This July, Chile’s Museum of Memory and Human Rights will be screening Viva Chile Mierda! as part of its travelling show, Nunca Más at the Regional museum of Rancagua. I am very pleased to have been included in this travelling show. If you are in the neighbourhood do go check out this exhibit!
Here is the complete programme:
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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!
On Wednseday I will be in Northern Ireland to present ¡Viva Chile Mierda! at the School of Creative Arts in Queens University Belfast. I am very pleased to have been invited by Professor Cahal McLaughlin to screen screen and discuss my work to their students. I have never been to Belfast before so I am greatly looking forward to this trip. This event series is open to the general public and is free so if you are Belfast you are more than welcome to attend even if you are not a student. Hopefully I will see some of you there.
I have just received these photos of the screening at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile on Sept 16th. The photos were taken by Jose Manuel Rodriguez who is Head of the Audiovisual Archives of the Museum, and an all around lovely human being. It seems the screening was very well attended and that people said nice things about the film to my parents who were there in my stead. I wish I could have been there but I’m very pleased that my parents got to watch the film on the big screen with such a receptive audience.
Viva Chile Mierda is now available to the public in the museum’s audiovisual centre CEDAV so if you are in the vicinity do pop into the museum and have a look.
I am pleased to announce that my film has been selected for this year’s CINECITY Film Festival in Brighton, where I live. The festival takes place in the city’s historic Duke of York’s Picture House as well as other venues around downtown Brighton.
I have only just received the acceptance email and so I don’t have much more info as of yet. More to follow. Watch this space.
I have just returned from an overnight trip to Geneva to introduce ¡Viva Chile mierda! and participate in a Q&A session after the screening. The film was very well received by the the audience comprised largely of Chilean exiles and their children. I was genuinely touched by the kind words they offered me and to be able to see how affected they were by the story of the film. I am extremely grateful to the warm hospitality shown to me by the organiser of Cine Mémorie, Jorge ‘Flavio’ Toro and also to the fabulous staff of the independent cinema, Cinelux where the event was held. If you are in Geneva you should definitely go and support this cinema. With the ever increasing homogenisation of screening venues in the world it is heartening that there are still these hold outs of truly independent cinema. This struggling cinema was taken over by the staff several years ago and it has managed to continue to overcome their financial struggles in order to bring interesting independent cinema to Geneva audiences.
Here is a photo album of the night hosted at Cine Mémorie’s Facebook page.
It’s not everyday that one can say that their mother (in her late 70s) was able to find something on the internet that I, her tech-savvy son, had missed but apparently there was a review of my film on the chilean film website (blog?) Revius. It is very positive (which is why I am telling you about it) but it is always interesting to see how viewers respond to my film and this review reflects on the film’s positioning of ‘Papudo’ Valenzuela as a ‘hero’ then as ‘villain’ in an interesting way. The reviewer also mistakenly assumes that my father was in favour of the military coup because of his use of the term ‘military government’ rather than ‘dictatorship.’ To be honest I never knew (and I don’t believe my father knew either) that this way of referring to the Pinochet regime was so significant but now that I think about it, of course it is! Anyway, go ahead and read the full review via the link below. It’s in Spanish of course. Google translate at your own risk…
http://revius.net/2014/06/28/fidocs-2014-viva-chile-mierda-2013/
I have just learned that my film has been selected to this year’s El Ojo Cojo International Film Festival. Viva Chile Mierda will compete against 4 others for the €1,000 prize for Best Documentary Feature. But really what I am most happy about is that my Aunt Gaby and her children will be able to see the film screened in a cinema near them. The festival takes place in Barcelona and Madrid from October 3-12. Go if you can and spread the word.
The programme has been published for the Ciclo de Cine Sobre El Exlio at the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos in Santiago, Chile. Viva Chile Mierda will screen on September 16th at 7pm. After the screening the film will be available to the public in the museum’s audiovisual centre, CEDAV.
The programme for Geneva’s 2014 Latin American film series, Cinémémoire has been finalised. Screening in Geneva’s Cinelux theatre, this year’s programme focuses on Chile and I am very excited to be included in this list of seminal films and to be programmed alongside films like La Spirale by Armand Mattelart, Chile Obstinate Memory by Patricio Guzman (one of my favorite films!) and Machuca by Andrés Wood. (Fun fact: my cousins Ian and Paul went to the school that was the subject of the film Machuca and they knew the boys that the film is about.) The films will screen at the Cinélux cinema on Boulevard de Sant-George. My film will screen on September 18th and October 5th. I will be there in person for the September 18th screening. I hope to see some of you there!
You can download the complete programme here:
¡VIVA CHILE MIERDA! 