Six years have already passed since the death of Pino Solanas, the Argentine filmmaker who produced documentaries of the ilk of La hora de los hornos (1968) or Memoria del saqueo (2004). Given his political activism, his body of work could have been shorter (he received death threats from the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A) and a Navy commando attempt to abduct him in the early days of Videla’s reign of terror), and due to the dictatorship, he could have left a more prolific body of work.
In 2007, he made Argentina latente, a documentary that captured what his country had lost, what it could have been and it was not, what it could have done; the film deserves to be re-examined and would merit an update after only three years of an Argentine government intent on ending Argentine cinema. Straightaway.
In that film of Solanas, we find the guiding light of the programming of this edition of Essential Docs: documentary films of resistance; that proudly champion difference and the ability to live together despite the differences; that are proud to speak out against justice that is committed or that was committed with impunity; that expose the increasingly more frequent victory of violence over humanity, the sabre-rattling and the dictatorial suppression of arguments (as numerous as they are little understood) and values of democracy.
In 2026, we are showcasing films of masters of the ilk of Laura Poitras and Barbara Kopple, along with Bill Morrison, James Benning, Kamal Aljafari and Albert Serra, combined with masterful works in their portrayal of current affairs, such as those by Jonas Spriestersbach and the Palestinian Ahmed Hassouna. These are being shown alongside the most recent films of the best generation of domestic documentary filmmakers we can boast about: from Xiana do Teixeiro and David Baute, to a new generation of documentary makers (many with the support of ZINEBI Networking) such as Xisi Sofía Ye Chen (winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Visions du Réel this year), Rafael Molés and Pepe Andreu, Izaskun Arandia and Samuel Nacar. They bring the latent cinema, which will continue to exist, even if someone tries to put an end to cinema.
What is a personal diary?
Just Girls opens, for the first time, dozens of teenage diaries that had been sealed away forever. The film undertakes an exercise in literary rehabilitation: it rescues books that were historically neglected and reveals a common body. And so, a possible genealogy of intimate writing and its destruction emerges.
Just Girls is a cinematic cross-out. A feminist journey, from the cheesy to the political. And also, as a friend put it, ‘a film-zine made from all our diaries’.
