Chile, la memoria obstinada

One of Guzmán’s lesser-known essay films, CHILE, LA MEMORIA OBSTINADA ofered his first exploration of collective memory and trauma, the intertwined themes that would shape his recent and celebrated Chile Trilogy. This earlier work chronicles the long-exiled filmmaker’s return to his native land with a copy of his magnum opus LA BATALLA DE CHILE, which had still never been theatrically released or widely seen in the country after being banned throughout the dictatorship. Determined to understand how Allende’s fall and legacy were being remembered by diferent generations of Chileans, Guzmán also set out to re-examine the ways his own film remembered the past. Guzmán thus returns to charged scenes and sites from LA BATALLA DE CHILE together with survivors of the coup and dictatorship, awakening difcult memories from the lost world of Allende’s Chile. CHILE, LA MEMORIA OBSTINADA builds to a devastating climax when Guzmán shows his films to a group of college students who are shocked and overwhelmed by their first encounter with a history, their history, they had never known. (Haden Guest).

Patricio Guzmán: LA TORTURA Y OTRAS FORMAS DE DIÁLOGO (1968, K), EL PRIMER AÑO (1972), LA BATALLA DE CHILE: LA LUCHA DE UN PUEBLO SIN ARMAS 1–3 (1975/76/79), ROSA DE LOS VIENTOS (1983), LA CRUZ DEL SUR (1991), LE CAS PINOCHET (2001), SALVADOR ALLENDE (2004), NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (2010), EL BOTÓN DE NÁCAR (2015), LA CORDILLERA DE LOS SUEÑOS (2019), MI PAÍS IMAGINARIO (2022)