Lucrecia Martel was born in 1966 in northern Argentina and has always practiced a cinema close to the territories familiar to her. After the success of “La Ciénaga” in 2002, she could have accessed funding and traveled abroad. But no, “La Niña santa” was released in 2004 and was entirely filmed in Salta, Martel’s hometown. With her first documentary “Nuestra Tierra,” she delves even further into her approach. The film addresses an incident from 2009: the murder of Javier Chocobar, leader of the Chuschagasta indigenous community, by three white men claiming ownership of their lands. Between the trial held in 2018 and the testimonies and archives of the Chuschagastas, Lucrecia Martel endeavors to document what official history systematically erases.
It all begins with a video, the one of Javier Chocobar’s murder, filmed by his killers. Lucrecia Martel saw it on YouTube six months after the incident. “Seeing the video, I realized I had already seen it. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten it.” For her, this forgetfulness is significant: it represents a new relationship with images, part of a communication system that no longer pauses over anything.
Martel also highlights this: “It is increasingly difficult to use images as evidence in a trial. We thought it would be straightforward, given the clarity of the video, but it was only 16 years after the crime that the conviction took place.” The film delves into all of this, visually alternating between drone shots, satellite images, and archives.
The images from the trial were initially captured to keep a record. Martel urges other filmmakers to embrace this archival practice: “It is difficult, when not part of a community, to make a film about these people. There is a risk of making mistakes, but what we can always do is leave these archives so that communities have the necessary material to make their own film.” The filming of the movie was done in collaboration with the Chuschagasta community. Martel speaks of a “pact,” with the first part being the establishment of a workshop with young people from the community who actively participated in the film, especially in capturing images. The second part is the Chuschagastas’ right to review the film before any other distribution.
“The judicial process is based on speech, and speech is the unequivocal site of domination of white culture,” asserts Lucrecia Martel. The film perfectly illustrates this. In court, the three accused men shout, monopolizing the sound space, while the Chuschagastas remain silent. It is only during the reenactment that the truth can emerge, as the accusors’ logorrhea does not hold up in real space.
“Papers are the means by which dominant culture grants or denies legitimacy to the other,” she adds. Identity, property titles… In the absence of physical traces, of archives, the struggle of the Chuschagastas is more arduous, hence the importance of filming. It is about dismantling the fiction on which Argentina was founded.
Context: Lucrecia Martel is a renowned Argentine filmmaker known for her unique cinematic style and storytelling.
Fact Check: The film “Nuestra Tierra” by Lucrecia Martel was released on April 1, 2026.
