El Aguante

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Note of intent

“El aguante” is a Spanish word, very much used in Argentina and with no equivalent in French. People that have “el aguante” is one with a huge stamina ability and resistance to bad weather or strokes. In a familiar language those who own “el aguante” are both supporters in solidarity and those that we support, those who dare put their entire body in the game. We went meeting those workers and gathered their testimonies. Beyond the safeguard of the jobs, we found people that fight for a decent life and an ideal. The firms subject is of course actual. This film aims at communicating upon actuality internationally this movement of the people and that proposes an innovating human context.

Synopsis

In 2001, Argentina suffers a catastrophic crisis. Some workers take the initiative to illegally recover their factories and rekindle the production. More than 10 years later, these firms still exist. Some have found back the legal way. Workers can be paid and new recoveries happen. Andres Ruggieri is an Argentinean anthropologist who was early interested in the subject. Today he travels along the world to talk about is experience. In February 2014, he went to the Fralib company in France where workers try to recover their production mode.

Visual concept

“El aguante” comes from the verb “aguantar”, often used by Spanish sailors. French mariners used the word “aganter”(“gant” means glove) to hold firmly a rope: this definition illustrates efforts that workers we met agreed to, knowing how to keep afloat their firm in a tumultuous economical context. We will use these metaphorical animation sequences at the whim of Argentinean testimonies: we’ll do a parallel between a “maritime elsewhere” to show the universal side of their fight, bringing our poetic and necessary distant view of the subject. Stop motion technique will allow us to project video material that we gathered on our puppets and sets, making them interact and confront.