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.
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 “The Cordillera of Dreams” (“La cordillera de los sueños”) and his latest opus “My Imaginary Country” (“Mi pais imaginario”), which world premiered in Cannes.
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