Full Frame Film Festival 2018 - Messenger on a White Horse
Following Argentina's 1976 coup d’état, the editor of the "Buenos Aires Herald" newspaper Robert Cox embarked on a desperate crusade for answers about the whereabouts of thousands of missing people. But his brave reporting pitted him directly against the country's ruthless military dictators, who knew no limits when it came to silencing the press.
Interview Writer/Director/Producer Jayson McNamara
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I was working at the Buenos Aires Herald newspaper as a staff writer in 2013 when, one evening, I was asked to correct a supplement we were printing to commemorate Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983. As I read over the articles and columns by the paper’s former editors, I came face-to-face with the remarkable story of the very newspaper where I was working at. I was 26 at the time. That evening, I went home to see if there were any documentaries or audiovisual content online. I found next to nothing. Almost immediately, I thought: "Well, I’m going to film something, then".
The whole project was almost an out-of-body experience. I can’t remember ever having any doubts about what I was doing, despite having never made a film, and instead I kept moving forward with my small team. I think that the story of the Buenos Aires Herald, the only newspaper in Argentina to report on the 1976-83 military dictatorship crimes, had to be told and that we were simply a vessel to get it out there.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Journalism is at a major crossroads. The financial problems that traditional media are facing, as well as the resurgence of nationalism and its taste for fake news, has meant journalists are not only losing their jobs but also struggling to retain a place of credibility in our societies. Our film underscores the importance of quality investigative journalism. Its completion and release as a feature-length film coincides with a resurgence of nationalism in the United States and Europe. Argentina was apparently a highly civilized society in the 1970s, like Germany prior to Hitler, and nonetheless it descended into one of the most horrendous expressions of state terrorism documented in the last century. The story our film portrays is a wake-up call.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The film is biographical in the sense that it tells of the life story of the English journalist Robert Cox, who was the editor of the Buenos Aires Herald from 1968 to 1979. On account of his asthma, Cox spent part of his childhood living in London during the Nazi Blitzkrieg, while most other children from the capital were evacuated to the countryside. His direct experiences with Nazism carried him through Argentina’s military dictatorship, since he was able to make determinations about the horror that humans can inflict on one another, as well as the fragility of our civilization.
In a nutshell, Cox’s story is an authentic hero’s journey where some of the most dramatic expressions of the human condition come to the fore, working both for and against him as he attempts to protect his own humanity and his right to inform. The film also addresses issues like denialism, propaganda, and the construction of “The Other”: phenomena that transcend borders and eras.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The film is the product of its times. As we edited the film, the editor Ernesto Doldán and I were constantly assessing the place it would have in a society which is highly sensitive about its dictatorship history. There has been a resurgence of denialism in Argentina about the crimes that the military and police committed. This is because they ruled with the support of the Catholic Church, the mainstream press, the country’s conservative elite, and the middle classes – in other words, many people and sectors of society were complicit.
The denialism you see in Argentina today centers around the idea that the left-wing students, activists and guerrillas who compose the majority of the military’s victims (the desaparecidos, or disappeared ones, as they are known) were “terrorists” or “subversives”. If you read between the lines, you find an attitude among many Argentines that “they had it coming to them”. In writing the film, we didn’t shy away from this issue, in fact we embraced it, and it payed off with audiences because the film attracted a lot of moderate, reasonable people who otherwise would struggle to come together around shared ideas about the dictatorship. In a broader sense, I think the film’s treatment of the military’s victims as “terrorists” or “subversives” is relevant to what we see happening to Muslim communities in Western societies. Imagine that in Argentina in the 1970s, if you were young and had a beard, you were considered suspicious!
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The film hasn’t been seen a great deal outside of Argentina, but in Argentina itself it has received very positive feedback, and we will be looking to broadcast it on television there later this year. It premiered at last year’s BAFICI film festival in Buenos Aires before hitting theaters, and we continue to do private screenings especially among high-school students and in Argentina’s progressive Jewish community.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The feedback to the film surprised me in the sense that I was expecting some sectors of Argentine society to lash out at its treatment of disputed aspects of local history, especially about the identity of the disappeared ones. However, this was not the case. In fact, I was surprised to see how diverse the public was. There is an emphasis on Robert Cox's morality that among Argentines renders other more complex, even disputed issues addressed in the film, secondary.
I think many people can relate to Robert Cox because of his age and his world view. There is also a tendency for audiences to want to seek out heroes they can emulate. Cox doesn’t particularly like being labelled a hero, but for me and many other people, including those who will eventually sit down and watch the film, there is no doubt that he is a hero.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I think it’s fantastic that a platform should be dedicated to films of this nature. To have our project included in the slate of recommended films is a seal of values that can only strengthen its chances of reaching audiences outside Argentina.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
The film is coming to Amazon Prime later this year (around November, 2018). We need journalists to talk this film up, not only because we want to share it but also because it reminds us of the fundamental place that journalism has in our societies in protecting us against state-sponsored abuse.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
As societies and individuals, are we doing enough to protect quality investigative journalism?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I’m working on several projects, the most advanced of which is a documentary film about of one of the last and most active Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Nora Cortiñas. I am also working on a documentary film project about a female rabbi in Argentina and on a script for a separate, much more challenging project.
Interview: July 2018
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Messenger on a White Horse
Following Argentina's 1976 coup d’état, the editor of the "Buenos Aires Herald" newspaper Robert Cox embarked on a desperate crusade for answers about the whereabouts of thousands of missing people. But his brave reporting pitted him directly against the country's ruthless military dictators, who knew no limits when it came to silencing the press.
Length: 90 minutes
Director: Jayson McNamara
Producer: Jayson McNamara
Writer: Jayson McNamara
About the writer, director and producer:
JAYSON MCNAMARA was born in Perth, Western Australia. His first feature-length documentary film Messenger on a White Horse prompted the print journalist (former Buenos Aires Herald) to move into the documentary genre, where he has begun producing and directing his second and third projects.
Key cast: Robert Cox, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo
Looking for: journalists
Social media handles:
Facebook: Messenger on a White Horse
Instagram: @messenger_movie
Twitter: @messenger_movie
Funders: Crowdfunding, private donations
Made in association with: HECho en Claypole