Testimonials — Silvia A. Malagrino

Critical Response for Burnt Oranges

“Burnt Oranges is a powerful film of great importance for the construction of Memory. We support Silvia Malagrino’s committed and dedicated investigation. You must see it.” – Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora

”Malagrino turns on the taps of memory and out come swirling images, saved correspondence and recollections that make the determination of the people to right wrongs so compelling. Malagrino walks the tightrope between the personal and the political. The film succeeds on both levels.” – ReelHeArt International Film Festival

”Malagrino’s scrupulous attention to form reveals the distressing truth that people living through any chaotic situation lack information about what is happening. We experience the history of the Dirty War from the position of the street: the political situation is revealed through civilian rumors, paranoia, and lack of information, keeping the audience in a position of uncertainty.” –Janina Ciezadlo, Afterimage.

”More than a documentary – a poem, a cantata! Thank you for letting me be a part of this beautiful work – such a delight, touching, sad but triumphant! From the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo to the military, this film captures everything – so lyrical, so against hate.”
–Robert Cox, journalist, witness and participant in the film

”Your images still haunt me. It was an honor to have a glimpse of hope through your eyes and those who were in your film.”
–JD Weinshenker, artist

”There was so much power in the stories you told: the power of terror and terrorism, the power of a mother's love multiplied by thousands, the power of the human spirit to go on finding joy in life (which I saw particularly though not exclusively, in all the Argentineans inhabiting the city scenes you picked out and framed for us), the power of the heart to both absorb and transcend horror--both personal and national.” –Judy Levi, PhD, Professor of Linguistics

”I saw your very moving movie last Thursday in the Gene Siskel Film Center, and I just wanted to let you know how much it impressed me. I learned about the disappeared generation in school back home in Germany and I always was very touched by that national tragedy. I hope it reaches as many people as possible.” –Claudia Keiser, MD

”Congratulations to you and Monica for a sensitive, informative, artistic, moving, inspiring and at times, frightening, documentary of the terrifying and deeply sad period of the late '70s and early '80s in Argentina and its repercussions, some of them hopeful. So timely for today's world...If Burnt Oranges did nothing else, it should force us all to be concerned about the fate of democracy and human values to the extent that we take responsible steps for maintaining them before they are destroyed by forces beyond our control. Already, many of us in the USA see worrisome signs of militarism in policies that purport to protect us, but in effect, threaten to weaken the core values on which our democracy was founded.” –Marion H. Bowman