'Paraguayan War' Praised in Journal of Military History

Filmmaker's Diary: Part III

A while back, after waiting for some time in line at JFK immigrations, my turn came to stand there and get asked why I wanted to be in the US. I immediately said and immediately regretted saying "for pleasure," but the middle-aged man, hair close-cropped standing erect in the open glass box, cast his eyes over and and then smiled as if he had heard this for the first time and said, "…and for pain."

I just stood there. It was as if we were eager for this conversation. We spent a couple of minutes discussing the differences and the similarities of pleasure and pain. I don’t remember what I said or indeed what he said. After a minute we got looks of impatience from people in line so I said goodbye and moved on.

Not too many years ago when I looked about for funding for the documentary I planned on the Paraguayan War, I expected in these parts and in these modern times more than just casual interest – not a single documentary film or piece for television on the subject existed. I would be the first. I was excited at the prospect and thought it would not be hard to generate funding. I expected real interest and money to come my way. I was very wrong.

Not a single person or company in any of the countries involved – Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay or Paraguay – had the slightest interest in giving me a penny. Time after time I was reminded that telling the story of a war that certainly killed and maimed tens of thousands on all sides, destroyed the Paraguayan will to prosper, hastened the creation of the Argentine Republic, in time destroyed the Brazilian monarchy and consolidated Uruguay as a free nation state, was still, for all sides, a most shameful and difficult moment to face.

Over the years, for everyone, the event had made heroes of the most unlikable characters and from some unlikely quarters, and a few losers. Events had been shaped and re-shaped beyond recognition, or the memory of these events allowed to wither and die. I knew I had my work cut out just to make the case that making a documentary about this calamitous events was the right thing to do. My struggles were about to begin. I was about to enter a world of pain and pleasure….
–DW

More Praise for
"The Paraguayan War"

This just in from the distinguished scholar Leslie Bethell:

"A very good job…should do well in high schools and colleges. My congratulations."
– Leslie Bethell
Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar
Emeritus Professor of Latin American History, University of London
Former Director, University of Oxford Centre for Brazilian Studies

And Sra. Liana Gomes Amadeo, head of archives at the National Library of Brazil, sends this:

"It was with pleasure that we received [the film] at the National Library and we thank you for sending the documentary "The Paraguay War." We would like to congratulate you for this initiative, as well as the educational quality and entertaining nature of the work. We consider that the workmanship has great value as an educational tool, very useful as source material in the academic education of our youth."

Filmmaker's Diary: Part II

The decision to go to Humaita, the scene, in Paraguay, of perhaps one of The Marshals greatest defeats, was a decision I'd made and insisted on from the beginning. My producer was not pleased at the prospect – he said it was too far and would cut into our limited time and resources. I told him that coming to Paraguay to make a documentary about the war and not venture to Humaita would make no sense.

I'd had meetings with my Paraguayan producer Alberto Duarte – a wonderful man and a constant source of valuable information who sadly died two years ago of cancer. He assured us we could get there safely enough. The crew, plus Prof. Thomas Whigham and myself, would have to cover some pretty rough ground to get there – real roads would peter out soon after leaving the capital. We were determined to press ahead.

We left Asuncion early the next morning and as we carefully moved along the rough roads and tracks I was struck by the fact that the countryside was almost empty ( was this, so many years later, the aftermath of this terrible war?) Daylight was fading fast as as we drew into the small hamlet of Humaita. At first I thought it was a ghost town but I soon realized there were just a handful of people living in this part of the world. Within minutes we'd met the mayor, who told us that we were the first visitors to Humaita in months. It struck me that this site, in a more developed part of the Western Hemisphere – a place where one of the vital moments in the biggest and bloodiest war in Latin America, would be, at this point, be suffering from a tourism glut.

It seems the powers involved, each in their own way, had decided to create an inflexible, immutable version of events and heroes, or worse, blot this appalling event from national memory.

The guest house at Humaita

Before settling in at the one and only guest house, I wandered down to the edge of the Paraguay River and through the late evening gloom imagined a picture of what it must have looked like over a hundred thirty years ago. Complete darkness fell and a billion mosquitos kept us company. The mayor's wife cooked local food and produced local hooch. Later, the mayor and his brother played guitars and sang – sad songs of Paraguayan pride and despair....
–DW

Filmmaker's Diary: Part I

Making this documentary was not easy. The countries involved (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) had no real interest in having this episode of history be turned into a film. And making available material for the making of a documentary that would for the first time show the war in great detail was even more difficult. The countries involved have each evolved since the war versions of events that oftentimes bear little resemblance to fact. Each has had its own desire to create heroes – Brazil in its formation of a standing army and the nation; Paraguay, the losing nation, to exalt the figure of Marshal Solano Lopez, who led his nation to inglorious defeat; Argentina, in its desire too to form itself as a nation as the Uruguayans have also done. The victors simply abandoned Paraguay to its fate and over the decades decided that the entire episode was to be swept under the each country's carpet and kept there.

Until now.

And when it came to finding funds, the resistance to making the movie was overwhelming and it took more than two years to finally find the right funding. At first, I was afraid that I would not find a good enough array of photographs, cartoons, paintings, drawings and so forth to flesh out the documentary visually, but I was immensely surprised to find a considerable amount of material in all four countries – principally and to my surprise, in Paraguay. And without the amazing and consistent consultancy of Prof. Thomas Whigham, from the University of Athens, Georgia, I would never have been able to realize the endeavour.
– DW