EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda has signed on as an executive producer of Norita ahead of the film’s world premiere June 25 at the Dances With Films festival in Hollywood.
The documentary tells the extraordinary story of Norita Cortiñas who helped found a movement of Argentinian mothers in the 1970s whose children had been “disappeared” by the country’s right-wing military regime. Cortiñas and other women began protesting against the government in a square in Buenos Aires in April 1977, only a couple of weeks after Cortiñas’s son Carlos Gustavo was abducted and disappeared. They became known as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
Norita Cortiñas (middle with glasses) leads the December 16, 1982 Marcha del Pueblo por la Democracia y la Reconstrucción Nacional.
Archivo Hasenberg-Quaretti
What happened to Gustavo was never determined; he, like thousands of others snatched by Argentina’s dictatorship, would forever remain “desaparecidos.” Despite her grief, Cortiñas went on to become “a leading global voice for human rights,” as the New York Times described her.
Jayson McNamara (Messenger On A White Horse) and Andrea Tortonese directed Norita. We have your first look at the documentary in the trailer below.
Fonda joins a distinguished group of executive producers supporting the film, including two-time Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain, Babel), author-activist Naomi Klein, filmmaker-activist Avi Lewis, producer Barbara Muschietti, and filmmaker Andy Muschietti.
“It is an honor to have Jane’s support and backing,” McNamara said in a statement. “As a respected artist across generations, she is the ideal person to be bringing light to the story of an activist such as Norita.”
Norita Cortiñas in ‘Norita’
Francisco Villa
Tortonese added, “As the world grapples with human rights and social justice, Norita serves as a timely reminder that together we can make an extraordinary difference. Today, more than ever, we need stories like Norita’s to light our path forward.”
The documentary serves as a lasting tribute to Cortiñas who died Thursday at the age of 94, following a hernia operation. An obituary published in Clarín, Argentina’s biggest newspaper, quoted Cortiñas speaking about the devastating loss of her son, who was 24 when he was grabbed at a train station by authorities.
“Losing a child is always a tragedy,” Clarín quoted her as saying, “but you have to work through it so as not to get caught in that labyrinth and be able to help those who are in the same situation. Loneliness is never a good recipe if you want to know the truth.”
Norita Cortiñas holds a portrait of her son, Carlos Gustavo Cortiñas, at the Plaza de Mayo on September 3, 2009 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Ricardo Ceppi/Getty Images
Argentina’s military dictatorship abducted and “disappeared” three other women who joined Cortiñas in founding Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Despite the threat to her safety, she continued to demonstrate for accountability and justice. [The 1985 Oscar-nominated documentary The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, directed by Susana Blaustein Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo, explores the courage of the activists who stood up to the regime. The Oscar-nominated 2022 drama Argentina, 1985 examines in narrative form the attempt to bring justice to all who lost children in the years of the dictatorship].
“What happened in Argentina can happen anywhere,” said EP Barbara Muschietti, a native of Argentina. “We need these stories of everyday people doing big things to remind us of what humanity is capable of. Norita is a film that will reaffirm why my country’s dictatorship brings lessons for all of us, everywhere, especially today.”
DoctoraStories/Tidetivity Studios
The film includes rare footage of Norita during Argentina’s women’s movement and striking archival footage from her five decades of activism, according to a release. The film’s aesthetic also includes animation sequences by director-animator Tortonese.
Norita is a production of U.S. based DoctoraStories and Tidetivity Studios, companies with a mission to bring “stories of fearless female-lead activism to U.S. and world audiences longing for examples of nuanced strength and determination in difficult political landscapes.”
The documentary is produced by Jayson McNamara, Melissa Daniels, Sarah Schoellkopf, and Francisco Villa. Cinematography is by Francisco Villa. Julia Straface and Ana García edited the film. The score is composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, Paco Cabral, Juan Luqui, and Matias Tozolla.
Watch the trailer for Norita here: