Argentine documentary filmmaker David “Coco” Blaustein died today in Buenos Aires of complications from a stroke that he suffered last week and for which he had been hospitalized. The political-committed and militant filmmaker directed seven documentary feature films, produced some additional titles, and was one of Argentina's most renowned contemporary documentarians.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1953, he lived in exile during the Argentine dictatorship in Mexico, between 1978 and 1983, followed by Spain. He studied film at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC), part of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, and at the Official Institute of Spanish Radio and Television.
Upon his return to Argentina, he created the production company Zafra Difusión, and worked on his debut feature Hunters of Utopias / Cazadores de utopías, which premiered in 1996 and was awarded the film critic’s award (FIPRESCI) at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA). The film refers to the trajectory of the Montoneros guerrilla organization during the seventies through interviews with numerous members of the organization and archival material.
In 2000 he directed Spoils of War / Botín de guerra, which was presented with the Human Rights Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. The film tells the story of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, the human rights organization created with the goal of finding the children stolen and illegally adopted during the Argentine military dictatorship.
His 2006 personal documentary Forging a Nation / Hacer patria played at the Tribeca Film Festival. Accompanied by his mother, cousins, aunts and uncles, director Blaustein retraces the steps of his Jewish ancestors, who fled Europe in the 1920s hoping to find in Argentina the land of their dreams. Other film titles include Fragmentos rebelados (2009), Porotos de soja (2009), and La cocina (2011), co-directed by Osvaldo Daicich. This year he premiered his last film Se va a acabar, co-directed by Andrés Cedrón.
In addition to producing his own work, Blaustein also produced films for other directors including
Andrés Habegger’s (H) Historias cotidianas (2001), María Inés Roqué’s Papá Iván (2004), and Verónica Schneck’s Crol (2017). He also served as director of the Film Museum Pablo Ducros Hicken in Buenos Aires between 2000 and 2008, as well as National Director of Audiovisual Diffusion of the Ministry of Culture.
