Afterimage: The Films of Patricio Guzmán

April 2, 2011 - April 28, 2011

The Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán’s committed cinema includes one of the most important political films ever made. His 1973 Battle of Chile charted the rise and fall of Salvador Allende’s presidency as it was unfolding, in all its hope and heartbreak. Then, while in exile, Guzmán began to make essay films, which mused on the particularities of place and the fluctuations of memory. The Southern Cross (1992) traces a complex, largely unknown history of religion in Latin America, and unearths modern-day indigenous religious practices, the influence of African religions, and the rise of liberation theology. Subsequently, he returned to Chile’s recent history with two films, a personal portrait of Allende and an interrogation of Augusto Pinochet’s reign. Guzmán’s worry that Chile’s past is being forgotten is the focus of Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997), and all his films seek to ensure that this history is remembered impartially and in detail. Guzmán works slowly, making one film every three or four years, allowing layers of ideas and relationships to percolate, and themes to deepen. Such projects take time.

We are honored to present Guzmán’s highly acclaimed new film, Nostalgia for the Light, on Thursday, April 28 as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, with Guzmán in person. Joining Guzmán on stage will be the acclaimed scholar and critic Jorge Ruffinelli. Ruffinelli is a professor director of the department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University. He is author of more than thirteen books, including Patricio Guzmán and the first Encyclopedia of Latin American Cinema (in progress). - Kathy Geritz, Film Curator

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Afterimage: Filmmakers and Critics in Conversation
In conjunction with the San Francisco International Film Festival
Thursday April 28
6:15 Nostalgia for the Light
Patricio Guzmán (France/Germany/Chile, 2010)

Screening followed by Patricio Guzmán in Conversation with Jorge Ruffinelli

(Nostalgia por la luz). Chile’s vast Atacama Desert is one of the only places on Earth with absolutely no humidity, creating the perfect conditions for astronomical observation. In the early 1970s, just as the nation was embarking on a decades-long dictatorship of violent repression, a world-class observatory was built in the desert. Astronomers still work at Atacama, studying celestial bodies, but they are joined by others, who are looking for physical bodies: those of loved ones “disappeared” by the dictatorship years ago in a torture/detainment center built mere miles from the observatory. Whether a centuries-old star or bound wrists from an execution years ago, both groups discover, and excavate, the past. Poetic, visionary, revelatory, and heart-breaking, Nostalgia for the Light is both science film and historical documentary, yet at its best when underlining the essential human quest for the unknown.—Jason Sanders

• Written by Guzmán. Photographed by Katell Dijan. (96 mins, In English and Spanish with English subtitles, Color, Digital Video, From Icarus Films)

This event is ticketed as part of SFIFF @ BAM/PFA. Members may purchase tickets starting on March 25; tickets will be available to the public on March 30. For more information, see the SFIFF @ BAM/PFA series page.

Saturday, April 2, 2011
6:30 p.m. Salvador Allende
Patricio Guzmán (Chile/France, 2004). A definitive portrait of the legendary Chilean leader, from his youth in Valparaiso to the violent coup that brought his death on September 11, 1973. “A captivating film”(Cahiers du cinema). (100 mins)

Thursday, April 7, 2011
7:00 p.m. The Southern Cross
Patricio Guzmán (Spain, 1992). This overview of popular religiosity in Latin America journeys from pre-Colombian myths to liberation theology. “A sure synthesis of fiction and documentary. It’s a voice of voices: a space for an encounter of American diversity, which helps us to recognize ourselves as fingers on the same hand”(Eduardo Galeano). (80 mins)

Sunday, April 10, 2011
1:00 p.m. The Battle of Chile Part I: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie
Patricio Guzmán (Chile/Cuba/France, 1975). Filmed on the streets as events were occurring, Guzmán’s legendary documentary captured first the peaceful rise of Chile’s socialist revolution, then the chaos and heartbreak of the 1973 coup against it and President Salvador Allende. “The major political film of our time”(Village Voice). (96 mins)

Sunday, April 10, 2011
3:00 p.m. The Battle of Chile Part II: The Coup d’Etat
Patricio Guzmán (Chile/Cuba/France, 1976). Details the period from the first failed coup d’état against Allende in 1973 to the final days of his government, including dramatic footage of the military assault on the presidential palace. “An overwhelming and admirable documentary of a country thrown into chaos with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy” (Los Angeles Times). (88 mins)

Sunday, April 10, 2011
5:30 p.m. The Battle of Chile Part III: The Power of the People
Patricio Guzmán (Chile/Cuba/France, 1978). Moving beyond the government battles and intrigue, this third section details the creation of thousands of collective endeavors by ordinary workers and peasants, all hoping to overcome the crisis. “It is, irrefutably, an epic film”(New York Times). (78 mins)

Saturday, April 16, 2011
6:30 p.m. The Pinochet Case
Patricio Guzmán (France/Belgium/Chile, 2001). In 1998 the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet became the first leader since the Nuremberg Trials to be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity; this searing documentary follows the remarkable court case that led to the arrest. (109 mins)

Sunday, April 17, 2011
3:00 p.m. Chile, Obstinate Memory
Guzmán returns to Chile to interview those who lived through the events of (and in some cases, appeared in) The Battle of Chile. “A battle against forgetting and the falsification of history, but above all, the film allows a fight against the collective amnesia programmed by Pinochet”(Les Inrockuptibles). With A Village Fading Away. (110 mins)

Series presented in conjunction with the San Francisco International Film Festival. We extend our thanks to Haden Guest, Harvard Film Archive; Rachel Rosen, SFIFF; and Livia Bloom, Icarus Films, for their assistance in making this series possible. Afterimage: Filmmakers and Critics in Conversation is made possible by generous funding from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association® and the continued support of the BAM/PFA Trustees.