Patricio Guzman: Last News

With the political turmoil found around the world, but especially right now in the United States, there’s no better time to look back at a historic event that shows what can happen to a society when opposing political sides reach a boiling point. Patricio Guzmán’s epic, “The Battle of Chile,” is getting a brand-new restoration and release on the 50th anniversary of the pivotal coup that led to violence and unrest in the country, and hopefully a new generation of audiences can watch the landmark political documentary.

Anna Marie de la Fuente As Chile hosts its third Docs in Progress Showcase at Cannes’ Marché du Film, it brings to the fore one of the richest and most prolific documentary traditions in Latin America, led by such figures as Patricio Guzmán, whose 2019 “The Cordillera of Dreams” won the Cannes Golden Eye, and Maite Alberdi, whose 2020 “The Mole Agent” snagged an Oscar nomination. Spurred by a major jump in co-productions and a modest increase in state funding, more Chilean documentaries are being made — 24 are co-productions to date this year, many driven by women producers, says Paula Ossandon, head of Chiledoc, apublic-private alliance between  the Chilean Documentary Corp. (CCDoc) and ProChile.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Through films as varied as “The Father,” “Dick Johnson is Dead” and “Relic,” dementia and neurodegenerative disease have been extensively portrayed on screen in recent years — a subgenre that carries a trigger warning for anyone with off-screen experience of the subject. For those who think they cannot stomach one more, Maite Alberdi’s “The Eternal Memory” treats inexorably sad material with a lighter, more lyrical approach than most — focusing less on the day-to-day ravages of living with Alzheimer’s than on the slippery, transient concept of memory itself, as formed, held and lost both in the individual mind and a wider collective consciousness. Key to the film’s thesis is that its subject is Augusto Góngora, a veteran Chilean political journalist who labored through the 1970s and 1980s to bring the iniquities of the Pinochet regime to public attention — and later dedicated himself to conserving that national memory for future generations.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Documentary festival IDFA will host the international premieres of Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s music film “Personality Crisis: One Night Only” and Barbara Kopple’s “Gumbo Coalition” as part of its Masters program, as well as the world premiere of Coco Schrijber’s “Look What You Made Me Do.” The selection includes the work of several renowned directors who have reinvented their cinematic language. Patricio Guzmán breaks from his poetic approach to adopt a more direct, political form of filmmaking with “My Imaginary Country,” centering on the October 2019 protests in Santiago. Gianfranco Rosi directs his first archive-based film “In viaggio,” which sees Pope Francis’ journeys as a map of the human condition. Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed co-direct a film together for the first time with “Music for Black Pigeons,” a reflection on aging through jazz music, and Ruth Beckermann’s “Mutzenbacher” takes a look at a controversial erotic novel through an elaborate casting call.

Anna Marie de la Fuente 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.

Jessica Kiang 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.

“When you want to film a fire, you need to be in the place where the first flame is produced.” So says the disembodied voice of Patricio Guzmán as he recalls a piece of advice received early in his filmmaking career by his mentor, French multimedia artist Chris Marker. In this case, the fire is the Estallido Social, a series of colossal protests and riots that started in the capital city of Santiago and rapidly spread across Chile at the end of 2019.

Anna Marie de la Fuente 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.

Holly Jones 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, the doyen of Chilean documentary filmmakers, was selected for a special screening at the Cannes Festival.Paula Ossandón, director of Chiledoc, the sectorial brand for Chilean documentary, elaborates on the state of documentary filmmaking in Chile: “The production of documentaries in Chile is prolific.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buoyed by the Oscar nomination for Maite Alberdi’s “The Mole Agent” last year, which was also shortlisted in the International Feature category, Chilean documentaries are attracting ever more attention worldwide. One of its leading lights, Patricio Guzman, will have the world premiere of his latest opus, “Mi País Imaginario” as a Cannes  Festival special screening.For the third time in a row, Chiledoc will be presenting a Chilean Docs in Progress showcase, scheduled for May 23 within the framework of Cannes Doc, which runs May 17 to 25.Spearheaded by Chiledoc director Paula Ossandón, the showcase comprises four films at editing stage.