Once a rapidly growing Latin American economy, and fertile ground for influential indie pop and neoperreo movements, Chile has become the center of socio-political discord that’s swept the region over the last several years. Since October 2019, millions of Chileans have taken to the streets in waves of protests and civil unrest dubbed el estallido social, or the social outburst. Their goals: dismantle the neoliberal policies of the Seventies that fostered staggering income inequality, abandon the archaic Pinochet-era constitution, and draft a new magna carta to codify institutional gender parity...
- 4/1/2024
- by Richard Villegas
- Rollingstone.com
Augusto Góngora, the journalist, author and television host documented in the Sundance winning film The Eternal Memory, is being mourned in his native Chile after his death at 71.
The film’s Oscar-nominated director, Maite Alberdi, confirmed to Deadline that Góngora succumbed to complications of Alzhemier’s on May 19. The Eternal Memory, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at Sundance, chronicles the love story between the journalist and his wife, actress and academic Paulina Urrutia. “La Pauli,” as Góngora referred to his partner, took care of him after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 62.
Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora in ‘The Eternal Memory’
“It was unexpectedly painful” to learn of Góngora’s death, Alberdi told Deadline. “People tell you that Alzheimer’s is a slow death. So you think that you are prepared because you have been living for many years with the disappearance of that person.
The film’s Oscar-nominated director, Maite Alberdi, confirmed to Deadline that Góngora succumbed to complications of Alzhemier’s on May 19. The Eternal Memory, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at Sundance, chronicles the love story between the journalist and his wife, actress and academic Paulina Urrutia. “La Pauli,” as Góngora referred to his partner, took care of him after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 62.
Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora in ‘The Eternal Memory’
“It was unexpectedly painful” to learn of Góngora’s death, Alberdi told Deadline. “People tell you that Alzheimer’s is a slow death. So you think that you are prepared because you have been living for many years with the disappearance of that person.
- 6/6/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
When Chile’s preeminent documentarian, Patricio Guzman, receives a lifetime achievement award at the Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) on Aug. 16, he’ll also be marking his 81st birthday.
Born on Aug. 11, 1941, Guzman has made more than 20 documentaries at an average of one every two to five years. And he shows no signs of easing up.
With perhaps two exceptions, his documentaries explore the past, present and future of his beloved homeland. As he laments in his 2019 Cannes best documentary winner, “The Cordillera of Dreams,” he has lived away far more years than he has lived at home, having fled the country after being held prisoner by the Augusto Pinochet regime in the early ‘70s.
“My memories of Chile are a recurring theme in my films,” he told Variety.
“He lives in Paris but his heart and mind are in Chile every day,” said Alexandra Galvis, who has produced...
Born on Aug. 11, 1941, Guzman has made more than 20 documentaries at an average of one every two to five years. And he shows no signs of easing up.
With perhaps two exceptions, his documentaries explore the past, present and future of his beloved homeland. As he laments in his 2019 Cannes best documentary winner, “The Cordillera of Dreams,” he has lived away far more years than he has lived at home, having fled the country after being held prisoner by the Augusto Pinochet regime in the early ‘70s.
“My memories of Chile are a recurring theme in my films,” he told Variety.
“He lives in Paris but his heart and mind are in Chile every day,” said Alexandra Galvis, who has produced...
- 8/16/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
After two years of 100 online editions, Sanfic Industria opened with a bang on Aug. 11 with an onsite event for Chilean audiences at Santiago de Chile’s Teatro Oriente and a screening of “Soy la Tierra. Historias desde el fin del mundo.”
“Soy la Tierra” is produced by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, behind “Spencer” and Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman,” with direction overseen by Maite Alberdi, helmer of the Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent” – Chile’s crème de la crème.
In attendance was Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonia Urrejola, as well as serried ranks of representatives from Chilean development agency Corfo, its Ministry of Energy, Invest Chile, Prochile, and Chile’s Ministry of Culture, Arts and Patrimony. The doc is backed by Imagen de Chile, the Chilean agency promoting Chile as a brand in the world.
They didn’t come for crowd pleasing entertainment, often the staple of festivals’ opening nights,...
“Soy la Tierra” is produced by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, behind “Spencer” and Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman,” with direction overseen by Maite Alberdi, helmer of the Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent” – Chile’s crème de la crème.
In attendance was Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonia Urrejola, as well as serried ranks of representatives from Chilean development agency Corfo, its Ministry of Energy, Invest Chile, Prochile, and Chile’s Ministry of Culture, Arts and Patrimony. The doc is backed by Imagen de Chile, the Chilean agency promoting Chile as a brand in the world.
They didn’t come for crowd pleasing entertainment, often the staple of festivals’ opening nights,...
- 8/16/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
When left-wing coalition leader Gabriel Boric was elected to the Chilean premiership in 2021, he was 35 years old. When, a few months later, he was sworn in as the nation’s youngest-ever president — also the youngest state leader in the world — revered Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán was 80. “My Imaginary Country” is Guzmán’s examination of the 2019-2021 social protest movements that contributed to Boric’s rise. And while in formal terms it’s more of a standard, reportage-based doc than any of his recent essays, it is also the rarest of projects: one in which a venerated member of an older generation of political activists communicates a fervent admiration for his younger counterparts and a deep, grateful optimism for the future they are building.
It starts — in the more personal register to which fans of the latter-day Guzmán filmography are accustomed — with a brick. The filmmaker narrates in his warmly melodic,...
It starts — in the more personal register to which fans of the latter-day Guzmán filmography are accustomed — with a brick. The filmmaker narrates in his warmly melodic,...
- 6/14/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Led by a special screening slot for celebrated documentarian Patricio Guzman’s “My Imaginary Country,” plus Directors’ Fortnights “1976” and a new short by 2018 Cinéfondation prizewinner Diego Céspedes in Critics’ Week, Chile boats the biggest presence of any Latin American country at Cannes.
“Our cinema is a living and pulsating entity, a cinema full of risky auteurist viewpoints that are capable of expressing our particular experiences in a universal way and at the same level playing field as bigger filmmaking territories, says CinemaChile executive director Constanza Arena, taking note of Chile’s strong showing.
“The directors of a new wave of Chilean cinema take on powerful themes with deep socio-historical weight, but with fresh stylistically innovation, whether it’s political trauma in ‘1976’ by Manuela Martelli, or the LGBTQ+ theme in ‘Las Criaturas que se Derriten Bajo el Sol’ by Céspedes. With their daring, they are pushing forward a new generation of Chilean and Latin American cinema,...
“Our cinema is a living and pulsating entity, a cinema full of risky auteurist viewpoints that are capable of expressing our particular experiences in a universal way and at the same level playing field as bigger filmmaking territories, says CinemaChile executive director Constanza Arena, taking note of Chile’s strong showing.
“The directors of a new wave of Chilean cinema take on powerful themes with deep socio-historical weight, but with fresh stylistically innovation, whether it’s political trauma in ‘1976’ by Manuela Martelli, or the LGBTQ+ theme in ‘Las Criaturas que se Derriten Bajo el Sol’ by Céspedes. With their daring, they are pushing forward a new generation of Chilean and Latin American cinema,...
- 5/17/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Thrown into the limelight by the Oscar nomination for Maite Alberdi’s “The Mole Agent” in 2021, Chilean documentaries been growing in stature worldwide for years.
At Cannes, venerable Patricio Guzman world premieres his latest doc, “My Imaginary Country” (“Mi País Imaginario”) as a special screening, following on his lauded “The Cordillera of Dreams” which was awarded the 2019 L’œil d’Or award for Cannes’ best documentary. Matias Rojas’ “Our Memory” will be among the spotlighted projects at Cannes Docs. A Chilean Docs in Progress showcase, slated for May 23 at Cannes Doc Day, is creating considerable expectation.
“Chilean documentaries often reflect the major social problems the country is undergoing,” says Chiledoc director Paula Ossandon.
One instance, she notes, is a number of films dealing with the great social upheaval that took place in Chile from October 2019 that are beginning to surface, led by “My Imaginary Country.”
“There are also upcoming projects about our president-elect Gabriel Boric,...
At Cannes, venerable Patricio Guzman world premieres his latest doc, “My Imaginary Country” (“Mi País Imaginario”) as a special screening, following on his lauded “The Cordillera of Dreams” which was awarded the 2019 L’œil d’Or award for Cannes’ best documentary. Matias Rojas’ “Our Memory” will be among the spotlighted projects at Cannes Docs. A Chilean Docs in Progress showcase, slated for May 23 at Cannes Doc Day, is creating considerable expectation.
“Chilean documentaries often reflect the major social problems the country is undergoing,” says Chiledoc director Paula Ossandon.
One instance, she notes, is a number of films dealing with the great social upheaval that took place in Chile from October 2019 that are beginning to surface, led by “My Imaginary Country.”
“There are also upcoming projects about our president-elect Gabriel Boric,...
- 5/17/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
In collaboration with Hot Docs 2022, Chiledoc announced that the Toronto-based festival will showcase seven Chilean documentaries as part of its Made In Chile strand.
Screening from April 29, the selections highlight the burgeoning global impact of Chile’s spirited documentary film initiative, encompassing diverse and bold perspectives from new voices nationwide.
As North America’s largest documentary film festival, conference and market, Hot Docs strives to forge essential relationships that lead to production opportunities for documentary filmmakers with a keen eye on the global market.
“We are excited to celebrate and spotlight this new movement of documentary filmmakers from Chile,” shares Shane Smith, director of programming for Hot Docs. “Their bold and daring approach to reexamining their country’s multifaceted history while crafting powerful and distinctively Chilean stories is making the documentary industry, and the world, take notice.”
Made in Chile bows, indeed, just days after “My Imaginary Country,” from Patricio Guzmán,...
Screening from April 29, the selections highlight the burgeoning global impact of Chile’s spirited documentary film initiative, encompassing diverse and bold perspectives from new voices nationwide.
As North America’s largest documentary film festival, conference and market, Hot Docs strives to forge essential relationships that lead to production opportunities for documentary filmmakers with a keen eye on the global market.
“We are excited to celebrate and spotlight this new movement of documentary filmmakers from Chile,” shares Shane Smith, director of programming for Hot Docs. “Their bold and daring approach to reexamining their country’s multifaceted history while crafting powerful and distinctively Chilean stories is making the documentary industry, and the world, take notice.”
Made in Chile bows, indeed, just days after “My Imaginary Country,” from Patricio Guzmán,...
- 4/29/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
“Bestia” is certainly the most provocative and unsettling of the Oscar-nominated shorts this season, exploring through stop-motion the complex mindscape of Ingrid Olderöck, the notorious “Woman of the Dogs,” an agent of the secret police who trained dogs to torture and rape women during Chile’s military dictatorship of the ’70s. “Bestia” won the Annie award for animated short, giving it momentum heading into the Oscars.
“We tried to represent this topic as if it were a regular relationship with a woman and a dog at the beginning of the film,” said Chilean animator and director Hugo Covarrubias. “More than a pet and like a companion, their relationship is very symbiotic. In our vision we made a fiction based on real events. We took her mental images so you don’t know what’s real and what’s not. And the symbolism is a lot more indirect than direct.”
Covarrubias,...
“We tried to represent this topic as if it were a regular relationship with a woman and a dog at the beginning of the film,” said Chilean animator and director Hugo Covarrubias. “More than a pet and like a companion, their relationship is very symbiotic. In our vision we made a fiction based on real events. We took her mental images so you don’t know what’s real and what’s not. And the symbolism is a lot more indirect than direct.”
Covarrubias,...
- 3/17/2022
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Academy members contacted by IndieWire are fuming about Tuesday’s email letter from president David Rubin announcing that five craft and three short film category presentations will be cut out of the live broadcast at the Dolby Theater on March 24. The eight categories consist of animated, documentary, and live action shorts, editing, makeup and hairstyling, original score, production design, and sound.
One member of the sound branch is so upset that they’re “considering everything up to and including resigning from the Academy,” the member said. “I’m furious. It shows a complete lack of respect for ’the crafts.’ Sounds like we’re weaving baskets rather than creatively participating in making a film. I’ve been communicating with people…about this, and as far as I can tell there’s unanimous anger and disappointment among the sound branch at this move. There’s discussions going on about a broad response.
One member of the sound branch is so upset that they’re “considering everything up to and including resigning from the Academy,” the member said. “I’m furious. It shows a complete lack of respect for ’the crafts.’ Sounds like we’re weaving baskets rather than creatively participating in making a film. I’ve been communicating with people…about this, and as far as I can tell there’s unanimous anger and disappointment among the sound branch at this move. There’s discussions going on about a broad response.
- 2/23/2022
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
It’s a new dawn for Chile’s audiovisual industry. When Gabriel Boric, Chile’s youngest (at 35) and most left-leaning president since Salvador Allende, was elected in December, his pledge to more than double the state’s contribution to the arts was greeted with great fanfare.
After all, Chile’s prodigious film output this past decade has been remarkable despite the scant public support it has received.
“If everything we have achieved in the last 10 years was done with so little money, imagine what we can achieve with an increase in audiovisual funding!” says Constanza Arena, executive director of Chile’s film promotion org, CinemaChile.
In recent years, Chile has triumphed at the Oscars, starting when Pablo Larraín’s “No” was nominated for international feature in 2012, and culminating in an Oscar win for Sebastian Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” in 2017. Last Academy Awards season, Maite Alberdi’s documentary “The Mole Agent...
After all, Chile’s prodigious film output this past decade has been remarkable despite the scant public support it has received.
“If everything we have achieved in the last 10 years was done with so little money, imagine what we can achieve with an increase in audiovisual funding!” says Constanza Arena, executive director of Chile’s film promotion org, CinemaChile.
In recent years, Chile has triumphed at the Oscars, starting when Pablo Larraín’s “No” was nominated for international feature in 2012, and culminating in an Oscar win for Sebastian Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” in 2017. Last Academy Awards season, Maite Alberdi’s documentary “The Mole Agent...
- 2/10/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
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