I'm Gilda

Myriam Alejandra Bianchi is living an ordinary life in Buenos Aires when she decides to take up music. Her family objects, the people around her do not take it seriously, and the cumbia world is closed to women songwriters. She goes on stage as Gilda and within a few years becomes one of the most listened-to cumbia artists in Argentina. On 7 September 1996 her tour bus collides with a lorry; Gilda, her daughter, her mother and three of her musicians are killed. She was thirty-four. Lorena Muñoz's film weaves two timelines together: the rise and the last journey. The narrative does not skip past the saint-like standing the singer acquired in popular culture after her death; her grave is still a place of pilgrimage. Natalia Oreiro plays Gilda and sings the songs herself. The film opened in Buenos Aires on 15 September 2016. Who it's for: Viewers who like musician biographies, Latin American popular music, and stories of rising out of one's class. Who it's not for: The structure never leaves the familiar shape of the musical biopic and the contradictions in the singer's life are softened.