Alejandro Zuleta (Public Books, 9/9/26), "The Saddest Cattle in the World: Atahualpa Yupanqui, Empire, and the Sound of Stolen Land": "There is a couplet that contains the essence of Argentina's colonial and postcolonial political economy, a poetic image that speaks a thousand words and synthesizes imperial ideology in one definitive swoop. Atahualpa Yupanqui wrote it, and it is the last couplet of the refrain in 'El arriero' (1944), one of his most transcendent songs ... 'The sorrows are ours. The cattle are not.'" Lyrics to "El Arriero" and more. Songs like "Luna tucumana," "Viene clareando," "La Añera," "Zamba del grillo," and "Chacarera de las piedras" are often covered. Several were in the film Horizontes de piedra, including "El Arriero." But many of Yupanqui's songs were co-written by Paula Nenette Pepin, about whom there's a recent album and documentary in French.

Derek vs. Derek (trailer) is a new (premiered at festivals, opening in London soon) UK documentary about Derek Banbury an intensive dairy farmer with 200 cows who's farm is next to Derek Gow's, a former sheep farmer, rewilding project. While both are initially combative to each other ('The man's a psychopath when it comes to hedgerows'- Guardian interview) the documentary presents Derek Banbury slowly coming around to some ideas of rewilding while Gow tries to keep the animals on his land from disrupting the work of farmers around him.

Of note is that Derek Banbury is presented as using intensive agriculture because of the pressures of modern supermarkets and capitalism, not out of any malice or greed, showing why farmers feel they have to resort to mass use of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers. The team behind the film has chosen The Farming Community Network as the charity it is urging others to donate to and is working toward having screenings in rural Britain as well as in the cities. (press release on subject) BBC Sounds interview with the director and both Dereks (who are now good friends) I haven't seen the documentary yet, but everything I've read about it sounds sweet, a little bit of brightness in the current world.

A documentary exploring the lives and classes of British 7 year old children premiered in the 1960s with 7 Up. Director Michael Apted continued 7 years later and every 7 years since. The final chapter is set to air on ITV this upcoming week with the children, now very much not children at 70 years old. Michael Apted passed away in 2021. Two participants, Lynn Johnson and Nick Hitchon, also passed during the intervening years. The participants had a historically fraught relationship with Michael Apted and the documentary series but at the same time, the series has been a big part of their lives.