Chile

EXILE AND BEYOND

The first films in exile were documentaries that concentrated on denouncing the human rights abuses perpetrated by the military regime, such as Raúl Ruiz's Diálogo de exilados ( Dialogue of Exiles , 1974, France).

Sebastián Alarcón's (b. 1949) resistance to the regime found visual expression in Noch nad Chile ( Night over Chile , 1977, Soviet Union), a film about the first days of the dictatorship, denouncing the atrocities it committed in the National Stadium. Later, Miguel Littin's Acta general de Chile ( General Proclamation of Chile ), edited in Spain, offered a clandestine portrayal of the social reality under the dictatorship in 1986.

One of the achievements of filmmaking under the Popular Unity government, with its emphasis on women's political participation and the use of 16mm, was the emergence of women behind the camera. Marta Harnecker, a member of Guzmán's Grupo Tercer Cine, helped to edit The Battle of Chile in Cuba. Angelina Vásquez shared her reflections on torture, rape, and pregnancy in Thanks to Life , or The Story of a Mistreated Woman (Finland, 1980). Valeria Sarmiento (b. 1948), who has edited many of Raúl Ruiz's films, directed her own documentary on the culture of machismo in Costa Rica, El Hombre cuando es hombre ( A Man, When He Is a Man , 1982), followed by the parodic feature Notre Mariage (Our marriage, France, 1984), and other works. In Canada, Marilú Mallet (b. 1944) produced an autobiographical reflection on exile, Journal inachevé (Unfinished diary, 1982); after returning to Chile in 2003, she made a documentary on women who were "widowed" by Pinochet's coup, La Cueca sola ( To Dance Alone) .

The national film industry and supportive arts organizations in Chile, once highly dependent on state funding during Popular Unity, were severely damaged by its elimination. Many filmmakers took refuge in the alternative media of video and television, sponsored by universities, religious groups, and nongovernmental organizations. Videotapes became instruments of political and cultural resistance and circulated widely, even if distribution was prohibited. By means of symbolism, allegory, and other indirect methods, the theater group Ictus transmitted political messages on video. Another group, Teleanalysis, produced news programs documenting important political and historical events as an alternative to the military government's mass media coverage. The television director Tatiana Gaviola (b. 1956) managed to make a testimonial documentary, Tantas vidas, una historia ( So Many Lives, One Story , 1983), on poor women in the Ochagavia slum, which circulated internationally on video. Silvio Caiozzi (b. 1944) was among the few directors to consistently produce feature-length films after the coup. In 1977 Caiozzi directed Julio comienza en Julio ( Julio Begins in July ), voted "the Chilean movie of the century," which focuses on the decline of the Chilean aristocracy in the early 1900s to make a subtle critique of the contemporary oppressive regime. His Coronación ( Coronation , 2000) brought him the Best Director award at the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival.

Others who chose to remain in Chile fought against the cultural blackout and the amnesia that reigned in Chile, both during and after the dictatorship. They strove to end the so-called "internal exile" by giving meaning to the lives of Chileans who had been alienated from participating in the national project. Representative films include Imagen latente ( Latent Image , 1988), by Pablo Perelman, and La Frontera ( The Frontier , 1991), by Ricardo P. Larrain, shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the exhibition Internal Exile: New Films and Videos from Chile, curated by Coco Fusco in May 1990. This touring exhibit was instrumental in providing international exposure to the cultural resurgence that prefigured the fall of the Pinochet regime.

Following the end of the dictatorship in 1989, the film industry began recovering through a very slow and irregular process, aided by subventions from government organizations such as Fondo Nacional para el Desarrollo de las Artes (FONDART) and CORFO. Many filmmakers returned from exile and faced the complexities of reintegration. Littin's Los náufragos ( The Shipwrecked , 1994) examines the experience of an exile who returns to Chile after twenty years and attempts to assimilate himself back into a society divided by the trauma of the dictatorship; Gringuito (Sergio Castilla, 1998) explores the strangeness of return through the eyes of a young boy; Alarcón's Tsikatriz ( The Scar , 1996) follows the story of two brothers who struggle to overcome their ideological discrepancies after one of them returns from Moscow.

Following his return to Chile, Guzmán wished to confront the fact that, during the first years of the transition to democracy, the government had encouraged a policy of forgetting rather than addressing the violence of the dictatorship. His documentary Chile, la memoria obstinada ( Chile, the Obstinate Memory , 1997) comments on how historical memory has been avoided at all costs. Around the turn of the twenty-first century, thanks to the political leadership of La Concertación, an alliance of centrist and moderate left-wing parties, the memory of the coup is becoming an accessible topic on a large scale.

Some returnees insist on themes of return and memory, in part so that the new generation of filmmakers, who did not experience either exile or dictatorship, can understand the national trauma. One of the few films to comment on torture during the military regime, as well as on the way the past haunts the present, Amnesia (1994) by Gonzalo Justiniano (b. 1955), received critical praise at international film festivals (Havana, among others). Gaviola's Mi último hombre ( My Last Man , 1996) is a story of repression and betrayal that addresses the manipulation of information on all levels of society. Belonging to a new generation of filmmakers, Cecilia Cornejo reconstructs the 1973 coup through her family's history in the documentary short I Wonder What You Will Remember of September (2004). Other films provide a critical outlook on the negative consequences of the economic policies put forward by the military government. Ignacio Agũero's documentary Cien niños esperando un tren ( One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train , 1988) and Gonzalo Justiniano's feature film Caluga o Menta ( Candy or Mint , 1990) explore the theme of poverty and marginalized youth in Santiago.

Chilean filmmakers, while striving to produce box-office hits in Chile, have also sought a place on the international film circuit. A complex interaction has developed between the creation of a new kind of national narrative based on pop culture and the production of Hollywood-style features that can be exported around the world. This new "Chileanness" is meant both to lure national audiences to the theaters and to present a local specificity that will attract the international public. Notable success stories are Chacotero Sentimental ( The Sentimental Teaser , 1999), by Cristián Galaz; Sexo con amor ( Sex with Love , 2003), by Boris Quercia; and Machuca (2004), by Andrés Wood.

In the absence of a star system, the most popular actors have become known through a combination of performances in TV series, theater, and feature films. Among them are Tamara Acosta ( Machuca ), Daniel Muñoz ( El fotógrafo [ The Photographer ], Historias de fút-bol [ Football Stories ]), Boris Quercia ( Sex with Love , Coronation ), Héctor Noguera ( Sub terra ), and Claudia di Girolamo ( My Last Man ). One of the most important screen figures is Patricio Contreras (b. 1947), the protagonist of The Frontier . After receiving Best Actor award at the Havana Film Festival in 1987, he has distinguished himself in features produced in Argentina and the United States.