The Libertarian candidate’s campaign had suggested he would shut down the “Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales,” which produced a video showcasing the excellence of local production
Incaa (“Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales”, an Argentine government agency promoting the film industry) showed a video with excerpts from Argentine films at the 38th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, showcasing the excellence of the national production.
The article is in response to a campaign promise made by Javier Milei, the candidate for President of Argentina in the second round of elections scheduled for November 19th. In August, Ramiro Marra, who ran for Buenos Aires government for Milei’s coalition, said that the candidate would close Incaa if elected.
The video released by INCAA is narrated by Argentine actor Ricardo Darín. Over the course of just over two minutes, images from Argentine films produced during the last 40 years of democracy in the country are presented. “Here we reinvent ourselves, we grow,” says the actor. “There are crises here, it’s not easy here. It’s about creativity, about daring, about everything,” he adds. “That’s why we make noise. That’s why we never go unnoticed,” he says.
Darín mentions that Argentina has already won awards, including the Oscar, and received global recognition. “Victory comes and when they come, we don’t forget them. “We have a memory,” says the actor. “It’s not just cinema, it’s Argentine cinema,” he adds.
The video ends with an excerpt from the film “Argentina, 1985” starring Darín. The actor plays prosecutor Julio Straßera, who worked to convict the leaders of Argentina’s military dictatorship. In the scene shown by Incaa, Darín’s character says: “Dear judges, never again.”
Watch (2 min 18 sec):
MASSA RECEIVES SUPPORT AT THE EVENT
Milei’s opponent in the second round, the Minister of Economy Sergio Massa, was present at the opening of the film festival. He explained that it was “very important” to take part in an event that “celebrates one of the pillars of building Argentine cultural identity: the film industry.”
In his opinion, “in the age of communication” one fact “covers up the other and the depth is lost in the construction of meaning.” Therefore, Argentine cinema serves the country to “defend” its identity and show the world “the beauty, talent and diversity” of Argentina.
“When I hear this idea of eradicating culture, what I hear is a reflection of this constant preaching that we’re a shitty country.” And we’re not. If we are one thing, it is a great country,” Massa said.
During the festival, the organization Cinema Unidos Argentino organized an event in which they expressed their support for Massa in the 2nd round of the presidential elections.
“We believe that the statements made by the farright party running for president today endanger democratic coexistence and the principles of our national constitution, and we have therefore decided as a collective to speak out in favor of Sergio Massa within the party.” “Next elections” , he wrote. The organization on Instagram.
“We remain united in defending public resources to promote Incaa and we trust that its expansion will be achieved through the contribution of platforms and other public actions aimed at reducing inequalities across the board “Focus on the area, which is essential to ensuring access to culture and a federal future and diverse cinema,” he added.
2nd round searches
Two weeks before the second round of Argentina’s presidential election, five voting intention polls point to an undefined scenario for the November 19 election.
Economy Minister Sergio Massa (from the leftwing coalition Unión por la Pátria) is ahead in two polls. In three other polls there is a technical tie with the rightwing candidate Javier Milei (La Liberdad Avanza). Massa was ahead in the first round of voting on October 22nd with 36.68% of the valid votes, compared to Milei’s 29.98%.
Economic scenario
According to 2022 data from the World Bank, Argentina is the second largest economy in South America and the 22nd in the world, with a GDP (gross domestic product) of $632.77 billion. The country is also the Brazilians’ third largest trading partner. Brazil exported $15.34 billion last year and imported $13.10 billion from the neighboring country, with a balance of $2.24 billion.
In September, Argentina’s annual inflation rate rose to 138.3%, recording a monthly rate of 12.7%, the highest in the country in 21 years.
The Leliq interest rate was raised to 133% in October by the BCRA (Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina) to increase the incentive to save in pesos and control price increases.
The country’s dollar reserves are also low. As of August 31, Argentina’s BC had $28 billion. President Alberto Fernández started 2023 with $44.6 billion in reserves. In the historic streak since 2011, the BCRA reached its maximum U.S. foreign reserves in 2019 with $77.4 billion in cash. At that time the country was ruled by Mauricio Macri.
The poverty rate in the country reached 40.1% in the first half of 2023. In the same period last year it was 36.5%. The 3.6 percentage point increase represents an expected increase of 1.7 million poor people across the country.
This 40.1% is the average of the rates for Q1 (38.7%) and Q2 (41.5%). The data appears in a report (PDF 893 kB, in Spanish) by Indec (acronym for National Institute of Statistics and Census) on the income of Argentines, published on September 21st. Taking into account the margin of error, the poverty rate in the second quarter in the country can vary between 40% and 43%.
The data covers 31 urban areas with a total of 29 million people. If one expands the percentages to the total population (46.2 million) including the rural population, this would equate to almost 18.5 million poor people.
According to Indec, 62.4% of Argentina’s population received some income in the first half of 2023. The average in the 2nd quarter was 138.5 thousand Argentine pesos (1,954 RS at the current exchange rate).