Documentaries in the Park

Last week, jogging through the main park downtown called Parque Forestal, a bright blue sign near the Museum of Contemporary Art caught my attention.  An excuse to catch my breath, I checked out the advertisement for a movie "festival" called Documentales en el Parque (Documentaries in the Park), 4 nights of documentaries showing (for free) in the park.

Later I told some friends about the event, who were also interested in some of the feature films, and so I arranged to meet several astronomers for the Wednesday films, and another Fulbrighter for the Friday films.  Each night, three films of varying length were offered, with a variety of themes, all documentaries of some sort.  Here's the brief synopsis of the films we saw.  The trailers can be found here.

Wednesday

Celebraciones del Centenario de la República (1910) -- A short, silent film showing a montage of historic clips that were part of the official program celebrating 100 years of Chilean independence (note: in 2010, Chile celebrated 200 years of independence).  The best part was to see the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the building directly behind the movie screen, as it appeared 100 years ago, and in fact, still appears today!  

Nostalgia de la luz by Patricio Guzmán (2005-2010) -- This movie really caught the attention of our group of astronomers working and living in Chile (and fortunately for us, the narration was spoken extremely clearly).  The idea is to juxtapose the observations of astronomers in Chile searching the distant universe, with those of the Chilean women searching for their loved ones who disappeared as political prisoners during the dictatorship.  A heavy, pensive movie at times, the scenery added to the drama and mystery.  For me, I recognized most of the observatories, and my friends even knew some of the astronomers interviewed for the movie, but the other, political part of the movie reminded me of how much I don't know of the turmoil that this country has overcome in the recent decades.

Aniceto, razón de Estado by Guido Brevis (2009) -- The story of a 100-day hunger strike at a prison in the Araucania region of southern Chile, exposing some of the stuggle between the Chilean government and the indigenous people of the Mapuche nation.

Friday 

Memorias del Viento by Katherina Harder (2011) -- Introduced by the director and the main character of the film themselves, this movie was made at the University of Chile and followed 38-year-old Rafael Egaña as he struggled with losing his sight.  As Rafael talks about the sights that he will miss the most, the film shows the story of their family through photographs taken by his father, an avid photographer.

Hija by María Paz González (2011) -- This movie about a mother and daughter on a road trip through Chile featured the country's incredible scenery and it's interesting characters.  Both want to re-initiate contact with family members with whom they have grown apart -- the mother is searching for her sister, while the daughter is searching for her father.  Through their 2000-km journey, they seem to value more what they have together, in each other. 

La Mudanza by Tatiana Lorca (2011) -- This was a real peak into Chilean family life, focusing on a mother of several daughters who each have families of their own, as the mother prepares to sell the house that has brought their family together for years.  The footage of the family sharing meals together on the patio and swimming in their pool demonstrates the intense family bonds here in Chile.