Chronicling Mercedes Sosa’s journey
New documentary focuses on artist’s life and personal and social issues
If you take a close look at it — from a distance, in a detached manner, if you will — there are many good things to be said about the new documentary Mercedes Sosa: la voz de Latinoamérica, released today in Argentina as a testimony of the life and deeds of the emblematic folk musician with a social commitment.
Compiled by documentary-maker Rodrigo H. Vila, Mercedes Sosa... relies heavily on archive material to weave a consistent narrative — a detailed account of the musician’s journey from anonymity to triumph at the Cosquín Festival and international stardom seldom seen by any Argentine folk performer. And it is precisely this profusion of documentary material — well chosen and carefully edited, with each fragment skillfully segued onto the next — that allows Vila to tell a story as complex as Sosa herself. Indeed, in spite of her public image as a leftwing-leaning artist fully aware of her convictions, Sosa, like any other human, was full of contradictions and doubts, and one of the merits of Vila’s documentary is the unflattering, in your face approach he chooses to portray the subject of his documentary.
While Vila could have taken the easy road — that is, a downright glorification of Mercedes Sosa as an artist with an unflinching belief in humanitarian causes — he wisely resorts to documentary footage that conveys her moments of hesitation, of doubt and uncertainty.
As widely known by audiences familiar with her music and her trajectory, Sosa had to go into exile during the last military dictatorship, and upon her return played a series of unforgettable concerts at the Teatro Opera. Those concerts are preserved for posterity as albums and video tape recordings, as are countless Sosa appearances at different concerts here and abroad. It was around that time that Sosa decided to cross over to fusion with rock and pop musicians with whom she performed on stage and cut several albums.
Vila’s Mercedes Sosa: la voz de Latinoamérica, is rich in testimony — both Sosa herself and her musings on life and her fond memories of her early career and old friends, and interviews with the people who met her and knew her well as an artist and as a friend. The new friends she made during her crossover phase take pride of place in Vila’s documentary. Those were, in many cases, unlikely pairings: Brazilian singer-songwriters Chico Buarque and Milton Nascimento, Argentine rockers Charly García and Fito Páez, World Music guru David Byrne, Chilean poet-musician Isabel Parra. This is the “static” part of this documentary, the rest is a personal and professional journey — Sosa’s own — which in turn reflects the painstaking work of Vila and Fabián Matus (Sosa’s son), who toiled for three years to make a film that functions as a dialogue between subject and audiences. Taken literally, Mercedes Sosa: la voz de Latinoamérica, is not a biopic proper: it’s an artistic endeavour that creates a huge musical and visual impact. Apart from focusing on her music and her personal life, Vila’s film traces Sosa’s commitment to social and political causes, presenting her, at times, as a visionary who perceived all the possibilities that Latin America has to offer by way of political union among member nations.
In Mercedes Sosa: la voz de Latinoamérica, Vila emcees a 90-minute plus reunion with Sosa, her extraordinary musical legacy, her fond memories of her childhood and young years, when she struggled to have her voice heard.
Art was the means through which Sosa expressed herself.
In keeping with Sosa’s legacy, the approach chosen by Vila and Matus is artistic, focusing on the beauty and wisdom of Sosa’s life rather than hammering home a message that would have become trite and unsubstantial.
