‘The Silence of Others’: Documentary as Bearing Witness
Filmed over six years, Carracedo and Bahar’s The Silence of Others (2018) is a exemplary resource for filmmakers seeking to use documentary for bearing witness. Silence follows the victims of Spain’s Franco-era dictatorship as they organise the “Argentine Lawsuit” against a state-imposed amnesia, which has pardoned crimes against humanity for the past forty years.
The directors found this “pact of forgetting” encouraged those in Spain and beyond to overlook, or simply forget, the Francoist-era, whilst many of its victims are still fighting for justice.[1]
Thus, the film was designed, as Carracedo asserts, “to reach everyone else [and] not just in Spain.”[2] Silence tackles this obstacle of unfamiliarity with a brief contextualisation of the dictatorship and follows this with the victims’ stories. These testimonies address inhumane mass graves, state-run eugenics programs and infamous torturers who still remain unpunished. The directors simultaneously inform, whilst bearing witness, to assure their discourse remains accessible for wider audiences.
Moreover, a screening in Geneva was followed by the debate, ‘The indelible memory of crimes.’ [3] On the panel was Kate Gilmore, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. Carracedo and Bahar utilised these debates to communicate witness testimonies, which had previously resided in the private sphere, to the public and institutional eye.
In effect, Silence can provide a resource of good practice, and as stated by executive producer, Agustín Almodóvar, a “precious instrument to start a conversation that has been silenced for too long.”[4]
Now, their focus is directed towards distribution, education and outreach. The Silence of Others is currently screening in Spanish theatres.
[1] Musanna Ahmed, “THE SILENCE OF OTHERS: Momentous Story Must be Seen On The Big Screen (& Interview With Filmmakers),” Film Inquiry, Sept 21, 2018, https://www.filminquiry.com/silence-of-others-2018-review-interview/.
[2] Ahmed, “THE SILENCE OF OTHERS”, https://www.filminquiry.com/silence-of-others-2018-review-interview/.
[3] International film festival and forum on human rights, “The delible memory of crimes,” fifdh.org, https://www.fifdh.org/site/en/programme/la-memoire-indelebile-des-crimes/374168.
[4] Sam Jones, “Franco’s cruel legacy: the film that wants to stop Spain from forgetting,” The Guardian, Jun 8, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/08/francos-cruel-legacy-film-wants-stop-spain-forgetting-silence-others.