1 . The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Chile ’ s coup d ’ état , the death of Salvador Allende and the beginnings of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet . Your threepart documentary film The Battle of Chile ( 1975-1979 ) is a documentary monument to the historical memory of these events that transcended borders . How do you regard your documentary films after all these years ? How have you dealt with these events and how does today ’ s Chilean society deal with them ?
PG : I am happy that I can make a documentary film about the reality facing Chile every three years . That gives direction to my life as a filmmaker .
Chilean society tackles the issue with the same spirit it has always shown , divided into roughly two factions .
2 . The memory of the political and social struggles and repression experienced in Chile is the cornerstone of your films . To explore the subject , you have made use of artistic language , metaphor and geography , which are very much a feature of films such as Nostalgia for the Light ( 2010 ), The Pearl Button ( 2015 ) and The Cordillera of Dreams ( 2019 ). Is artistic language the best tool for conveying the memory of a traumatic past ?
PG : That ’ s ... This is what comes to mind every time I start a film . It ’ s personal . Every artist has their own language that makes them tick .
3 . In this issue of Observing Memories we wanted to examine documentary film and photography as vehicles for the transmission of memory . What makes documentary film different from other vehicles ? What makes it special ? Moreover , what are the limitations documentary film might encounter when it comes to conveying memory ?
PG : Here you are talking to me about different things . I never envisage transmission channels .
2 | 3 | 4 . Posters of the movies “ Nostalgia for the Light ” ( 2010 ), " The Pearl Button " ( 2015 ), and " The Cordillera of Dreams " ( 2019 ). This trilogy by Patricio Guzmán addresses the lasting impacts of Augusto Pinochet ' s dictatorship .
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