Meet Malena Juanatey - Film Director, Observando al Observador

Malena Juanatey is the writer, director, and narrator of Observando al Observador, the first offering in our Summer of Xicanas series.

Malena Juanatey was born in Buenos Aires in 1985, and began her film studies in the Universidad del cine (FUC) in Buenos Aires. In 2006, after producing several short and feature film projects, she began the research that led to Observando al Observador (Observing the Observer), a documentary film written, produced, and directed by Malena Juanatey. The film analyzes the role taken by the United States during the last military coup in Argentina, through the testimonies of two US citizens who were kidnapped in those years.

Throughout the years Juanatey began to work in many different disciplines, and was part of the team that produced "Changing Places" in 2015 (an interdisciplinary festival supported by the Siemens Stiftung and the government of the city of Buenos Aires), and also the first Biennale of Performance in Argentina.

Apart from her work in film, Malena Juanatey is also a singer, songwriter, and co-founder of the group Las Martas – and has an absolutely beautiful voice! Juanatey will be joining us on Wednesday, June 21 for Brava's presentation of the US premiere of Observando al Observador, and will be on hand following the screening for the panel discussion.  Maybe we can coax her into a song!

Las Martas is a quintet founded by Verónica Sala (Voice) and Malena Juanatey (Voice), with Santiago Deluca (Guitar), Mauricio Martin (Contrabass) and Alejandro Hagopian (Drums)

Five Articles on Argentina's Dirty War which is at the center of two productions coming to Brava's stage.

Two productions in Brava's groundbreaking performance series, Summer of Xicanas: Theater, Film, y Encuentros, take as their political subject Argentina's military dictatorship of the 1970s and its progeny, the Dirty War, and include Observando al Observador, Malena Juantaney's film chronicling the 1970s imprisonment of the San Francisco icon Olga Talamante, and Marisela Orta's new play, Ghost Limb. The articles below offer insight into the devastation and ongoing repercussions of that time, covering Obama's controversial 2016 visit to Argentina at the  anniversary of the conflict, and the subsequent declassification of long hidden documents on America's role in the war and the disappearance of thousands of Argentinian citizens.

America's Role in Argentina's Dirty War

- New York Times

Obama was called upon by human rights activists in Argentina and around the world to cancel the trip – The Guardian, March 4, 2016

But Obama eventually made the trip as activists seized the opportunity for dialogue and action – The New Yorker

Subsequently, on March 27, 2017, 931 new documents on the atrocities committed by Argentina's  military government during the 1970s were declassified by Obama – Infodocket.com, 04/28/17

Now you can read them, and learn firsthand what went on and what governments are capable of  – NSAEBB 

First Look at Ghost Limb

Get a first look at the press photos for Brava's presentation of the World Premiere of Marisela Trevino Orta's haunting and beautiful play Ghost Limb.  

Ghost Limb stars Tim Garcia as Javier Alfaro, Michele Apriña Leavy as Consuelo Alfaro, Gabriel Montoya as Eugenio Alfaro, and Ben Ortega as the Doctor/General, with Ryan Vasquez, Livia Gomes Demarchi, and Adela Guzmán.  

Directed by Mary Guzman.

Ghost Limb runs July 6 - 23, 2017. Tickets available here.

Set in Argentina during the Dirty War and riffing on the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter, Marisela Treviño Orta’s Ghost Limb tells the story of los desaparecidos—the disappeared of Argentina—and the mothers who fiercely protested the military dictatorship who took their children.

When Consuelo’s son Javier is disappeared from his home by the military, the world plunges into winter, and only a lone pomegranate tree—whose fruit Persephone was tricked into eating, forever binding her fate to the underworld—remains. During Javier’s abduction, Consuelo’s arm is badly injured by soldiers. As the pain in her arm grows stronger, so too does her connection to her son, as his pain at the hands of his torturers becomes her own.