Corazón de fábrica Heart of the Factory (featured film)
Despite the widespread perception of a turnaround in the Argentine economy in recent years and the institutionalization of popular movements, an ongoing workers’ struggle to lift local factories out of bankruptcy continues to inspire sectors of the Argentine population. Virna Molina and Ernesto Ardito’s Corazón de fábrica (Heart of the Factory, 2008) is not only a revealing account of workers’ reactions to the economic meltdown of 2001 but a multifaceted meditation on the political principles involved in the reorganization of a ceramic factory in the southern province of Neuquén. Corazón de fábrica attests to the pernicious impact that neoliberal policies have had on Argentine families, affecting every aspect of their lives: education, health, transportation, and, primarily, employment. The film centers on a popular uprising of workers at the privately owned Zanón ceramic tile factory who resisted eviction when the factory closed its doors in the midst of the economic crisis. The workers appropriated the factory, created a cooperative, and renamed the company Fábrica sin Patrones (Factory without Bosses—FASINPAT). The long opening sequence, which features a group of schoolchildren observing the process of production, serves as an allegory for the mixing of earth and labor to create goods for the community. It is a rousing sequence, full of hope for the workers’ aspirations of rebuilding the country’s [...]
