The Celebrations of Physical Education Day at Sucesos Argentinos Newsreel During Peronism (1946-1955)

Abstract

Assuming that reproducing simultaneously a set of same images it is a pedagogical device, it is studied aesthetic and political discourses about body education at “Sucesos Argentinos” newsreel. This implies problematizing what means “official” discourses massively projected by documentary-informative film. The aim is to analyse a series of filmic press notices about “Physical Education Day” during Juan Domingo Perón presidency (1946-1955), thinking about the footage frames, the words narrated and the background music. Those events were a Peronist device for body and character education, gathering thousands of people to participate, both actively in physical exercises and passively as spectators. It was also called as “Student Feast Day” or “Youth Day”, which means not only the idea of a correct body linked to strength and vigour, but also maintain some idea of masses as immature, which require leaders who guide them in their right development, represented by paternal and maternal images. Informative-documentary cinema shows political and aesthetic senses which can be identified with the idea of simultaneity (ways of doing) and homogeneity (“ways of being sensitive”, as Rancière pointed out), illustrated by the exhibition of coordinated bodies forming words of patriotic meanings.