After having completed film studies at the Madrid Cinematography and Audiovisual School (Escuela de Cinematografía y del Audiovisual de Madrid), the Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán chose to make fiction movies when he returned to Chile. Today, four decades later, he provides us with a film legacy in the documentary genre worthy of admiration. In the political context these films have been converted into historical documents of great importance. You could say that it’s a cinematic record of when reality was altered in Chile by the election and the subsequent violent collapse of Salvador Allende´s government in the early ‘70s (whose effect extends to the present day).
His works “Chile, the Obstinate Memory” (Canada/France, 1997), “The Pinochet Case” (France/Belgium/Chile,2001), “Salvador Allende” (Chile/France, 2004), and his epic masterpiece, “The Battle of Chile” (Chile/Cuba/France, 1975–78) are categorized into the cinematography and historical context. There are moments in these films and in Guzman’s vision that are renewed each time the interviewee relives and shares his experience, and of equal importance is the reality that it continues on and is still being collectively recorded in the memory of all those who take part in this narrated experience.
“Nostalgia for the Light” (France/Germay/Chile, 2010) is an important work filled with integrity and an addition to Patricio Guzmán´s film legacy that is now based in France. The film arrives to American screens with the award of Best Documentary, Prix Arte 2011, which is given by the European Film Academy.
The movie primarily takes places in the Atacama Desert that is located in Northern Chile, more than 3,000 meters above sea level, where there is no humidity. Astronomers from all over the world decide to install telescopes in this desert so they can observe the sky. Coincidentally, in the same desert, they find the ruins of Chabuco, where there were a large number of political prisoners during the dictatorship of Pinochet.
Early on in the film, pictures of the cosmos embellish the movie, offering a certain balance between meditative space images that are complemented by a splendid sound wave, and the most tragic and graphic earthly stories.
Archeologists and astronomers offer up wise commentaries about how the stars possess the very same calcium that our bones have, affirming that “we are one with the universe.”
But just as the Atacama Desert is a point of inspiration for science, at the same time, it’s also a source of hope for the families of the missing people that disappeared during the Pinochet era, whose bones are found dispersed in the Atacama Desert area. They don’t know whose soul they belong to and are hoping that some day there will be enough matter gathered to be able to identify them.
The astrologist, archeologist and the geologist professions all live in a constant state of searching, searching for what Patricio Guzmán is connected to. The films of Guzman are made up of an never-ending search of the need to know through the means of remembrance, which primarily guides his work and at the same time his commitment as a filmmaker to his art and to the planet.
The elements that Guzmán combines together in “Nostalgia for the Light” once again share with us the tumultuous history of Chile and its current situation as well as our place in this universe. His movie is political and poetic at the same time; this is a sign of an accomplished artist who recognizes a new space in which he is able to express himself to an even greater degree.
—Translation Ann Michels
Interview with Patricio Guzmán
From “The Battle of Chile” to “Nostalgia of Light”; the same theme, but very different styles…
The look is consistent with what one sees. That is, if you go to Arab countries today, what you have to bring is a camera, a recorder and go out to the street to film what is happening, because it is the whole society which is being expressed. In that case, what is happening to film is that the narrative agent that is most effective is ‘cinema verite’, meaning with camera and tape recorder in hand, proceed.
If you’re going to make a historical film, the narrative agents change: the snapshot, archiving, voice-over. If your theme is a poetic evocation of the past, as is the case of “Nostalgia of Light”, then there are other narrative agents involved: description, and music plays an important role as does your voice.
That is to say, it’s not that I have changed, but that the issues move you to make a film with other narrative agents, sometimes completely different.
Do you think that Chile suffers from historical amnesia?
I believe that Chile has established an absence of analysis of what happened with Allende and with Pinochet. It is a society that does not hold itself responsible for what happened. You ask a right wing person or a soldier what happened and usually he says, “I don’t know, I wasn’t there, it wasn’t me, I did not see.”
The media does not talk about memory; it does not speak of the past. We have built a history with heroes of papier-mâché. When I read the history books about our national heroes, I do not believe those stories. To me they seem childish and they lack complexity.
In “Nostalgia of Light”, the archaeologist at one point says, “Yes, now I see, Patrick, that you’re concerned about why we forgot about the coup and about Pinochet.”
But not only that, we have forgotten who worked the mines of salt and nitrate for a hundred years in the north; the thousands of miners, almost all of them Indigenous people, and that they died there. And in the south, the landowners paid money when they were brought the ear of an Alacalufe Indian. Within 80 years they killed them all.
And that is not talked about. We have a history where there is only room for favorable, positive facts, and tragedy is not included – not only what happened with Allende, but even before that.
That same archaeologist in the film speaks of the need to live in a state of searching and that there exists a moral obligation to maintain memory, history.
Memory is not an intellectual concept. Memory is an acquisition of the 20th and 21st centuries. Similarly, 20 years ago ecology was unheard of, in the present day it is an acquisition. Respect for the environment was unheard of, today it pertains to us. Sexual freedom was forgotten about and now it is a reality. The rights of women, the rights of indigenous peoples…
Historical memory is the acquisitions of the century that have come to stay. And it’s stupendous because they are new acquisitions of civilization to be able to speak on topics other than stereotypes of the past.
Consider that 90 percent of what happens in life is past, not only in human life but in the cosmos. It is pure past. When you go to look for work, the first thing they ask for is the ‘curriculum vitae’, which is your past. This shows that the past has a dynamic importance and is not only something for people that are trapped in their pain.
What do you think about the young Chileans who argue that there has been enough allusion to the military dictatorship and it is time to look to the future?
These young people have no awareness of the fact that memory broadens one’s horizons. They believe it is only a subject of importance for the elderly. Little has been said of the dictatorship in Chile. In Argentina they talked about what happened, and they have put all the generals responsible in prison. In Chile only some 40 percent of cases have been solved. Pinochet died in bed; they did not try him. They humiliated him in London, but he was not tried.
There is a section of the population that believes that Pinochet is the great savior who saved the country from civil war, who repaired the situation. But I ask myself: “Then who let it deteriorate? How is it possible to bombard the governmental palace with the president inside?” You cannot forget that.
A similar case of recent memory is the Spanish civil war…
Spain is the great scandal of the absence of memory. I think it is a very delicate thing to open the box of the past, such that it should be done with sensitivity. There are even people who have suffered so much that they say, “I don’t want to talk about the past because it hurts me to do so.” And they are right; we must respect that position. But what I don’t like is that a dynamic, active part of society would say, “Oh no, let’s not talk about the past, only the future is worthwhile.” That is to deny your base of support.
Any comments for the people of the Mission?
I’m glad that you have a Spanish-language newspaper here. Spanish culture is increasingly important in the U.S. We must strengthen it, defend it and create an ever-stronger presence in this country. I think we are the main migration here, a huge labor force and tremendous work discipline that we are giving to the U.S., and that has great value.
—Translation Nick Friedland