Interview with Alison Murray, screenwriter and director
We had the pleasure to meet Alison Murray during her visit to Arilyn Martinez, Kota member and founder of the Latino Film Market, where Ms. Murray's last movie Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires (2022) was screened. The movie traces the story of Davie and Diana, two siblings returning to Argentina, their birth country, for the first time as adults. As they discover the city of Buenos Aires and the world of tango, they try to understand Davie’s biological origins and uncover their family’s dark past.
Alison Murray is a Canadian screenwriter and director based between Canada and Argentina. She has directed movies such as Mouth to Mouth (2005) as well as documentaries like Train on the Brain (2000) or Caprichosos de San Telmo (2011). When asked about her craft, she underlines her passion for filmmaking stems from wanting to “build on our shared humanity by encouraging people to empathize with other types of lived experience, in order to then reflect on their own experiences in the world”.
While discussing how working in a male dominated industry has impacted her work as a director, she shares her surprise regarding the fact women in film are not considered an equity seeking group anymore; she laughs and adds it unfortunately is “kind of out of fashion to be a woman now”. The director argues that, even after a period of evolution, women are statistically nothing near to being men’s equals in the industry[1]. After sharing an anecdote during which a member of the electrical team mistook her for a trainee and asked her for a cup of tea, Ms. Murray explains that “the men’s club attitude is [regrettably] still at play today”.
Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires
After finishing her studies in London, Alison Murray discovered a passion for tango and decided to travel to Buenos Aires, where she met her husband. She eventually stayed in Argentina and raised her two children there. After some back and forth, the family is now permanently living in Canada. She explains Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires is a love letter to both the city of Buenos Aires and to tango, “a place and a thing that are so meaningful and so joyful to me”.
On another note, the film addresses the consequences of a particularly tragic chapter of Argentina’s history: during the brutal military dictatorship that ruled the country between 1976 and 1983, it is estimated 30’000 people were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. The Dirty War also touched pregnant women: it is estimated 500 of them were kidnapped and kept alive until they gave birth. Their child was then given to supporters of the regime.
During her own pregnancy, Ms. Murray became aware of the ties between Argentina’s political situation and Operation Condor, directly linking the dictatorship to US foreign policies and American corporations.
I connected dots between this liberal capitalism and the murder of innocent people, who often were just unionists, or community organizers, or even just married to someone who opposed the regime. Also, being pregnant at the time, and imagining that situation, what if I had been an Argentinian woman in 1979 who was pregnant post-regime? What would my fate have been? And I just couldn’t let go of that idea.
She repeats the Argentinian slogan Nunca Mas - Never Again. To make her film, Ms. Murray explains she held several interviews with the babies, now adults, that were kidnapped during that period, as well as attended numerous court cases where the “parents” of those same children were prosecuted. Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires’ characters hence became an amalgamation of the different profiles she encountered. She mentions striking examples of people who recovered their identity who, just like the main character of her movie, struggled with addiction issues, but “without really understanding what the source of their existential trauma was”.
2023 now marks the 40th anniversary of the end of the dictatorship; Ariel: Back to Buenos Aires has the purpose of bringing international awareness to this chapter of Argentina’s history, at a stage where time is becoming a critical element in allowing the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo to reunite with their grandchildren.
The film will be released for streaming in the US on September 12th.
Alison Murray’s picks of films with similar themes
Puenzo, L. (Director). (1985). The official Story [Film]. Almi Pictures, Entertainment One Films.
Costa-Gavras (Director). (1982). Missing [Film]. Universal Pictures.
Learn more about The Desaparecidos and American foreign and neoliberal free market policies
Goldman, F. (2012, March 12). Children of the Dirty War. The New Yorker.
Tondo, L., & Jones, S. (2023, April 25). Adopted by their parents’ enemies: tracing the stolen children of Argentina’s ‘dirty war.’ The Guardian.
Klein, N. (2009). The shock doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Vintage Canada.
[1] Geena Davis (Director). (2018) This changes Everything [Documentary]. Creative Chaos Ventures.
