IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Name: Between Material Decay and Political Erasure: Preserving a 16mm Newsreel of the Plaza de Mayo Bombing (Argentina, 1955)
Start: 2026-10-21T10:30:00+0300
End: 2026-10-21T11:00:00+0300

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Between Material Decay and Political Erasure: Preserving a 16mm Newsreel of the Plaza de Mayo Bombing (Argentina, 1955)

Wednesday October 21, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

We present a work in progress based on a 16mm film reel from the First Argentine Television News Programme, which recounts the events of the 1955 bombing of Plaza de Mayo and the Government House by military aircraft, intended to overthrow President Juan Domingo Perón. Amidst a turbulent political climate that proved crucial for the subsequent decades, the event deepened the long-standing tension between Peronism and anti-Peronism that continues to this day. It was one of the largest attacks in Argentine history, resulting in the murder of more than 300 civilians. The coup d’état was finally carried out three months later with the self-proclaimed Liberating Revolution taking power – an extreme right-wing opposition that sought to liberate the people from Perón’s ‘tyranny’. This attack was effectively rendered invisible for many decades and, despite some research that emerged from the return to democracy in 1983 to this day, it has failed to be recalled in the collective memory.

More than 70 years later, through a private job, this material presented numerous challenges for us: an advanced case of vinegar syndrome and, on a personal level, political contradictions associated with working on a broadcast featuring anti-democratic discourse alongside rare footage of corpses and the aftermath of the attack. However, it also provided an opportunity to take a specialised approach to a deteriorating film and to bring the event back into public debate, at a time when Argentina’s far right is drawing inspiration from the Liberating Revolution and using the rhetoric of ‘freedom’ once again.

Speakers

Laura Gómez Gauna

Co-coordinator of the Commission on Archives and Audiovisual Heritage, Argentine Association for Film and Audiovisual Studies (AsAECA)

Independent conservator. She holds a diploma in the Preservation of Photographic, Sound and Audiovisual Collections from the National School of Restoration and Museography from Ibermemoria. She was awarded a scholarship to the Film Preservation & Restoration School Latin America by... Read More →

Mayumi Romina Higa

Teacher, National University of Arts, Argentina

Conservator and restorer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She graduated in Conservation and Restoration from the National University of Arts and holds diplomas in Audiovisual Preservation and Restoration from the University of Buenos Aires and in Cultural Mediation from the Latin... Read More →

Wednesday October 21, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Short Presentation, In Person

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

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IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Laura Gómez Gauna

Mayumi Romina Higa

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Success you have shared X tickets.

IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Laura Gómez Gauna

Mayumi Romina Higa

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