Objective/context:

The article analyzes the organizational process and execution of the IX Mar del Plata International Film Festival of 1968. It outlines the objectives that General Juan Carlos Onganía’s dictatorship pursued with this festival, which had, until 1968, been organized by private entities. The tensions that arose between the government alliance and cinematographic groups is also discussed.

Originality:

Until now, historiography has emphasized the strong cultural repression of the Onganía dictatorship. Without denying this perspective, the analysis of this selective opening experience at the film festival brings to the fore new perspectives on how dictatorships used cultural and media policies as an internal consensus building strategy and as a tactic to legitimize the government internationally. Conversely, the cultural arena is seen as a territory for political disputes within the framework of authoritarian governments.

Methodology:

The research was conducted mainly from the analysis of multiple printed publications of the time.

Conclusions:

This paper proposes understanding this cultural experience as a process aimed at improving the image of the government abroad through cinematography. However, this attempt by the dictatorship failed because, from the moment that the strategy was launched, the festival became politicized and it was transformed into a terrain of disputes between different factions within the government as well as between the government and the world of cinema.

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