‘Norita’ Review: A Strikingly Relevant Documentary

Norita is a beautifully profound documentary from directors Jayson McNamara and Andrea Tortonese, centered around the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a human rights group composed of mothers protesting the military junta in Argentina and advocating for the return of their disappeared children. Read our Norita review below.

While Norita explores the broader story of the group and delves into human rights issues worldwide, it does so through the personal lens of one woman: Nora Morales de Cortiñas, affectionately known as Norita. Tragically, Norita passed away earlier this year at the remarkable age of 94. The film strives to tell her story as she herself wanted it told, while honoring her legacy and dedication to protest and rebellion. 

This review was made possible thanks to the 31st Austin Film Festival. 

After a military coup in 1976 that deposed the leftist Perón and installed General Jorge Videla as president, the country of Argentina transformed under its brutal military dictatorship. Anticommunist death squads, alongside the military, hunted down political dissidents, disappearing thousands they deemed threats to the right-wing junta. Among the disappeared were many young activists who mobilized and took to the streets to protest. Gustavo Cortiñas was a 24-year-old who was one of these disappeared revolutionary youth. Norita is as much an ode to Gustavo and his legacy as it is to his mother Norita. Gustavo is the reason that Norita became the revolutionary that she was. The film takes time to emphasize Gustavo’s ideals and his braveness, and how he influenced Norita to continue his work. Gustavo told his mother, “Mamá look outside your four walls, things are happening”, and although Norita may have taken to the streets at first to discover the truth of Gustavo’s disappearance, her activism didn’t stop there—nor did it end with the fall of the dictatorship. Norita eternalizes Gustavo’s nobility and the profound relationship he had with his mother which is at the core of her story and this film. 

The film goes beyond Norita, the disappeared, and their families, chronicling her continued human rights activism after the end of the dictatorship. She became a leading figure in numerous social rights movements. Most recently, Norita fought for the legalization of abortion in Argentina. One powerful moment in the film stood out to me: in 2018 after the failure of a bill to legalize abortion in the Senate, Norita, on that very day, told supporters, “Neither men nor women should be upset by this. It proves that we have to keep fighting. Nothing is easy.” Norita’s resilience in the face of adversity is so inspiring and the film captures her fighting spirit so beautifully. It’s such a powerful testament to the woman she was. 

The existence and influence of Norita—both the woman and the documentary—are amplified because of how underrepresented women, and specifically mothers, are in political spaces. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo were a vital part of the anti-establishment movement of Argentina during the dictatorship, which is so significant given that counterculture is typically associated with youth. It’s so interesting that their emergence is directly tied to the repression of the younger generation, and the film explores this narrative in such a fascinating way. When the younger generation were detained, disappeared, and removed from the streets, their mothers came out in droves to take their place and became the visible face of resistance. Norita did not set out to be an activist, nor did she realize the bravery of her actions at the time. Her story speaks to how choosing to fight injustice is a visceral, instinctive decision and how anyone can make that choice. 

Telling Norita’s story is especially important today where the older generation is often seen as increasingly conservative, and older political figures dictate more repressive ideologies that prevent progressive change. The film shows moments where Norita does something completely revolutionary for someone her age, and it undoubtedly serves as a statement to others of her generation to follow in her footsteps. Combating fascism and injustice should not be left solely to the younger generation. The film is echoing Gustavo’s words to his mother, we must look outside our four walls and recognize what is happening. 

Directors McNamara and Tortonese had known Norita for years, and their deep respect and love for her and her work is palpable throughout the film. She was a beautiful human being, and this documentary is such a sincere portrayal of her and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo movement. I couldn’t have asked for a better, more powerful introduction to Norita’s inspiring story. This film serves as both a reminder of the injustice and cruelty that Argentina faced, and a call to never forget. Just as the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo wore the photos of their disappeared children, refusing to let the corrupt government erase their memory, this documentary insists on keeping the legacy of Norita and the disappeared alive. This is especially important now when around the world, fascism is on the rise, when in Argentina, the current government downplays the horrors of the military dictatorship, when so many nations are restricting human rights and repressing voices against injustice. Norita is a phenomenal documentary that paints such a vivid, heartfelt picture of Nora Corteñas and her enduring fight for justice—a story that remains ever so strikingly relevant.

I had the pleasure of interviewing co-director Jayson McNamara and getting to speak to him about Norita. You can watch that interview below:

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