“GAUCHO GAUCHO”

By Tom O'Brien

THE STORY – The documentary follows several characters, including Guada, a teenage girl aspiring to join the male-dominated gaucho culture. Her journey serves as a narrative thread, showcasing her challenges and growth in the rodeo circuit.

THE CAST – N/A

THE TEAM – Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw (Directors/Writers)

THE RUNNING TIME – 84 Minutes

It’s a shot you won’t soon forget. In the middle of the Pampas, a cowboy sleeps on what looks to be his blanket. Suddenly, the blanket moves, and what had appeared to be cloth is revealed to be his horse. Once the animal is upright, the cowboy hops on their back, and together, they ride off into the far distance. The camera, meanwhile, remains fixed until the gaucho’s dog suddenly runs into the frame and stops precisely in the center of the picture, framed perfectly. Putting aside the question of how that dog hit his mark so effortlessly, your jaw will drop at the sheer beauty of the black-and-white imagery before me.

Follow that up immediately with a slow-motion capture of a group of gauchos riding fast across the plains with their dogs trailing behind them to a thrilling male operatic duet (“Au fond du temple saint” from Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”), and you’ll find yourself totally in the tank for “Gaucho Gaucho,” the new documentary by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, whose previous doc, “The Truffle Hunters,” was one of this critic’s favorites of 2021.

Set in the remote Calchaqui Valley of Argentina, their new film profiles a small community of gauchos who pride themselves in living the way their ancestors did generations ago. From their clothing to their customs, the gauchos are holding on to a way of life that is being encroached upon by the modern world, not unlike those truffle hunters. Except for a provisions store and the occasional parked truck, there’s little sign of the outside world in their community, which is how they like it.

Dweck and Kershaw’s shrewd approach to exploring the gaucho culture is to particularize it by viewing it through the eyes of its people and seeing what a collection of individuals the Calchaqui Valley provides! There’s the spectacularly-bearded Lelo, age 83, who has vivid memories of his days of wine, women, and song and believes if he had to live his life over again, he wouldn’t live it any other way. There’s also Santino Lopez, who is all things to the community: singer, dancer, radio DJ, rodeo announcer, and even the community’s paperboy. Pre-teens Lucas and Pancho, always looking for adventure, ride their horses toward the wilderness to camp out, hoping to have one last campout before their studies resume. Mario, a cattle rancher, worries about losing cows because of lack of water, while fellow cattleman Wally eyes the condors flying above, which are ready to swoop down on his unprotected calves. Perhaps the community’s most special family bond is between dad Solano and his five-year-old son Jony, who wants to know the ways of the real gauchos, or as Jony insists on calling them, “the gaucho gauchos.”

In revealing the gauchos’ character, the directors generally avoid relying on direct-to-camera interviews or testimonials. Instead, what we learn about them comes mainly from the short vignettes capturing their day-to-day lives that make up the body of the film. But, if there’s one character arc that ties the film together, it’s the story of 17-year-old Guada, who dreams of becoming a gaucho. We first meet her in school while a school official is reprimanding her for violating the school’s uniform dress code, thanks to her insistence on wearing gaucho clothing to class. As a result, she is ostracized by her classmates, but Guada doesn’t care. She has a bigger goal in mind: to learn how to break and tame wild horses so that she can compete against male riders in the community’s rodeos.

From the veterans around her, Guada learns the basics of when to be kind to a horse or when to be firm (but never cruel). The results can be frustrating — numerous horses run away from her initially, but she eventually gets the hang of it. Learning to ride a bucking bronco proves to be more challenging — the vets hilariously rig up a makeshift “horse” comprised of ropes tied to a wobbly oil can simulate a ride — but Guada quickly learns enough to feel ready for her first competitive rodeo ride. By presenting Guada’s quest with such enormous empathy, the directors invite us to be in her corner every step of the way so that when she is photographed heroically against the majestic mountains, we feel she has earned it.

This brings us to the most memorable element of “Gaucho Gaucho”: its striking black-and-white imagery. In stark contrast to their use of hand-held cameras in “The Truffle Hunters,” where it got down and dirty in the mud (highlighted by the notorious “pig-cam,” where the camera took the truffle-hunting animal’s point-of-view), Dweck and Kershaw’s cinematography here is picturesque, almost painterly, in its detail. With its stunning pair of opening sequences setting a high bar, the film meets that standard repeatedly, using its striking use of light and shadow and its uncanny sense of framing. When the image captures even the smallest gesture that reveals something about its subject, the film comes close to visual poetry. Conversely, however, on those occasions in the film when it’s merely a pretty image for beauty’s sake, it can veer dangerously close to a coffee table book come to life.

For those of us who are addicted to our phones and laptops, the idea of such a life as the gauchos have carved out for themselves in the Pampas seems almost inconceivable. But, for 84 luminous minutes, Dweck and Kershaw have offered us a rare and valuable window into a proud culture for whom traditions are sacred and community is everything.

THE RECAP

THE GOOD - Stunning black-and-white cinematography and a powerful mise-en-scene propel this rare glimpse into the life of Argentina's gauchos who live far outside the modern world and for whom traditions are sacred and community is everything.

THE BAD - On those rare occasions when it's merely a pretty image for beauty's sake, it can veer dangerously close to a coffee table book come to life.

THE OSCAR PROSPECTS - Best Documentary Feature

THE FINAL SCORE - 8/10