By Pablo Suárez
For the Herald
Points: 5
La del Chango, the debut feature of Argentine filmmaker Milton Rodríguez, is a documentary that focuses on Chango Farías Gómez, one of Argentina’s most important musicians ever. His professional musical career started in 1960 when he created the legendary group Los Huanca Huá, which back then was very innovative within the scenario of Argentine folk music. A few years later he founded the Grupo Vocal Argentino, regarded by some critics as the best vocal group of Argentina’s musical history.
With the arrival of the infamous military dictatorship in Argentina in 1976, and just as was the case with so many other artists persecuted because of their ideologies, Chango Farías Gómez, a devoted Peronist, had to exile in Spain. But he returned to Argentina in 1982, right before the end of the dictatorship.
Soon enough, in 1985, he created Músicos Populares Argentinos, and while serving as National Director of Music under the administration of former president Carlos Menem, he founded the renowned Ballet Folklórico Nacional. Last but not least, during the 1990’s he created yet another group, La Manija, which particularly explored the African and Hispanic roots to be found in Argentine music. And this is only a small part of a large universe.
Through a string of testimonies given by journalists and relatives as well as artists such as Jaime Torres, Oscar Alem, Peteco Carbajal, Verónica Condomí, Antonio Tarragó Ros, the Koky Brothers and Pajarín Saavedra, the documentary La del Chango draws a multifaceted, informative and detailed portrayal of its subject, both in terms of his persona and his music. That much is achieved.
Unfortunately, and unlike its content, the documentary’s film form is not what you’d call appealing. Usually referred to as "talking heads documentaries", these films’ entire narrative is articulated through a series of snippets of interviews of people talking endlessly to the camera — usually in close-ups or medium shots. Though there are some zones in Milton Rodríguez’s opus that feature music sessions, those are the exceptions to the rule. So after a while, and regardless of how interesting their words are, you are listening to the film rather than watching it. And it gets tedious in a matter of minutes.
Including archive footage, audio recordings, TV clips, or centrefolds from magazines from the time would’ve been very conventional too, but at least the film would’ve been considerably more dynamic and slightly more cinematic. As it is, the overall cinematography or sound design are merely functional, they don’t express any feelings or notions at all either. It’s too bad that the formulaic La del Chango doesn’t do justice to the extraordinary Chango Farías Gómez.
Production notes
La del Chango (Argentina, 2016) Directed by Milton Rodríguez. Cinematography: Victoria Pereda. Editing: Florencia Gómez García, Sebastián Mega Díaz. Sound: Nicolás Payueta. Running time: 98 minutes. Limited release: Gaumont.
@pablsuarez
