The Museum of Memory and Human Rights will have an exhibit as part of FILSA which is being held at the Mapocho train station in downtown Santiago, Chile. My film will screen as part of a cycle of films from the museum’s collection.
¡Viva Chile Mierda! will screen
Sunday, November 6th at 3:30pm
Sala Nemesio Antúnez, Estación Mapocho
Concrete Movies / Youth Centre
Thursday October 20th at 19 pm
Film screening followed by a conversation with the filmmaker, Adrian Goycoolea
Well this is a nice piece of news to end the year with; Viva Chile Mierda has been included in this list of 10 best Chilean films of the year according to Twitch! I haven’t seen all these films but the ones I have seen were great so I am very pleased to have been included in this list, especially since many of the other films had actual theatrical releases in Chile. My film only played at FIDOCS and at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago so I am amazed that it was even on their radar let alone memorable enough to be included in their end of year round up. 2014 has been a pretty good year for me. Here’s hoping 2015 is even better. Happy New Year everyone!
All good things must come to an end. FIDOCS has officially concluded and although I did not walk away with one of the trophies, I did walk away with some great memories. I am immensely proud to have been selected for the National Competition and I congratulate all the worthy winners. The reception to my film at both screenings was everything I could have hoped for with many people coming up to me afterwards to thank me for making the film and discussing with me their own stories of that difficult time. There was not a dry eye in the house after each screening. What more could I ask for really? I wish to whole-heartedly thank the festival programmers for including me and for being such a warm hosts to me while I was in Santiago. I hope to be able to maintain these relationships in the years to come. I saw some truly inspiring films this last week and made what I hope to be some lasting friendships. I even got to spend time with one of my heroes, Patricio Guzman. #winning!
(Click on image for original news clipping)
Sadly, as I don’t live in Chile anymore, I missed this news story. So it seems that ‘Papudo’ went back to Chile after all! In March, La Tercera newspaper reported that Andrés Valenzuela finally returned to Chile after 30 years in order to give testimony in several court cases relating to his time with the Joint Command. He only just left the country (according to another article in El Dínamo.) The La Tercera article states that he stayed with relatives whom he himself told me had not seen or heard from him in over 30 years. One of the several open cases that he was giving testimony for is about the death of president Michelle Bachelet’s father, Brigadier General Alberto Bachelet, who opposed the coup and consequently was tortured and killed by the Pinochet regime.
I am very sorry to read that he has leukaemia and has been living with it for 12 years. (The article notes that he was concerned about running out of his medication after staying on longer than he had planned.)
I’m glad that he was able to return and reconnect with estranged friends and relatives. Hopefully he also achieved some sort of closure with his past by giving his testimony again. I wonder if he actually made it back to his home town while he was in Chile…
I hope that his testimony proves useful and that the families of the victims now have more information about what happened to their loved ones.
I am very pleased to announce that ¡Viva Chile Mierda! has been selected for the National Competition at this year’s FIDOCS: Festival Internacional Documentales in Santiago, Chile.
Here is the description of the festival from their website:
“Along with the annual screening of the International Panorama, and other focuses, hommages and retrospectives, FIDOCS has three main competitive sections: Latin American Competition, National Competition and International Short Film Competition Monsieur Guillaume. In this way, FIDOCS has positioned itself as one of the most renowned festivals of Latin America, has achieved the re-emergence of the genre in the country, and has explored the relationship between documentary short films with other audiovisual genres like fiction, video art and experimental cinema.”
Now I just have to figure out how I am to get myself there for the screening…
I am very pleased to announce that the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile has acquired my film and added it to their audiovisual archives. The film is now available to the public in their “Centro de Documentación Audiovisual, CEDAV“ and will form part of their “Memories of Exile” project. The film will also screen at the museum later this year as part of a series of public screenings connected to the Memories of Exile project.
This is the perfect home for my film and I am grateful to the archivists at the museum for their generous help when I was researching in their archives back in 2012. This is a fantastic institution and I am proud to be associated with them. If you are in Santiago please do go and visit. There is a wealth of fantastic material there.
¡VIVA CHILE MIERDA! 