Under the Flags, the Sun
In 1989, the fall of Alfredo Stroessner's 35-year dictatorship in Paraguay marked the end of one of the world's longest authoritarian regimes, but also the abandonment of the audiovisual archives that had cemented its power.
This footage, crafted to shape a national identity and celebrate the regime, was left to fade from memory.Decades later, a trove of unseen and long-forgotten footage ? newsreels, public television broadcasts, propaganda films, and declassified documents ? has been recovered from Paraguay and abroad, revealing the Cold War power structures that affirmed Stroessner's reign. A kaleidoscopic view of media during the 20th century, Pereira unravels the construction of a national identity along with the cult of Stroessner, excavating the past to contextualize the present in a country where the descendants of the regime's leaders still rule.
