Photo by Reinaldo Ubilla
Interviewed by Chilean newspaper La Tercera few weeks ago, acclaimed master documentarian Patricio Guzmán has announced the making of two new films documenting Chile’s recent social upheaval that led to the holding of a national plebiscite last October, in which the country largely approved the drafting of a new constitution.
Guzmán shared some early insights into the new and previously-unannounced film projects set to be based on Chile’s recent political struggles and the 2020 National Plebiscite. The internationally-lauded documentarian, who resides in France, explained to journalist Pablo Retamal that he made the decision to travel to Chile and start shooting a new documentary as soon as he received the first news of the social and political outbreak. "You cannot stay removed from this paramount event, one that is both Latin American and global in importance," he noted.
The filmmaker indicated that this new project will be a diptych, the first part covering the events around the initial uprisings of 2019 through the October 25th Plebiscite, as a sort of introduction to the situation and the issues at hand. According to the interview, the making of the first film is already well advanced: “We are going to make two movies,” clarified Guzmán. “The first one is already more or less pre-shot but we will plan to finish it by February [2021]; and the second is the continuation [of the first] because the process that [the first] sets up is a long one.” In any case, he made it clear that it will be at least a year and a half before the first film is finalized and ready for release.
Guzmán was interviewed by journalist Pedro Retamal for the Santiago-based national newspaper on the occasion of the release of his new book, La Batalla de Chile, historia de una película (The Battle of Chile, Story of a film). The publication, now available through Editorial Catalonia, gathers his own writings alongside those of his friends and colleagues on the process and experience of filming his acclaimed, three-part documentary, The Battle of Chile (1975;1976;1979).
Regarding Chile’s political future, Guzmán was cautious but nonetheless hopeful: “Let's say that many negative things can happen, but at the same time, they may not, and that we maintain this collective desire to change things that are evident and that need to be changed...But there is danger, there is always danger in any political process.”
In that sense, Guzmán does feel that the approval of a new Chilean constitution is an important and necessary step for the country: “I think it is an important moment to start working on a well-codified, well-mapped terrain, because the current constitution is truly limited,” he reflected. “Very limited. So, you cannot advance because you are in a small, narrow corral. With a better-traced terrain, the country is going to go much farther.”
