00:03:14.947 --> 00:03:18.947
THE FILMER

00:04:30.881 --> 00:04:35.878
Alfredo Alzugarat
Researcher - National Library

00:04:43.098 --> 00:04:47.474
Boarding the Andrea C
Feb, 10, 1950. Friday.

00:04:47.706 --> 00:04:52.631
The journey begins. At the dock,
everyone waves handkerchiefs.

00:04:52.802 --> 00:04:55.408
Our parents, our dearest friends.

00:04:55.977 --> 00:04:59.959
It's impossible to try
and describe what I felt then.

00:05:00.544 --> 00:05:04.808
If I try to be more precise, everything
becomes a whirlwind of confusion.

00:05:05.440 --> 00:05:07.688
I see Mario hugging
José Martín,

00:05:08.248 --> 00:05:12.070
staring in amazement
at the ship we are on.

00:05:12.891 --> 00:05:15.493
I see Ángel and Ida,
her face red with tears.

00:05:16.230 --> 00:05:18.026
I see Bergamín and Teresa,

00:05:18.065 --> 00:05:21.236
I see the group drift away,
covered and blurred

00:05:21.368 --> 00:05:24.108
by my own tears
I can barely hold.

00:05:25.038 --> 00:05:29.391
Meanwhile, I feel the surprise
and the joy of understanding

00:05:30.385 --> 00:05:32.972
that the emotion
of farewell increased

00:05:33.247 --> 00:05:36.451
because it was a face
of facing the unknown.

00:06:38.665 --> 00:06:42.299
The time to write on this diary
has not come yet.

00:06:43.109 --> 00:06:45.636
And yet, I often
feel the need.

00:06:48.068 --> 00:06:49.400
Connections: few.

00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:52.697
Feelings for Paris: growing.

00:06:53.471 --> 00:06:55.571
Must re-read Baudelaire.

00:06:55.952 --> 00:06:57.662
Here, I can feel him
in the air.

00:06:59.737 --> 00:07:03.888
The French never thought
of publishing Baudelaire

00:07:03.913 --> 00:07:06.653
with photographs from
different angles in Paris.

00:07:07.361 --> 00:07:09.122
I'd like to do
something like that.

00:07:10.245 --> 00:07:11.929
I will if I get the camera.

00:07:26.914 --> 00:07:31.195
Audiovisual Preservation Lab
University of the Republic

00:09:09.306 --> 00:09:11.491
-Good conditions.
-Yes?

00:09:11.516 --> 00:09:16.562
In "deterioration", add
"fading and dirt".

00:09:17.089 --> 00:09:18.163
-OK.
-That's it.

00:09:18.188 --> 00:09:20.407
Yes, this one
has no stripes.

00:09:46.122 --> 00:09:48.668
An afternoon devoted
to buying the camera.

00:09:48.937 --> 00:09:52.246
Then, at home, to trying
to become acquainted with it.

00:09:53.491 --> 00:09:56.832
I am interested in all things
mechanic and precise.

00:09:57.094 --> 00:10:01.908
It looks delicate and powerful,
thanks to its tiny tower of long lenses.

00:10:03.314 --> 00:10:05.666
In the afternoon, a stroll
along "la cité".

00:10:06.115 --> 00:10:08.081
First shots over the towers,

00:10:08.541 --> 00:10:11.853
the gargoyles and other
monstrous sculptures.

00:10:17.748 --> 00:10:19.286
I feel a bit silly,

00:10:19.311 --> 00:10:23.006
about my wild enthusiasm
for amateur filmmaking,

00:10:23.693 --> 00:10:25.552
but I study from a
technical manual,

00:10:25.714 --> 00:10:28.398
with an enthusiasm
perhaps worthy of a better cause.

00:10:56.158 --> 00:11:00.604
José Pedro Díaz was an intellectual
of the '45 generation.

00:11:01.070 --> 00:11:04.394
He is one of the main
artists in that generation.

00:11:05.940 --> 00:11:08.552
He was also a great
literary critic,

00:11:08.577 --> 00:11:12.170
an expert
on Felisberto Hernández's works,

00:11:12.195 --> 00:11:17.947
whose papers he rescued
and turned into posthumous editions,

00:11:19.206 --> 00:11:21.290
and also on Bécquer,

00:11:21.315 --> 00:11:24.772
his book on the matter
still a reference to this day,

00:11:25.787 --> 00:11:27.220
on Gérard de Nerval

00:11:28.043 --> 00:11:32.283
on José Pedro Bellán, uncle
of his wife, Amanda Berenguer.

00:11:37.211 --> 00:11:41.626
He also had the ambition
to become a writer, a great one.

00:11:42.462 --> 00:11:45.799
He struggled with that ambition
all his life.

00:11:46.958 --> 00:11:52.005
We could say
the most interesting aspect

00:11:52.030 --> 00:11:55.828
is his work being considered
a rarity,

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a literature of free imagination,

00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:04.979
entirely independent of reality.

00:12:06.641 --> 00:12:08.939
His wife,
Amanda Berenguer, in turn,

00:12:10.243 --> 00:12:13.226
was still far, at that time,
from what she would become:

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a great Latin American poet.

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Yesterday:
Visit a French couple.

00:12:38.433 --> 00:12:41.594
Very interesting conversations
about new poetry.

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Readings of Henri Michaux,

00:12:45.386 --> 00:12:48.824
whom I see in the natural
line of work I am studying.

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It's an absurd poetry
in an absurd world.

00:12:54.175 --> 00:12:56.799
Poisson, who is
a P.E. teacher,

00:12:57.277 --> 00:13:02.213
is a mime, and performed for us,
in my opinion, remarkably.

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I filmed parts of one
such performances.

00:13:08.789 --> 00:13:12.530
We agreed to make a short film
with one specific pantomime.

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Fontainebleau is the first
European forest we see.

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The shapes and colors
of the trees

00:13:52.239 --> 00:13:55.481
blend perfectly with the movement
of the paths.

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The cuckoos sing, crows and other
black birds fly by.

00:14:02.418 --> 00:14:06.219
The song of the birds is frequent,
harmonious and varied.

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Much richer than that
of our American birds.

00:14:11.095 --> 00:14:14.286
The birds are more cultured
and refined here as well.

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In a pause, by the road,
I took several shots.

00:14:22.416 --> 00:14:23.939
Arzadun sketching,

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then Amanda films me
as Leandro helps me light a cigarette.

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This is the cliche...

00:15:09.687 --> 00:15:13.626
of the cover
for Fires of San Telmo.

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The fish from the deep sea.

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Terrible fish.

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There are the caravels

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my dad used to care for,

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because his father
had made them.

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Beethoven's head,
which was on his desk.

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I'm shooting.

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-What will you do with that later?
-Give it to Carlos.

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My father had
a relatively large study

00:16:29.768 --> 00:16:32.181
with a huge door
which led to the workshop.

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The workshop was the place
where my parents made their books.

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That workshop, in time,
became a storage room.

00:16:46.551 --> 00:16:47.951
In that room,

00:16:49.246 --> 00:16:52.461
many times I came across
some cans, round cans,

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and I asked my father
what they were.

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My father said
those were films.

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He told me some
of the things

00:17:07.774 --> 00:17:10.989
that might be
on those films.

00:17:11.919 --> 00:17:17.237
Eventually, they were buried
under many books

00:17:17.300 --> 00:17:20.944
from Felisberto Hernández
or who knows...

00:17:21.776 --> 00:17:22.938
they were lost.

00:17:25.966 --> 00:17:27.167
After my parents died,

00:17:28.553 --> 00:17:31.315
one of my main problems
was figuring out what to do

00:17:32.143 --> 00:17:35.151
about that huge library
at home.

00:17:36.451 --> 00:17:37.451
10,000 books.

00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:42.352
I had to find a place
which would somehow

00:17:42.595 --> 00:17:45.824
maintain my parents' spirit.

00:17:48.391 --> 00:17:50.137
I thought of the National Library.

00:17:52.009 --> 00:17:56.190
That required emptying
the workshop.

00:17:58.055 --> 00:18:03.953
And then, those round cans,
appeared again.

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I remember my father's story

00:18:11.065 --> 00:18:14.090
about the things that
were allegedly on those films.

00:18:14.989 --> 00:18:19.223
I remember, for example,
he told me Peloduro must be there.

00:18:20.065 --> 00:18:22.873
I remember filming Peloduro
as he drew.

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Many values change intimately.

00:19:36.334 --> 00:19:40.406
Better appreciation of our things.
More certainty in judgment.

00:19:44.342 --> 00:19:47.156
I regard panting
and literature differently.

00:19:47.962 --> 00:19:52.478
I feel a serene and firm joy
about living and seeing.

00:19:55.324 --> 00:19:57.628
Each instant,
I'm more interested in seeing.

00:19:58.425 --> 00:20:01.973
I don't know what is coming
through my eyes, but I surrender,

00:20:01.998 --> 00:20:05.799
because I feel it is
important and deep.

00:20:10.022 --> 00:20:14.904
I feel I steal something from things
by looking at them. I take them with me.

00:20:15.474 --> 00:20:18.615
Better, I take the part of them
which is already mine.

00:21:00.411 --> 00:21:02.232
In 1949,

00:21:03.257 --> 00:21:06.085
José Pedro Díaz
successfully applies

00:21:07.074 --> 00:21:09.178
for the Gallinal grant.

00:21:10.020 --> 00:21:14.221
It was a scholarship
from Secondary Education

00:21:14.670 --> 00:21:18.769
and included a two year stay
in Europe,

00:21:18.889 --> 00:21:21.820
to study further,
and at the same time,

00:21:21.928 --> 00:21:26.673
learn something that would
contribute to Uruguayan society.

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To them, it had
a profound meaning.

00:21:33.276 --> 00:21:36.687
They were very young,
30, 29 years old,

00:21:37.047 --> 00:21:40.002
and it was a journey to Europe,
a dream come true,

00:21:41.464 --> 00:21:44.812
a dream that, since
the turn of the century,

00:21:45.845 --> 00:21:49.334
was shared by most artists,
whether writers or visual artists.

00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:53.766
Perhaps it was Ruben Darío
who began the trend,

00:21:54.445 --> 00:21:56.765
but since then,
many artists

00:21:56.790 --> 00:22:01.644
considered traveling to Europe
a necessity,

00:22:01.669 --> 00:22:03.990
specially to Paris,
the capital of art.

00:22:05.949 --> 00:22:08.889
It is also a challenge

00:22:10.211 --> 00:22:12.115
for his writing career.

00:22:13.165 --> 00:22:17.608
He understands this is
the final stage of his training,

00:22:17.633 --> 00:22:20.885
and that after that, one has
to write and write and be good at it.

00:22:26.777 --> 00:22:31.746
I have a growing feeling
from the works I am reading

00:22:32.472 --> 00:22:34.307
that we got to Paris
a bit too late.

00:22:36.241 --> 00:22:41.511
What France is going through at the moment,
is not too interesting to us, I think.

00:22:42.303 --> 00:22:44.041
What matters
is not the now.

00:22:45.987 --> 00:22:49.418
I have the impression
that the truth there is in Sartre,

00:22:49.625 --> 00:22:52.887
is too truthful
and too regrettable.

00:22:54.059 --> 00:22:57.908
What I think I can sense in the air,
in culture, is a total defeat,

00:22:58.379 --> 00:23:01.251
with no way out, for the time being,
based on what I feel.

00:23:03.293 --> 00:23:07.957
It is not Paris what artists
and writers must visit to learn,

00:23:09.073 --> 00:23:11.779
and if they do, it is not
to learn about the now,

00:23:12.249 --> 00:23:15.691
but to see the traces
of a tradition,

00:23:16.142 --> 00:23:20.632
not to pick up the pace of a culture
out of synch with ours.

00:24:55.861 --> 00:24:58.318
This journey
was very important to them.

00:24:59.456 --> 00:25:02.201
And because of that,

00:25:02.700 --> 00:25:06.105
they decided to keep record,
as best they could.

00:25:06.769 --> 00:25:12.553
In that regard, there are records
on many levels.

00:25:13.358 --> 00:25:17.315
First, the writing,
which belongs to them.

00:25:18.365 --> 00:25:21.531
That includes their correspondence.

00:25:23.081 --> 00:25:24.755
And apart from that,

00:25:25.034 --> 00:25:28.884
there's the diary
José Pedro Díaz had kept

00:25:29.630 --> 00:25:32.697
for at least five or six years,

00:25:32.722 --> 00:25:37.838
which he kept with commitment
and discipline, as one should.

00:25:38.805 --> 00:25:42.149
That diary gathered...

00:25:42.831 --> 00:25:46.578
his experiences
as a writer,

00:25:47.226 --> 00:25:52.396
his ideas and also his doubts,

00:25:52.859 --> 00:25:54.589
his aesthetic considerations,

00:25:55.465 --> 00:25:59.904
and any existential issues
related to writing.

00:26:01.276 --> 00:26:03.918
But that was not enough
for him.

00:26:04.103 --> 00:26:06.365
There's a second level,
which is photography.

00:26:07.230 --> 00:26:12.022
in which Díaz
was relatively proficient,

00:26:12.839 --> 00:26:17.267
and a third level, which is
the most interesting one:

00:26:17.668 --> 00:26:19.542
the films.

00:26:20.377 --> 00:26:25.368
Of course, these different
records interact,

00:26:26.489 --> 00:26:32.307
many things appear on film
and also on the diary, and so on.

00:26:39.225 --> 00:26:42.216
These shots, both in
film and photography,

00:26:42.241 --> 00:26:45.292
will be completely discarded.

00:26:47.515 --> 00:26:51.804
That is really a mystery.

00:26:51.905 --> 00:26:55.290
He kept all this
until the end of his life.

00:26:55.315 --> 00:26:57.117
Just as he kept the diary.

00:26:57.889 --> 00:27:00.257
Most of it,
he never made public.

00:28:43.976 --> 00:28:46.346
My father, at one time,

00:28:46.840 --> 00:28:51.442
had passions for certain
aspects of art.

00:28:53.066 --> 00:28:55.066
Most of this was forgotten

00:28:55.874 --> 00:29:00.757
due to the circumstances which lead
people to other paths in life.

00:29:02.056 --> 00:29:04.947
However, at some point,

00:29:05.298 --> 00:29:09.969
he told me these films
would see the light some day.

00:29:20.977 --> 00:29:25.698
My parents, funnily enough,
did many things

00:29:27.138 --> 00:29:29.322
related to bearing...

00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:32.522
witness...

00:29:34.026 --> 00:29:36.941
of the passing of time
and of the circumstances...

00:29:39.195 --> 00:29:42.145
their life was about symbols,

00:29:42.577 --> 00:29:45.538
about leaving signs
of their existence.

00:29:47.688 --> 00:29:51.805
I believe part of the creation
of these films,

00:29:51.830 --> 00:29:54.146
has to do with that as well.

00:29:56.875 --> 00:29:58.777
Art,

00:29:59.981 --> 00:30:01.004
memory,

00:30:01.941 --> 00:30:05.114
and existence,
all blended together.

00:33:30.964 --> 00:33:35.147
Ossip Zadkine
Sculptor

00:33:39.076 --> 00:33:44.770
Interviewed by:
José Pedro Díaz

00:33:47.618 --> 00:33:49.627
Paris 1951

00:33:50.810 --> 00:33:54.713
Attending Ciné Clubs
finally convinced me

00:33:54.738 --> 00:33:59.613
of changing my 8mm camera
for a 16 mm one.

00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:05.577
However, I experience this
enthusiasm with a certain sadness.

00:34:09.496 --> 00:34:12.815
This refulgent enthusiasm for film

00:34:13.315 --> 00:34:18.116
makes me suspicious it might be
an ambush to my feeble literary drive.

00:34:18.772 --> 00:34:21.319
Unable to focus
on a great novel,

00:34:21.689 --> 00:34:25.439
it devotes itself to other,
seemingly easier, forms of expression,

00:34:25.816 --> 00:34:28.772
only to, perhaps, -who knows?-
abandon them later,

00:34:29.670 --> 00:34:33.116
when it's the most
vital thing: creation.

00:34:36.092 --> 00:34:41.750
Perhaps it means I'm doomed
to dilettantism, and take it gladly.

00:34:44.110 --> 00:34:48.961
Ultimately, time will tell
if it is really a threatening distraction.

00:34:49.516 --> 00:34:53.863
In that case, I can get rid
of it, hopefully.

00:34:56.544 --> 00:35:00.732
Meanwhile , I see a different world,
and dive into it. I know it,

00:35:01.022 --> 00:35:02.625
and that's something.

00:35:03.124 --> 00:35:06.096
I gather information
about pedagogical cinema.

00:35:06.121 --> 00:35:08.737
I read Jean Genet
and struggle with myself,

00:35:09.207 --> 00:35:13.432
with this capricious, and perhaps
silly boy in me.

00:36:08.514 --> 00:36:10.292
I think the diary
was for himself.

00:36:11.098 --> 00:36:15.816
But he used it
to store ideas,

00:36:16.253 --> 00:36:20.795
arguments to use
in the future.

00:36:26.309 --> 00:36:31.125
By studying and comparing
the information on his files,

00:36:31.698 --> 00:36:37.352
I discovered the foundation
of "Fires of San Telmo"

00:36:37.666 --> 00:36:39.425
in his diary,

00:36:39.669 --> 00:36:43.648
in his visit to the fishing village
of his ancestors,

00:36:44.065 --> 00:36:45.569
Marina di Camerota.

00:36:45.949 --> 00:36:49.112
That part of the diary is practically
transferred to the novel.

00:38:23.621 --> 00:38:28.809
My father was ill as a child,
bedridden for a long time,

00:38:29.894 --> 00:38:35.211
and it was his great-uncle who
fed his imagination as a child.

00:38:35.888 --> 00:38:41.233
He brought stories with him
from Italy, from Marina di Camerota.

00:38:44.367 --> 00:38:45.394
He was a fisherman.

00:38:46.167 --> 00:38:49.136
So most of the stories

00:38:49.737 --> 00:38:53.475
were related to the sea
and adventures at sea,

00:38:57.106 --> 00:39:00.531
stories passed down orally,
of course,

00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:06.253
which had great impact
on my father.

00:39:07.860 --> 00:39:12.065
Most of his later stories

00:39:12.090 --> 00:39:17.151
are related to those stories
from his great-uncle,

00:39:18.471 --> 00:39:19.562
Domenico.

00:39:29.350 --> 00:39:30.587
When my father...

00:39:32.566 --> 00:39:35.851
was 50 or 60, he built
his own boat,

00:39:37.193 --> 00:39:38.796
in his desk.

00:39:40.052 --> 00:39:43.969
He dreamed of boats
all this life,

00:39:44.950 --> 00:39:46.781
of sailing,

00:39:47.250 --> 00:39:50.377
nobody knows where to,
but sailing still.

00:40:20.798 --> 00:40:24.266
He said somewhere

00:40:24.405 --> 00:40:27.005
that art cannot exist
without memory.

00:40:27.509 --> 00:40:30.570
It would be impossible to write
without memory.

00:40:31.839 --> 00:40:33.739
Memory, in a way,

00:40:34.091 --> 00:40:37.700
is the foundation
on top of which...

00:40:39.885 --> 00:40:41.493
any activity
is developed.

00:40:52.815 --> 00:40:58.949
This way of conceiving art,
as based on memory,

00:40:58.974 --> 00:41:02.417
is constant in my father's
literature.

00:41:05.247 --> 00:41:09.826
And his disease
really took its toll on him,

00:41:09.851 --> 00:41:14.310
because, specially
during the final years,

00:41:14.979 --> 00:41:17.405
his disease consisted
of memory loss.

00:41:44.059 --> 00:41:47.336
These past few days
were quite hectic.

00:41:47.722 --> 00:41:52.281
We went too fast from one landscape
to another, all of them amazing.

00:41:53.244 --> 00:41:56.187
Mountains, sea,
indescribable towns,

00:41:56.595 --> 00:42:00.017
always in an exuberant,
yet quiet atmosphere.

00:42:02.488 --> 00:42:04.980
What will become of all this
in our memories?

00:42:05.731 --> 00:42:08.852
Where can I leave this now
to move on to something else?

00:42:10.252 --> 00:42:15.578
It will surely vanish gradually,
as some have already.

00:42:17.114 --> 00:42:20.814
We see Europe in great hurry,
almost with some pain.

00:42:21.208 --> 00:42:23.511
We catch fleeting glimpses,

00:42:25.147 --> 00:42:30.350
a quick look from the road
into the abyss that is the mountain,

00:42:32.018 --> 00:42:34.683
another look at a red fence,
filled with roses.

00:42:35.956 --> 00:42:38.907
The complete form,
with its rhythm and its secrets,

00:42:39.046 --> 00:42:42.044
of an old town
lying on a cliff.

00:43:14.663 --> 00:43:18.747
Their journey
in Western Europe...

00:43:19.678 --> 00:43:24.279
included the United Kingdom,
the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy...

00:43:25.061 --> 00:43:30.106
but the core of it was
Paris first, and then Spain.

00:43:38.649 --> 00:43:43.095
Although they are observing
that art journey tradition,

00:43:44.513 --> 00:43:47.776
they do it at a later time,
and during post-war times.

00:43:50.191 --> 00:43:54.944
The journey is also marked by the tension
of the beginning of the Cold War.

00:43:55.261 --> 00:43:57.264
In the case of Spain,

00:43:57.950 --> 00:44:02.740
Franco's dictatorship,
in a terrible crisis,

00:44:02.803 --> 00:44:06.615
To Madrid through Sierra Morena
-still unrecognized by the Allies,

00:44:06.686 --> 00:44:10.024
as his collaboration with
National Socialism was widely known.

00:44:10.948 --> 00:44:15.845
It was a time in which Spain
was the most backward country in Europe,

00:44:16.048 --> 00:44:20.610
and was going through
famine and poverty.

00:44:21.510 --> 00:44:25.438
So all that gravely affects them.

00:44:25.463 --> 00:44:28.162
On one hand, there's censorship,

00:44:29.156 --> 00:44:32.684
in Spain they meet
persecuted people,

00:44:33.212 --> 00:44:36.768
Díaz himself is cautious
about what he writes in his notebook,

00:44:37.638 --> 00:44:42.002
and on the other hand,
there was poverty.

00:44:42.027 --> 00:44:45.973
These poor farmers
with wooden plows...

00:44:46.135 --> 00:44:51.918
working in medieval conditions,
as if in feudal times...

00:44:52.401 --> 00:44:55.609
View of Toledo

00:45:05.283 --> 00:45:08.052
30th August.
At Santillana del mar,

00:45:08.740 --> 00:45:10.476
so many mixed feelings.

00:45:11.311 --> 00:45:14.012
How many feelings
since we came to Spain.

00:45:14.894 --> 00:45:17.163
Sometimes it is a feeling
of the earth,

00:45:17.876 --> 00:45:20.416
or a word I hear
from some peasant,

00:45:20.937 --> 00:45:23.005
or the simple name
of a town,

00:45:23.543 --> 00:45:26.810
or that always amazing
sight of the mountains,

00:45:26.844 --> 00:45:29.103
the poplar trees, the streams...

00:45:29.348 --> 00:45:33.237
all of which carry a special
significance to me.

00:45:36.654 --> 00:45:41.626
Everything has a meaning, nothing is merely
a landscape but rather an animated one,

00:45:42.050 --> 00:45:45.943
with the spirit of that which I want
the most, living in it.

00:45:56.824 --> 00:45:58.824
The trip from Burgos
to Santander.

00:45:59.863 --> 00:46:02.933
Poor Burgos,
military and priests.

00:46:03.443 --> 00:46:05.513
Military and priests
and nothing else.

00:46:05.908 --> 00:46:08.826
Spain is now an army
and its church

00:46:09.340 --> 00:46:12.910
and then poor peasants
picking up wheat.

00:46:14.553 --> 00:46:18.244
Shortly after Vivar del Cid,
another town,

00:46:19.285 --> 00:46:21.736
an open space
between the houses,

00:46:22.339 --> 00:46:24.554
next to the road
where they work,

00:46:25.432 --> 00:46:27.058
men and women
together.

00:46:28.141 --> 00:46:32.185
There's a pile of straw in the middle,
which they go at with forks,

00:46:32.549 --> 00:46:35.335
and the oxen turn
as they pull a cart

00:46:35.360 --> 00:46:38.509
where someone sits
on the pile and breaks the straw.

00:46:39.554 --> 00:46:43.528
I get off the car and bring the camera,
as everyone looks at me.

00:46:44.063 --> 00:46:47.653
I say "Can I take some pictures
of your work?

00:46:48.548 --> 00:46:50.719
"Sure, sir. And we'd like
to see them too".

00:46:51.227 --> 00:46:53.227
"I wish", I replied.

00:46:54.213 --> 00:46:58.864
I shoot seven meters of film; hurriedly,
restless and somewhat embarrassed.

00:46:59.857 --> 00:47:02.981
An old man avoids the spots
I face with my camera.

00:47:03.707 --> 00:47:05.464
"Don't let him run away!",
they say.

00:47:05.996 --> 00:47:09.304
"That machine won't do
anything to you".

00:47:09.714 --> 00:47:11.032
I finish my film.

00:47:11.887 --> 00:47:13.490
"We'd like to see them, sir".

00:47:14.386 --> 00:47:17.260
I cannot promise that,
as I won't be able to do that.

00:47:17.570 --> 00:47:20.704
They will be seen in South
America, that's quite far.

00:47:21.171 --> 00:47:24.445
Even though it's far,
we love you dearly.

00:47:25.035 --> 00:47:26.591
"Well, thanks anyway".

00:47:27.042 --> 00:47:29.063
"Thank you, goodbye".
"Goodbye, sir".

00:47:29.714 --> 00:47:31.400
Everyone cheerful
and kind,

00:47:32.044 --> 00:47:33.987
and me, always afraid
to talk to them,

00:47:34.524 --> 00:47:36.524
missing the best part
of the journey,

00:47:36.901 --> 00:47:39.033
and I know that because
of my stupid shortcomings.

00:48:31.924 --> 00:48:32.942
Granada.

00:48:34.058 --> 00:48:36.886
When we left the hotel,
I took my diary with me.

00:48:37.301 --> 00:48:40.663
I thought about writing
something about Alhambra.

00:48:41.232 --> 00:48:45.614
That was foolish. Taking all this in
is much more important.

00:48:46.007 --> 00:48:47.660
Color, sky, mountains,

00:48:48.082 --> 00:48:49.623
the sound of water running.

00:48:51.170 --> 00:48:53.383
Granada is interesting
on many levels.

00:48:53.801 --> 00:48:58.384
Landscape and color, perhaps
like no other Spanish city.

00:49:01.730 --> 00:49:03.215
But while we were there,

00:49:03.727 --> 00:49:07.418
I was drawn to conversation
with some people.

00:49:09.452 --> 00:49:14.126
Nowhere near as terrible as the conditions
in which Lorca's cousin lives.

00:49:15.040 --> 00:49:17.258
He was a Captain
with the Republican militia,

00:49:17.350 --> 00:49:20.991
and suffered physical punishment
and five years in prison.

00:49:23.152 --> 00:49:25.253
He lives in constant terror.

00:49:26.077 --> 00:49:30.327
His professional life truncated,
he has become a dark clerk,

00:49:31.053 --> 00:49:34.674
unable to leave Granada
without good reason.

00:49:35.905 --> 00:49:39.936
I think he avoided us
for our safety and for his own.

00:49:40.729 --> 00:49:43.313
He confessed to me
he lives alone, without friends,

00:49:43.692 --> 00:49:47.751
because he fears infecting others
with his political leprosy, as he put it.

00:49:50.188 --> 00:49:53.542
On the other hand, he only talks
about this situation,

00:49:54.423 --> 00:49:56.002
which has become
his obsession.

00:49:56.767 --> 00:49:59.411
Understandable.
Quite understandable.

00:50:09.633 --> 00:50:12.098
Sometimes I wonder
if I can see.

00:50:12.628 --> 00:50:13.694
I think I can't.

00:50:14.020 --> 00:50:17.431
I see, with the help
of other eyes, and of fondness.

00:50:18.262 --> 00:50:20.336
Segovia wouldn't be
what it is to me,

00:50:20.720 --> 00:50:25.343
if I hadn't read in Ávila,
the letters of Dn. Antonio Machado.

00:50:26.365 --> 00:50:29.334
I would have liked it,
much like Ávila,

00:50:29.780 --> 00:50:32.382
but I wouldn't have felt
the love I now feel,

00:50:32.591 --> 00:50:36.142
for the two flows surrounding it:
Clamores and Eresma.

00:50:38.659 --> 00:50:40.530
We go out for a walk
with Amanda.

00:50:41.473 --> 00:50:45.092
We walk by the Cathedral
and continued to the Alcazar.

00:50:45.635 --> 00:50:47.994
Suddenly, we see

00:50:48.019 --> 00:50:51.642
a small, crooked street to our right,
which went down.

00:50:52.305 --> 00:50:56.498
A sign read:
"Street of the Forsaken".

00:50:57.312 --> 00:50:59.171
Here lived Dn. Antonio.

00:50:59.959 --> 00:51:01.027
We went down.

00:51:01.276 --> 00:51:04.738
Narrow, poor streets, in the poorest
neighborhood in Segovia.

00:51:06.265 --> 00:51:08.548
We get there
and knock on the door.

00:51:09.498 --> 00:51:11.868
A kind, smiling
old lady came out.

00:51:12.566 --> 00:51:16.235
Excuse me, Ma'am?
Is this where Dn. Antonio Machado lived?

00:51:17.150 --> 00:51:20.344
Yes, sir, it is.
Did you know him?

00:51:20.822 --> 00:51:24.970
Not in person. We read his books,
and love him dearly.

00:51:26.032 --> 00:51:29.299
Indeed, we went
through a long gallery

00:51:29.695 --> 00:51:32.011
until we found
the bedroom.

00:51:33.644 --> 00:51:37.519
A small room,
3 x 4, maybe less.

00:51:38.634 --> 00:51:40.728
Near the window,
a round table,

00:51:41.194 --> 00:51:45.423
which still holds some editions
of "La Prensa de Buenos Aires",

00:51:46.161 --> 00:51:47.884
a kerosene wick stove,

00:51:48.798 --> 00:51:53.595
in the corner, the lavatory,
that poor wash basin and the jug.

00:51:54.748 --> 00:51:57.009
In the opposite corner
of the room,

00:51:57.278 --> 00:52:00.924
the bed, big and high,
with four bronze knobs.

00:52:03.157 --> 00:52:07.953
There, Don Antonio would lie down
and read, as he enjoyed doing.

00:52:09.134 --> 00:52:13.900
Segovia
Don Antonio Lived Here

00:54:24.358 --> 00:54:28.684
My father was in a constant battle
against his spontaneity.

00:54:29.739 --> 00:54:34.589
He had to think many times about things,
to rationalize first and then, get it out.

00:54:37.822 --> 00:54:40.843
And when he did, it did show
his unique inner world.

00:54:41.354 --> 00:54:43.470
But it was not spontaneous.
He struggled.

00:54:45.648 --> 00:54:47.699
He'd write the same thing
a hundred times.

00:54:48.296 --> 00:54:50.935
He'd take it to his friends
and read it to them,

00:54:51.485 --> 00:54:54.218
and the slightest criticism
would lead...

00:54:55.581 --> 00:54:59.217
to another revision,
and rewriting.

00:55:01.330 --> 00:55:04.968
The meetings they held

00:55:04.993 --> 00:55:07.497
with the rest
of the "Generation '45"...

00:55:08.149 --> 00:55:09.784
that group was terrible!

00:55:10.296 --> 00:55:11.827
Any negative comment

00:55:11.852 --> 00:55:16.844
could lead to the complete
destruction of a novel...

00:55:49.207 --> 00:55:52.742
Yesterday, I discarded the parts
of the novel I had written in Europe.

00:55:53.518 --> 00:55:56.721
In addition, I understood
I don't need to worry about it,

00:55:57.276 --> 00:56:01.706
since neither do I have any true interest
in it, nor can I execute it.

00:56:04.615 --> 00:56:09.196
I don't really know what's wrong with me,
it's like something broke inside.

00:56:10.908 --> 00:56:14.245
Like a clock with a failure
in that delicate mechanism

00:56:14.327 --> 00:56:17.221
which gives it balance
and makes it fit to measure time,

00:56:17.782 --> 00:56:21.331
but that, once broken,
spins frantically in a void.

00:56:23.108 --> 00:56:25.949
I fear I have fooled myself,
regarding myself.

00:56:26.802 --> 00:56:30.893
It is very likely that I am not a writer,
or that I won't be able to become one.

00:56:32.375 --> 00:56:35.385
To become one, I should have
something to do or to say.

00:56:36.123 --> 00:56:37.796
And I simply feel empty.

00:56:40.752 --> 00:56:41.901
I think I'm no good.

00:56:42.228 --> 00:56:45.572
I was wrong, and I cannot
deceive myself, nor do I want to.

00:56:46.601 --> 00:56:49.534
And here I am,
feeling nothing but angst.

00:56:51.032 --> 00:56:54.733
one that rises, without my being able
to understand its causes,

00:56:54.768 --> 00:56:59.260
because, after seeing
what I see, why should I worry?

00:57:00.400 --> 00:57:03.455
And yet, I do,
more and more.

00:57:03.823 --> 00:57:07.295
I think this might become
intolerable, should it continue.

00:57:08.878 --> 00:57:10.719
I wish I could get
a lot of sleep.

00:58:17.502 --> 00:58:21.373
I think the ambition
of becoming a great writer...

00:58:21.398 --> 00:58:26.268
maybe the best of all,
appears in most writers.

00:58:26.617 --> 00:58:30.691
Most never achieve
that, obviously.

00:58:32.116 --> 00:58:35.267
We can say this represented
a major inner struggle for him.

00:58:36.239 --> 00:58:37.682
It never went away.

00:58:38.638 --> 00:58:41.283
In turn, seeing the growth...

00:58:41.432 --> 00:58:46.654
and the increasing recognition
of his wife's work,

00:58:48.017 --> 00:58:53.315
which he hadn't imagined
would reach those levels,

00:58:54.303 --> 00:58:57.439
must have affected him too.

00:59:00.859 --> 00:59:04.308
I think Amanda grew
without all those doubts,

00:59:04.333 --> 00:59:06.847
and without setting herself
too ambitious goals.

00:59:06.872 --> 00:59:12.505
Unintentionally, she continued
to grow and eventually got really far.

00:59:23.282 --> 00:59:28.561
Alhambra - Granada
Film shooting authorization

00:59:30.959 --> 00:59:32.779
Forgive me, fate,

00:59:34.182 --> 00:59:37.808
when I repeat
by heart

00:59:38.601 --> 00:59:39.983
I am alive.

00:59:40.948 --> 00:59:43.320
I am alive.

00:59:43.815 --> 00:59:46.529
I am alive.

00:59:50.423 --> 00:59:55.174
My mother was always
breaking the mold.

00:59:56.405 --> 00:59:58.161
For example,
when you see...

00:59:58.997 --> 01:00:00.997
one of her records,
"Dictions"

01:00:01.277 --> 01:00:04.221
she breaks the poem apart,

01:00:04.353 --> 01:00:08.437
and expressly makes it
unpleasant to hear.

01:00:09.395 --> 01:00:12.139
My father would have never
been able to do that. Never.

01:00:17.096 --> 01:00:21.439
I think he was constantly
concealing himself.

01:00:21.896 --> 01:00:24.534
He was always looking,
not appearing.

01:00:25.342 --> 01:00:27.518
This was his approach
to life.

01:00:28.127 --> 01:00:31.006
It was very hard for him
to show his feelings.

01:00:32.018 --> 01:00:34.643
Although he was very confident,

01:00:34.668 --> 01:00:38.925
and with a very special drive,

01:00:39.249 --> 01:00:43.429
always constant in what
he said and did,

01:00:44.031 --> 01:00:48.301
but he said and did,
without showing himself.

01:00:49.133 --> 01:00:53.224
I think film, just as
literary criticism,

01:00:53.249 --> 01:00:59.145
allows him to analyze
and not be the object being analyzed.

01:01:09.883 --> 01:01:12.893
I have been able to think.

01:01:14.995 --> 01:01:20.212
When my husband arrives,

01:01:20.901 --> 01:01:25.227
the two of us,

01:01:25.833 --> 01:01:29.796
will slit

01:01:29.997 --> 01:01:32.927
the veins

01:01:33.706 --> 01:01:37.988
of literature

01:01:38.550 --> 01:01:45.048
itself open.

01:01:57.923 --> 01:02:00.439
I return to Montevideo,
with many projects.

01:02:01.560 --> 01:02:04.153
Always thinking about
what remains to be done there.

01:02:05.044 --> 01:02:09.558
My problem is not knowing
if I'll be able to achieve what I imagine

01:02:10.421 --> 01:02:13.548
but rather knowing to what extent
I am, in order to do.

01:02:15.077 --> 01:02:18.170
I've thought too much
about myself for too long.

01:02:18.755 --> 01:02:24.184
I must assimilate this that I know now,
and which does not come too naturally yet.

01:02:25.408 --> 01:02:29.086
It is being outside myself,
and with a certain action,

01:02:29.626 --> 01:02:33.108
that I will decide to be,
almost without realizing.

01:02:34.309 --> 01:02:38.790
There is, I must keep telling myself,
no a priori issue with being.

01:02:42.749 --> 01:02:45.104
I look at myself, after two years,

01:02:45.739 --> 01:02:48.265
and see myself so exactly
the same it's exhausting.

01:02:49.462 --> 01:02:52.542
Did something change?
I cannot know.

01:02:53.692 --> 01:02:57.483
I'll arrive with 31 years old
and memories. And what else?

01:02:59.253 --> 01:03:00.703
Of Amanda, I'm sure.

01:03:02.223 --> 01:03:03.792
I see her letters,

01:03:03.817 --> 01:03:07.715
the river flows in the direction
I care most about.

01:03:08.777 --> 01:03:12.658
Gradually, she, so tiny,
gives herself to being.

01:03:14.230 --> 01:03:17.034
Me, I still play the ghost,

01:03:17.146 --> 01:03:22.836
or the unprocessed photograph,
which may perhaps show a fogged surface.

01:05:56.019 --> 01:06:00.019
Julio Suárez "Peloduro"
Cartoonist -Journalist

01:06:02.484 --> 01:06:06.484
Carmelo de Arzadun
Painter

01:06:09.806 --> 01:06:13.705
José Bergamín
Writer

01:06:16.840 --> 01:06:21.792
Leandro Castellanos Balparda
Engraver - Drawing Artist

01:06:23.180 --> 01:06:27.113
Eduardo Díaz Yepes
Sculptor

01:06:29.389 --> 01:06:33.847
Laura Escalante
Theater Director

01:06:35.648 --> 01:06:39.394
Ossip Zadkine
Sculptor

01:06:41.940 --> 01:06:46.480
Antonio Larreta "Taco"
Actor, Director, Writer

01:06:47.701 --> 01:06:51.534
Amalia Nieto
Painter, Engraver and Sculptor

01:06:52.676 --> 01:06:56.636
Carlos Denis Molina
Writer - Playwright