Film offers an intimate testimony of the liberation philosopher Enrique Dussel

The documentary Dussel: Philosophy is a gift for a world without meaning, which is presented at the Cineteca Nacional, portrays the last years of that distinguished Argentine-Mexican thinker, the greatest exponent of the philosophy of liberation. Until March 19, seven more performances will be offered at the Xoco venue.

The film premiered this weekend as part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état in Argentina, an anniversary that resonates with the biography of Dussel (1934-2023), who suffered a bomb attack in his home in his homeland on October 2, 1973, an event that determined him to go into exile in our country.

As testimony to that episode, the thinker kept a thick book by Hegel that was burned by the explosion, with which he taught countless generations of students.

The director Cecilia Fiel – who completed a research stay at the Film School of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and was a student of the teacher’s ethics courses at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters – offers in this film an intimate testimony of the historian and theologian who, at 87 years old and in failing health, dedicated his final efforts to writing his liberation aesthetics, “vitalocentric” proposal where beauty is defined in relation to life itself.

In around 100 minutes, the Argentine screenwriter and producer also achieves a respectful, deep and even affectionate approach to the life of someone who for many years was a collaborator of The Day, as well as the main axes of his thought.

Far from the academic solemnity, the camera accompanies him in his daily life, with scenes in the library of his home, in spaces of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and the UNAM, the streets of the Mexican capital, the Zócalo and the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, among other locations.

But, above all, the support focuses on his daily struggle against a hereditary disease that in his last years diminished his strength, but not his lucidity.

“My days are numbered, because I won’t last much longer. What’s ahead is predictable. But, rather, I’m finishing the things I have in hand. I no longer hope to build any important work, but rather this short aesthetic, to demonstrate how we should continue writing in the school of liberation philosophy,” says Dussel in one of the first scenes.

Esa liberation aesthetics –which he defines as “the taste of real things”– is revealed in the film as a radically different proposal from Eurocentric visions.

The philosopher places it on a “vitalocentric” plane, in which beauty is not an abstract quality of the object, but is constituted in the relationship with the living being. “Beauty is the food that you like, that is delicious,” he explains. “And, by saying ‘rich’, it means that it is beautiful. All the aesthetics are in eating.” He concludes: “life is the center of the entire theme of beauty (…) The ugly is the necrophilic, the love for death.”

Structured as a polyphony of voices, the documentary features colleagues and disciples such as Katya Colmenares and Alicia Hopkins, as well as students who find in the philosophy of liberation a tool for their struggles, whether from feminism, politics or everyday life.

Power is discussed as “power” that emanates from the people, the categories of the “victim” and “exteriority”, as well as the influence of the Zapatista “command by obeying” in the philosopher’s work.

Another significant aspect is that it also brings to the table Dussel’s critical sense and social commitment with his questions about the educational reform of the previous federal government.

“Nothing is said about critical teaching, pure formalities: whether the teachers are going to take exams, how they are going to appoint them, salary problems. Education is not that: it is providing content,” he argues.

He censures that in a critical government there was no talk of offering content. “We continue to teach what was taught in 1950. That is the problem.” For him, being critical is “putting yourself in the place of the oppressed.” Considering that “the educational reform was as little educational as everything else,” he closes the topic by warning that the task will be long, not just a six-year term.

One of the most captivating passages is when Dussel reflects on life and death. “The last chapter of the liberation aesthetics It is going to be the mystique, the confrontation with human finitude,” he points out.

To reaffirm the idea, he quotes the French mathematician Blaise Pascal, who, faced with the certainty of death, made a deal: assume that there is a god and live as if there were one. “He said, ‘If I don’t find it after death, I haven’t lost anything, but I’ve gained the happy years I bet there were. I bet there’s a resurrection.'”

The film is not devoid of humor, as when the teacher ironically explains why he accepted to be a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

“I’m going to accept, even if it’s to anger those who think I’m talking nonsense. It may be criticizable to accept it; however, I thought it was good that a Latin American was recognized in the United States, since everything I have said is critical of that country.”

Cecilia Fiel warned about the current hate speeches in Argentina, 50 years after the coup d’état. “The newspapers of the time accused Dussel of being a ‘Marxist’, with the not unusual intention of placing him as an agent of communism. Today, Milei’s government is referred to in the same terms as anyone who opposes it,” he highlighted.

“It seems significant to me that 50 years later we hear such similar speeches, with the addition that we now hear them thanks to the popular vote. This should be a reflection to try to ensure that the philosophy of liberation opens a path of light for us in this context.”

The filmmaker announced that after completing some circuits in Argentina, the documentary will be available towards the end of the year on YouTube, for free.

More information about the functions on the site https://www.cinetecanacional.net/.