collective memory removed from storylines based on the traditional narrative within the Jewish community: the Shoah and the most recent military dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983). Although referring to both major events, the Argentine films Jews in Space (Gabriel Lichtmann, 2006) and Cheese Head—My First Ghetto (Ariel Winograd, 2006) seek a space to tell stories related to the memory and identity of this younger generation: as Argentines, they tap into their (and their families’) Jewish memory to connect to their Argentine present. Lichtmann’s and Winograd’s approach showcases the intermingling of their culture/faith with their nationality as a natural consequence of their families’ choices. The country’s project to truly create a pluralistic society where Jewish culture would be part of the nation’s mosaic and would be a step above being merely tolerated seemed to fall to pieces after the two bombings against Jewish targets in the 1990s. It is then that, faced with this disappointing reality, artists such as Lichtmann and Winograd revisited the familial and national memory and recreated it in order to articulate a connection to the present.
Recommended Citation
Goldfine, Daniela
(2014)
"Acts of Memory in the Jewish Argentine Cinematic Present,"
Jewish Film & New Media: Vol. 2:
Iss.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/jewishfilm/vol2/iss1/6