Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza De Mayo
TRT: 63 minutes, in Spanish and English with English subtitles, Color, Copyright: 1985
poster art by René Castro
An Academy Award Nominated Film (Best Documentary, 1986)
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1986, Las Madres documents the courageous political actions of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of Argentine women who gather weekly at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to remember the children that "disappeared" during the Dirty War (1976-1983). Undeterred by relentless intimidation by the military government, the mothers stand together for justice, as a national conscience, to demand to know the fate of their missing loved ones. Both an overview of Argentina’s tumultuous recent past and a riveting profile of an woman-led resistance movement, Las Madres continues to provide an uplifting example of human rights activism and oppositional struggle today.
FILMMAKERS Susana Muñoz (left) and LOURDES PORTILLO (right)
" ... An emotionally moving, technically solid, first rate piece of reportage... the filmakers have deftly told the entire grisly story and earned a nomination in the Academy's feature documentary category."
—Variety, March 1986
“With South Africa reminding us daily that the threat to human rights is unremitting, the arrival of The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo is timely. Muñoz and Portillo's moving, unpolished, first hand account of courage in the face of massive repression was not surprisingly nominated for this year's Oscar for best documentary."
—The London Times, June 1986
“Few films have captured the emotion of solidarity as acutely as does this documentary by Susana Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo. The filmmakers don’t pin halos on their heroines; they simply let them speak, and the women’s fierce nobility breaks your heart.”
—The New Yorker, 1986
ARTICLES
The Guardian: “Maradona Jr pleads for DNA donors in search for Argentina’s stolen babies,” by Lorenzo Tondo (June 11, 2021), READ HERE
The Guardian: “Argentina sends out DNA kits in drive to identify thousands ‘disappeared’ under dictatorship,” by Lorenzo Tondo (May 28, 2021), READ HERE
The New York Times: “Children of Argentina’s ‘Disappeared’ Reclaim Past, With Help,” by Clyde Haberman (October 11, 2015), READ HERE
The New York Times: “Mothers of Missing Won’t Give Up in Argentina,” by Edward Schumacher (December 31, 1983), READ HERE
