Voices of Communicative Memory in Cinema: Profesión cinero (2007) and Tren Paraguay (2011)

Abstract

The disappearance of both the itinerant cinema and the train has left a void in several countryside communities in Paraguay. Hugo Gamarra Etcheverry’s Profesión Cinero, along with Mauricio Rial Banti’s Tren Paraguay, are contemporary documentaries by Paraguayan film makers who bring back the voices of communicative memory reminiscent of past personal experiences related to the periodical visits of the cinema and the train to the villages. This article investigates the audiovisual techniques used to deal with the communicative memory in both films, while also examining the additional significations arising from the intersection of cinema and the oral, bilingual manifestations which express those memories.