Playback: Ensayo de una despedida

Director: Agustina Comedi
Release Year: 2019

Agustina Comedi’s Playback: Ensayo de una despedida (2019) is a profound documentary that delves into the world of queer resistance in post-dictatorship Argentina, exploring themes of memory, friendship, and creativity against the backdrop of a society struggling with the AIDS crisis. The film, celebrated for its poignant narrative and its ability to blend archival footage with innovative reimagining, serves as a poignant farewell to a group of performers - the Kalas group - transgender women, and drag queens in Córdoba, a conservative and religious city.

 

Set in Córdoba during the late 1980s, the film captures the resilience of the Kalas group, formed by transgender women and drag performers, in the midst of Argentina's painful transition from the repressive military dictatorship (1976-1983) to the growing AIDS crisis. The military regime had left deep scars on the country, and its end marked only the beginning of another battle - against a disease that, in Argentina, was tragically silenced in the margins of society. The emergence of AIDS in the late 1980s, particularly among the LGBTQ+ community, compounded the isolation and struggles faced by individuals who were already on the fringes of society. In this context, the Kalas group of drag queens and trans women crafted their unique resistance. Their battleground was the stage, where they performed in secret and in defiance of the societal norms that both criminalized and ostracized them. The performances, often performed in clandestine spaces or gay bars like the Piaf Club, were a form of artistic rebellion against a social order that refused to acknowledge their existence. 

 

The central figure in Playback is La Delpi, the only surviving member of the Kalas group. In the film, La Delpi opens the doors to her personal archive, a collection of VHS tapes recorded during their performances in the 1980s. These tapes, filled with intimate moments of their drag performances and personal life, stand as a testament to a fleeting and repressed queer culture in a conservative society. As La Delpi narrates, the group created a family through their performances, forging bonds of friendship and resistance that transcended the oppressive forces around them. Through the tapes, La Delpi recalls the early days of meeting her companions, La Colo and La Gallega, and the moments they spent together, performing in a world where survival itself was an act of defiance. La Gallega’s untimely death from AIDS at the age of 25 marks a turning point in La Delpi’s narrative. The AIDS crisis, which ravaged the LGBTQ+ community globally, took many lives, and the members of the Kalas group were no exception. Yet, La Delpi’s response to La Gallega’s death was not to succumb to despair. Instead, she and the group invented new narratives - a reimagining of their lost friend in happier endings, allowing them to preserve the warmth of their memories in creative ways. This act of re-imagining would eventually evolve into the structure of Playback, a film that reclaims the past and offers a space for new possibilities.

 

In Playback, the archival footage from the 1980s, shot on VHS, plays a central role. These tapes, however, are not mere historical documents; they are the material evidence of a creative practice that transcends the limitations of their medium. The footage is raw and imperfect, with the imperfections of magnetic tape - tracking errors, loss of information - imbued with emotional resonance. These errors, rather than detracting from the value of the tapes, symbolize the resilience of the memories and the persistence of the group. As La Delpi reflects on these tapes, the film becomes a journey through memory, blending the past with the present. What is particularly striking in Playback is Comedi’s decision to remake and reimagine the scenes captured in the old tapes. Comedi recreates the same scenarios, costumes, and hairstyles of the 1980s, re-filming the same scenes with modern technology. Through this, she blurs the lines between the past and the present, allowing the imagined and the real to intertwine. This act of remaking is not simply a technical reproduction, but a form of creative resistance. By inserting new footage into the original tapes, Comedi creates a “new archive” that serves as both a preservation of the past and a space for the expansion of queer futures. 

 

The film does not simply document the past; it creates new possibilities, new futures, and new interpretations of what happened. The use of VHS tapes as a medium ties the film to the materiality of the past while also transcending it through creative reimaginings. In Playback, memory is not fixed; it is diffused, expanded, and multiplied through the act of remaking. Furthermore, Comedi’s approach to remaking goes beyond the simple preservation of memory. By focusing on moments of joy, affection, and creativity, rather than the dominant narrative of pain associated with the AIDS crisis, Playback shifts the conversation away from trauma and toward a politics of affection. It is a celebration of the friendships that sustained the Kalas group, a tribute to their resilience and love in the face of insurmountable adversity. These are not just stories of loss; they are stories of survival, imagination, and resistance. 

 

In Playback, the bonds of friendship are at the forefront of the narrative. La Delpi’s recounting of the group’s experiences reveals the deep emotional connections that sustained them during the most difficult times. The relationships within the Kalas group were horizontal, ephemeral, and multifaceted - far removed from the traditional, conservative familial structures that dominate mainstream society. By depicting these relationships with tenderness and affection, Comedi’s film highlights alternative forms of kinship that do not rely on the normative structures of time and lineage. The home videos captured by La Delpi, which document their performances and private lives, are no longer confined to the concept of family as it is typically understood. Instead, they represent a different kind of kinship - one that is fluid, temporary, and filled with possibility. These performances, staged in clandestine spaces, were not just acts of rebellion but acts of survival. Through their performances, the Kalas group found a sense of belonging and purpose that transcended the harsh realities of their society. 

 

Playback: Ensayo de una despedida premiered at the 2019 Mar del Plata International Film Festival, where it won the Best Short Film Award, before embarking on an international festival tour. One of its most significant screenings was at the Berlinale, where it won the prestigious Teddy Award. The film’s success and visibility marked a turning point in the recognition of queer histories, particularly those that have been overlooked or erased by traditional archives. Comedi’s decision to revisit and reimagine the Kalas group’s legacy also brings attention to the importance of domestic archives - those personal, often forgotten records that tell the stories of marginalized communities. By elevating these home videos to the realm of film, Comedi invites audiences to reconsider what constitutes history and whose stories are worth preserving. In Playback, the act of “playing back” becomes a way to reclaim lost time, to reimagine futures, and to honor the memories of those who have passed. It is a poetic act of resistance against forgetting, and a celebration of the power of imagination in the face of loss. 

 

Through Playback: Ensayo de una despedida, Agustina Comedi has created a work of profound emotional depth, blending documentary and fiction, past and present, memory and imagination. The film’s exploration of the Kalas group’s performances, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the bonds of friendship offers a nuanced and powerful portrayal of queer life in post-dictatorship Argentina. In doing so, it challenges traditional archival practices and invites us to reconsider the ways in which we remember, preserve, and create history. By blending archival footage with contemporary reimaginings, Playback transcends the boundaries of time and space, offering not just a farewell to the past, but a manifesto for the future - a future where creativity, love, and friendship continue to resist the forces of erasure and oppression.

 

via: youtube

 photogenie.be and correspondenciascine.com

Image credits: YouTube