people of buenos aires | Wander Argentina

Porteño Corner: Javier Porta Fouz, Director of BAFICI

Javier Porta Fouz
Director, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Film
Age: 42
Lives: San Cristobal

• How did you start working with the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Film (known by its acronym, BAFICI)?

I started working in the BAFICI in its third edition, when Quintín became the director. I worked on the catalog for fourteen years. I also worked with books, newspapers and the advertising for the movie theaters. I also worked in programming for ten years and I worked on movie selection. Now I’m the artistic director.

• How would you describe your role as artistic director?

You have to pay more attention to a general view of the festival and work with very different parts, like the press, a lot of work with the programmers (who select and schedule the movies), and just paying attention to the general design. You have to think about how you want the next edition of the festival to look.

• What was your favorite part this year? Is it your first year as artistic director?

Yes, it’s my first year as director. When we confirmed the participation of Peter Bogdanovich (as a guest) it was a very important moment because he is a very important director for the history of cinema, and he has made movies that I value a lot. ‘The Last Picture Show’ or ‘Texasville’ are fundamental for anyone who is interested in cinema. They are very important movies.

• And what is the part that you liked the least?

(laughs) I was going to say doing interviews, but that’s not true. No, to be honest I’m enjoying every minute of it. It’s one of those things that when you’re a child you don’t even know what a film festival is, but once you know what it is any cinephile would love to direct one. And to be able to direct a festival in your own city, it’s incredible.

• Were there any surprises, or things that were harder than you thought they would be?

There were a few things to do with production and management that I paid less attention to before (I became director). And the difficulty of putting together an event, that surprised me. Everything that goes into putting together a press conference, there’s a lot of people involved. Apart from that, I was very involved in the negotiations for the films with Paloma Dema, the BAFICI coordinator, and that was actually a very fluid process, I was surprised by how smooth it was.

• Is there anything you tried to do differently this year compared to past years?

Yes. We tried to segment the festival as much as possible, to create something that was less of a panorama and more divided into thematic sections, with distinct focuses. And then in each section there were outstanding films with more openings, and more possibilities to be selected for the competition. We tried to have more ‘focus.’

• You also brought the BAFICI to new neighborhoods this year, neighborhoods where films from the festival weren’t shown previously?

The idea with the neighborhoods is to bring the festival to many more neighborhoods than before. And this means that the presence of the festival is much more spread out, and people are closer. The cultural policy is to offer diversity and access.

• Is there anything particular that you look for in a movie when you select a film for the festival?

I look for something surprising, with a very personal vision. Festivals tend to have pre-established formulas for films, and we tried to stay away from that. We tried to include things that were surprising, fresh, and genuinely personal.

Where do you get the movies you are showing? Do you travel to other festivals to find them, or do people send them to you?

I travel a lot, and people send many in as well. So it is a mix.

• Do you go to many other festivals then?

I have another job as a curator for a video platform, and I travel a lot for them as well. I went to the Toronto (International Film Festival). I went to Lima (Film Festival). I went to Berlin.

• Do you have a favorite film festival other than the Bafici?

The Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).

• Do you try to find a balance between South American movies and movies from the rest of the world? Or do you strive to have a bit of everything?

We try to be as inclusive as possible, and show films from different countries. But Latin America is an important focus, because we know that the festival is important to many Latin Americans. So to us it is important that Latin America have a strong presence (in the BAFICI).

• Do you have a favorite movie of those showing at the BAFICI?

Of the films that are in the festival, yes I have many favorites: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and the films of Peter Bogdanovich. I’m only going to say older films, because I don’t want to put any of the newer films above the others. But yes, I love many of the films showing in the festival. And there are many that I would love to see again if I didn’t have to work.

• Are you originally from Buenos Aires?

No. I am from Marcos Paz in the Province of Buenos Aires.

• How did you first get interested in cinema?

Since I was a kid I’ve loved going to the movies.

•You lived next to a movie theater right?

Yes, I’ve lived next to two movie theaters in Buenos Aires. One was the Gaumont , which is now going to host the BAFICI opening ceremony. So I’m very happy about that.

• When you aren’t working on the BAFICI, what do you do?

I work for Qubit, a video platform. I’m a content curator for them, and I also write film reviews for La Nación (newspaper).

• If you could do anything, what would your next professional project be?

I don’t know. Right now the BAFICI is enough for me. After that, I still don’t know. I don’t want to make plans for the future right now.

-interview: Sam Harrison

Porteño Corner: Father Sebastián Risso

Name: Father Facundo Sebastián Risso
Parish Vicar, Maria Madre de la Esperanza
Age: 39
Lives: Villa 20

• At what age did you decide you want to dedicate your life to religion?

When I was 16 years old my brother died in a fatal accident. I don’t come from a religious family, they don’t go to church or anything – maybe they have their religious beliefs but they don’t go to church. This situation made me seek God.

I got older and soon after I was invited to a parish – it started there.

• Can you tell me a bit about the work that you are doing at the moment?

The parish is a place where people come and stay, in other parishes you just go and attend religious services. They come here to study. They come here to play. The parish is a place of refuge and safety.

I try to help them to grow in a safe place to widen their horizons. I’m thinking about this at this moment, to let them go out of here or not. I think I have to respect them to also let them grow and decide.

I find that the poorest thing is lack of education, not lack of material things, but lack of education. They just don’t know they can study or earn a lot of money, or apply for a position that could give them a more comfortable lifestyle and they just do what their parents have done.

The families are broken here, most of my time I accompany young people. I find that all of them are sons and daughters of fathers who abandoned their family. There is a lot of physical violence and other kinds of violence. Alcoholism is huge here. There are many who were raped in childhood.

The most horrible thing is that they have naturalized that behavior. One is just used to being hit — the boy is just used to seeing his father hit his mother, who is drunk and drunk for a week. It’s tough.

• So most of the work you do is with young people?

Yes – with young people because I think they need it more, in my assistance, I can help them.

• So the church offers them a place of refuge. What do you hope to achieve in the future and are you seeing any changes?

Yes – for example this – (pointing to the homework of a young boy studying in the parish).

I think that, of course, I can’t teach them everything. Many times (it’s about) the lack of this being with the ‘other.’ The mother has to go to work and there is no father. Simply when the boys go back home after school there is no mum to do homework with them. So they don’t do their homework.

This simple thing means the child is educated here. Maybe he does not pass his exams, by 16 when he or she has to retake the year – (they) abandon their studies, go to work or are about to be themselves a father or mother because they got pregnant. It’s very difficult. I find that I can be with them maybe, but I cannot make them do another thing. Maybe with my advice and presence and just my hugs I could make a difference. I don’t know if I have to change their lives, I don’t think I have to do that because they have to live what they decide to live and what they can live. I mean it’s not them and us, (that) their lives our horrid and we have the power. I don’t think in that way. I think you can live better and I can show you that, but you decide. It’s difficult because they are not my ‘patients’.

• Describe your typical day

I have many tasks. In general, I get up early and pray. After my prayers I have many places to visit. Maybe I go to bless a house of one of the families who called me. Maybe I go to a meeting with one of many institutions here. I work together with the justice and health system also and education as well, different schools here.

So I have to go, for example, to one of the schools to talk with one of the headmasters. We are working with a project that has to do with Nazism and the Holocaust and also the last dictatorship here in Argentina and human rights with teens. Human rights are important, they need to know the rights they have. If they don’t know the rights they have they just do not ask for them. I do this one-on-one, in confession or just people who come to speak with the priest. I try to help them in whatever I can, not only religious things, (with) what they need in general. There are many activities here in the parish that has to do with culture, sports, art. I visit the different groups and relate with the people who come to the groups and also try to give them what they need.

Also the religious part: mass, baptisms, visiting them in their houses, attention when one dies – that’s very important.

• How large is the Parish?

About 50,000 I think, I have heard — it is too much.

• Are you the only priest in this parish?

There are two of us, but we are very tired and the people here are very religious. For the catechism we have 600 children every Saturday — it’s a lot. For all the activities with the children they receive something to eat because it is very important for them. We need a lot of milk, chocolate and food and it is not that easy to find. No one gives us money. That is important because for some it could be the only meal they receive in the day so it is very hard. I think my place, what I do is also to help them to fight to be hopeful. I think it is very important, just being there beside them, praying with them and showing them that they can be better. God’s will is for them to be better.

• Are the people here are very religious and attached to their faith?

Yes, because they are very poor and because most of them are from Bolivia and Paraguay and they are not from the cities, but from the countryside. They were very religious in their countries so they bring that with them. They come here with those same roots of the faith. They live here as they live in their countries, with the same religion, the same traditions, with the same dances, music, language.

• How has the Catholic faith changed in the last few years?

That is a difficult question to answer because I know him very well (points to a picture of Pope Francis on the wall). For us in Buenos Aires and in particularly (us) priests, who knew our former Archbishop well, I am really not astonished or surprised. He is doing the same things that he was doing here. But one thing is being the Archbishop, and one thing is being the Pope.

• So you knew Pope Francis when he was Father Bergoglio well?

He was my bishop and my father. We spoke many times.

• Do you think he is more of a political pope? He is more outspoken on certain topics than other figures in the past.

I think that he is himself. Now he can just show another dimension and here he couldn’t — he had limits and now he can be himself and say what he likes. I did not read all of what he said to the U.N. and on the U.S. visit. I heard from the other priests that he just talked about the gospel; he did not say anything else. He just preached the gospel – just a simple preacher but it’s the Pope speaking to the U.N. and the U.S.

• Some say he is quite a modern pope, he has Twitter and Facebook and he’s become more accessible to the people in this way –

Here he didn’t even use email!

• Do you think it’s important to do more things to modernize to become more accessible to the people?

Yes, of course. I think there is an army of laborers and workers helping him answering things.

For instance, I went to Berlin last year to a seminar. I really miss him. The last day we ate breakfast and I went to the hotel lobby and asked them for paper to write three lines, “Thank you, now I am very well in the parish that I am in and I pray for you.”

I gave it to the priest who was going to the Vatican City. He told me that he wouldn’t see the Pope but that he could give to his secretary. Ten days after that I received — with his handwriting that I know very well — a card, just a card. I was thinking, he receives cards and letters from the whole world and he found the time to read (my message) and write back.

For me it was very important and his way of being present – I think that changes the church. He is with the people, as simple as that. Like Jesus, there with the people with the suffering ones. I insist on this – he hasn’t changed – he does the same things as he did in Buenos Aires. He goes to the prisons, he goes to the work places — he does the same (things he did before).

• What do you enjoy doing outside of your faith? What are your likes and dislikes?

I love singing. I’m interested in reading everything. I like psychology and the application of psychology as to relate better with others. Cultural things. I’m interested in studying. I like to study about the culture of my parishioners. Now I’m here with the Bolivian and Paraguayan people, so I’m interested in studying their rituals and ceremonies.

Also I like landscapes. I like traveling; I like learning about different cultures and people, like the Jewish culture. I like languages, spirituality. I like to seek and to reach and to find out how people find happiness or live happy.

My dislike — injustice!

Are you originally from Buenos Aires?

Yes – my mother was born in Paraguay, but she emigrated when she was 18.

Do you have a favorite place in Buenos Aires?

The bookshops on Corrientes. I don’t go to those places unless I have to go with another person such as a tourist, but I like doing that.

What is you’re opinion on Argentine Folk Saints such as Gauchito Gil? What do you think of them?

It’s very complex. The story says he was like a Robin Hood – people are devoted to him. Of course, if someone asks me to come and bless the image I do it, because I think God wills people to something religious.

A lot of people who come here would like to help communities such as the one you work in, what are the different ways they can do this?

I used to say that the best way is to come and visit, if you visit you can find what they need and you can give them that. Time – anyone who can come and do homework with the boys is excellent. We need food because there is no one who gives us food and there are a lot of people who eat in the parish. Money is also very important so we can buy what we need. If someone comes and says they want to help, I tell them to come here. Many people are not interested and they help (only) with food or money or whatever. But the best way is to come and visit the area and the people because they can find what they need and give it to them.

-interview: Maral Shafafy

Porteño Corner: Eddy Mendoza, Peruvian Carpenter

Eddy Mendoza
Sculpture/Carpenter
Age: 45
San Martín (province of Buenos Aires)

Q: How long have you been here and where are you originally from?

I’ve been here 18 years. I’m from Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru.

• How did you end up in Buenos Aires?

I came as a tourist and I ended up staying because there is more employment in carpentry here.

• Do you have your family here with you?

No, here I’m alone. I’m married and I have a 20-year-old son. My son is in Peru. My wife is working in Spain. I wanted to go too but I didn’t get the visa. I wish I could — a piece that earns me 2,000 pesos here would be worth 12,000 in Spain.

Here I just make enough to get by. I wanted to go to the U.S. too but it’s impossible to get a visa. Argentina welcomes anyone, which is great. I don’t think countries should be able to say who comes in and who doesn’t. The earth belongs to all of us, not just the people who drew up lines dividing the land.

• You’re here celebrating the bicentennial with your Dominican friends. What do you think of the festivities?

It’s very nice. It’s good that the people can enjoy themselves. It’s just stupid that (President) Cristina didn’t show up.

• Why do you think she didn’t show up?

Because of her ego.

• Why do you like Argentina?

I like the quality of the people; they’re warm and affectionate. In general, Argentina offers everything you’d want in a country and they are welcoming to foreigners.

• Some people here are prejudice against Peruvians, have you experienced discrimination?

In the street, yes, but in a work environment, no. Once people know you they love you for who you are and it doesn’t matter where you’re from. There are always people who laugh at you for your accent, the color of you skin, or even the color of your shirt, but there are ignorant people all over the world.

• You say people can tell you’re a foreigner by your accent, although it’s not that strong. Do you speak Lunfardo?

I understand lunfardo, but I don’t speak it because I try not to offend people.

• What do you miss about Peru?

The customs and the food!

• What customs in particular?

Well, the behavior of the people. Where I come from people are more human, genuine and sincere. Here the people are nice but it’s more superficial.

•And what do you think of Argentine women?

They’re very pretty! I like Argentine women very much. They have huge egos though, until they’re in love and then suddenly they have the lowest self esteem in the world.

• So you date Argentine women?

Well yes, I go out with them to have dinner or whatever, but I tell them; ‘Listen I have a wife, she’s in Spain.’ I don’t lie. I may tell them I care for them but I don’t tell them I’m going to love them forever.

• What about your wife, is she allowed to date others too?

Well if she wants to, I can’t stop her. Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente (Eyes that don’t see, heart that doesn’t feel).

Porteño Corner: Bakery Worker, Elba Huerte

Elba Huerte
Age: 64
From: Remedios de Escalada, Province of Buenos Aires
Counter server, El Pan Nuestra Bakery
Mexico 702
San Telmo

Q: How many times a week can you eat media lunas (sweet croissants) or facturas (pastries) for breakfast and not get fat?

This, I don’t know, but there are people who eat them everyday. They do make people fat — it’s not diet food, but I tell the clients that they’re low-fat just to make them feel better!

• How long have you worked here?

I’ve worked here since we opened in this location in 2005, but I’ve known and worked for this family for over 40 years. Three partners — two brothers and a nephew own this business, but I worked for the brothers’ dad in a bakery in Belgrano beginning when I was 16 years old.

Then for about 20 years I sold clothes in businesses and I had five people working under me. I made good money but it was tiring after a while. I like this better.

• Why do you like this job?

I like the contact with the public.

• How are the people different from when you started 48 years ago?

Oh my! Before people had good manners and respect, these days that doesn’t even exist. And you might think it’s just the young people but the old people are rude too! They have a bad day and they take it out on us.

The other day a 70 year-old man yelled at me because the price of bread went up. Like it’s my fault that the government increases the cost of wheat! I think the people should say good afternoon, please and thank you. I mean, we’re polite so the people should be too.

• Why do you think the people are ruder than they used to be?

I don’t know. It’s not just the way people raise their kids because the adults have bad manners too, but I do hear mothers saying, ‘I want my daughter to treat me like a friend.’ Your daughter should never be your friend! My daughter certainly does not talk to me like I am her friend; I deserve more respect than her friend.

The foreigners are generally more polite even though I don’t get why they buy one cookie at a time.

• There was a police officer hanging out in here but you said that they didn’t do anything when the bakery got robbed, what’s the story?

For me, the cops are just as corrupt as the crooks. This cop comes and talks with us for a while, it’s safer while he’s in here, but I don’t trust the cops. The cops and the crooks work together. I’m not saying ALL police, but the majority.

It’s like a priest, you know one nice priest and you are fond of them and then you hear about all these priests molesting children. What are you suppose to think? I don’t trust doctors, judges or politicians either. What does a president do? We vote for them and they get into office and then they stuff their pockets and forget what they promised us. I don’t know what’s happening with the world. It’s like corruption is a contagious infection.

• It seems that you give a lot of free bread out here. What’s the policy on that?

We give out bread to anyone who asks. Alicia, my co-worker, is in charge of bagging up the bread we give away. We give bread to kids and old people, and right up the street here there is a hotel for juvenile delinquents without families. They come and ask for bread quite a lot. We give it to them so they don’t rob us. So we give bread to everyone— even the crooks!

• So they don’t rob you then?

Well no, they don’t rob us, they just send other people to do it.