'Una y mil veces – Uruguayans in Nicaragua Chasing Utopia' - Film Screening and Director Q&A
Film screening of 'Una y Mil Veces' and Q&A with its director Ernesto Fontan.
'Una y Mil Veces' (I’d Do It All Over Again) is a documentary film about fifty-two Uruguayan political exiles. When a dictatorship was taking place in their own country, these young activists decided to leave for Nicaragua to take part in the Sandinista National Liberation Front and fight against Anastasio Somoza’s regime. Their journey included going through Chile and Argentina and even having military training in Cuba. Despite their youth and the fact that they were very far from home, they never forgot their ideals nor left their political and social commitment behind and were sure to give their lives for a kindred Latin American people the moment it needed the most help. This documentary is narrated by the protagonists of that experience and their families. It aims to explore the motivation they had to give their lives for a cause that seems very distant at first glance. But it also intends to show how life was in the 70s, a decade deeply marked by the violence provoked by the many dictatorships that were taking place in different countries in Latin America.
The film is directed by Ernesto Fontan who has been interested in Latin America’s contemporary history and its revolutionary liberation movements from a young age. It is the result of a collaboration with Uruguayan combatants who had been documenting their experiences. By making the film, Fontan seeks spread and celebrate examples of altruism in works of art that contribute to the reconstruction of our collective memory.
Meet the director:
Ernesto Fontan is an Argentine filmmaker. He completed his five-year university degree in Audiovisual Studies at the National University of Lanús in 2005. Since 2013, he has worked for The Walt Disney Company on various projects. He directed his documentary debut, 'Tarará, la historia de Chernobil en Cuba' (Tarará, the story of Chernobyl in Cuba), in 2021 and a year later he started his own production company, Ámbar Cine. In 2025, he is premiering his second documentary film: 'Una y Mil Veces' (I’d Do It All Over Again). He also teaches film editing in the Sound and Image Design program at the University of Buenos Aires.
Meet the chair:
Dr Tanya Harmer is a specialist on the Cold War in Latin America with a particular interest in the international, transnational and global dynamics of the struggle. She has written widely on Chile’s revolutionary process in the 1970s, the Cuban Revolution’s influence in Latin America, counter-revolution and inter-American diplomacy, solidarity networks, women and gender. Her first book, 'Allende’s Chile and the Inter-American Cold War' won LASA's Luciano Tomassini prize in 2013. Her latest book tells the story of Beatriz Allende and Chile’s Revolutionary Left that came of age in the shadow of the Cuban Revolution.
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