Memory or postmemory? Documentaries directed by Uruguay’s second generation

Abstract

This article brings together writings on film, memory and Latin American studies to analyse two documentaries directed by members of the second generation of the recent Uruguayan dictatorship (1973–1985): Secretos de Lucha ( Secrets of the Struggle, Maiana Bidegain, 2007) and DF Destino Final ( Final Destination, Mateo Gutiérrez, 2008). It also offers an account of the Uruguayan democratic transition and current discussions on the contribution of film to the remembrance of the past. Dictatorships took over other countries of the Southern Cone – Argentina (1976–1983) and Chile (1973–1990) – and several first-person documentaries, made by second-generation artists, have engaged with these events. There has been a tendency to explore these productions applying Marianne Hirsch’s concept of ‘postmemory’, originally coined in the context of the Holocaust. This article builds critically on this work to illustrate the strengths and limitations of this concept in the context of the dictatorships of the Southern Cone.