In an unprecedented and fortunate coincidence, six Chilean feature films are being theatrically released in New York City in the span of a month, in addition to selected screenings of movies from the South American country. Some of these screenings are directly or indirectly tied to the 50th anniversary of the September 11, 1973 Chilean coup led by General Augusto Pinochet that overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, a cataclysmic event that marked a turning point not only in the history of Chile but in the history of Latin America as a whole.
First at bat was The Eternal Memory / La memoria infinita by Maite Alberdi, the fifth documentary feature by Academy Award nominated director Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent), which opened at the Angelika Film Center on Friday, August 11, before expanding last weekend to other cities across the country.
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, The Eternal Memory tells the love story of Paulina Urrutia and Agusto Góngora. She is an actress and former Minister of Culture of Chile and he’s a journalist and and of the country’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters. They’ve been together for 25 years, but eight years ago Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and Paulina became her caretaker.
On Friday, August 18, Film Forum hosted the opening of the theatrical release Mutt, the debut feature by Chilean-Serbian director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz. The film starring newcomer Latinx actor Lío Mehiel—who won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Acting at Sundance—tells the story of Feña, a young trans guy bustling through life in New York City, who is afflicted with an incessantly challenging day that resurrects ghosts from his past.
Four Chilean films are scheduled to be released in theaters on Friday, September 8: Rotting in the Sun by Sebastián Silva, The Count / El conde by Pablo Larraín, and Patricio Guzmán’s The Battle of Chile / La batalla de Chile, and his never-before-seen-in-the-US debut feature, The First Year / El primer año.
The latest film by Silva (The Maid, Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus), stars the director as himself, who encounters social media celebrity Jordan Firstman at a gay nudist beach and reluctantly agrees to direct his new project. But when Sebastián goes missing, Jordan embarks on a wild, quasi-detective journey through Mexico City. Rotting in the Sun opens at the IFC Center in New York City, before expanding to other cities.
Also opening at the IFC Center and at the newly-renovated Paris Theater on September 8 is The Count, the most recent film by Larraín (Jacky, Spencer). The dark comedy/horror starring Alfredo Castro, Paula Luchsinger, and Antonia Zegers, imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion in the cold southern tip of the continent. Feeding his appetite for evil to sustain his existence.
After two hundred and fifty years of life, Pinochet has decided to stop drinking blood and abandon the privilege of eternal life. He can no longer bear that the world remembers him as a thief. Despite the disappointing and opportunistic nature of his family, he finds new inspiration to continue living a life of vital and counterrevolutionary passion through an unexpected relationship.
Presented as part of the retrospective series 'Patricio Guzmán, Dreaming of Utopia: 50 Years of Revolutionary Hope and Memory,' two films by the master documentarian will have weeklong runs in New York City. The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) will host the theatrical release of a brand-new restoration of Guzmán’s three-part epic The Battle of Chile. Considered one of the greatest documentaries ever made (Time Out and Sight and Sound), one of the 10 best political documentary films in the world (Cineaste) and recently listed in The New Republic’s list of the 100 most significant political films of all time, the film chronicles the political developments and the escalating conflicts in Chilean society that led up to and ended with General Pinochet and his army’s coup, overthrowing the democratically elected president Allende.
Anthology Film Archives will host the world theatrical premiere of a new restoration of Guzmán’s 1972 debut feature The First Year, which is a jubilant record of the 12 months following the election of Chile’s first socialist president, Allende. The film begins with the depiction of the 1970 presidential elections, documenting the historical event of the first success of a left-wing government in Latin America in an open election. Produced when he was only 31 years old and newly returned to his native Chile following his studies in Madrid, director Guzmán travels the country, meeting workers, fishermen, and Indigenous people rising up to reclaim their land. Fidel Castro pays a visit.
As part of the retrospective series, Anthology Film Archives will also feature a couple of screenings of Guzmán’s 2004 documentary Salvador Allende on Thursday, September 7, Saturday, September 9, and Sunday, September 10; and the IFC Center will host special screenings of his memory and landscape trilogy: Nostalgia for the Light / Nostalgia de la luz, The Pearl Button / El botón de nácar, and The Cordillera of Dreams / La cordillera de los sueños, as well as last year’s My Imaginary Country / Mi país imaginario on Wednesday, September 13 and Thursday, September 14.
In addition to the six theatrical releases, the 61st edition of the New York Film Festival, running September 29 - October 15, will host the US premiere of The Settlers / Los colonos, the debut feature by Felipe Gálvez. The period film, starring Mark Stanley, Camilo Arancibia, Benjamin Westfall, and Alfredo Castro, is set in the south of Chile in 1901, and tells the story of a wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean mestizo, an American mercenary and a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a “civilizing” raid.
Acclaimed documentarian Ignacio Agüero will be in New York City presenting his latest film Notes for a Film / Notas para una película at Film at Lincoln Center on Wedneday, September 20, followed by a special screening of his documentary films This is the Way I Like It (1985) and One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train (1988) on September 21 at UnionDocs.
These releases and screenings arrive after the recent theatrical runs of the Chilean films Chile ‘76 / 1976 by Manuela Martelli and The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future / La vaca que cantó una canción hacia el futuro by Francisca Alegría, both distributed by Kino Lorber and released in US theaters last May.
