Icarus films patricio guzman biography
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From THE BATTLE OF CHILE, filmed in black and white, on 16mm film, in the midst of social upheaval and revolution, to NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT, filmed with modern digital technology, filled with vibrant colors, poetic connections and introspection, Patricio Guzman's epic body of work is the unprecedented record of one country's journey and one filmmaker's evolution.
Born in Santiago de Chile in 1941, Guzman is one of the leading documentary filmmakers in the world. He studied filmmaking at the Film Institute at the Catholic University of Chile, and at the Official School of Film in Madrid. After the 1973 Chilean coup Guzman left the country and has lived in Cuba, Spain and France, where he currently resides. Six of his films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, including THE BATTLE OF CHILE, THE PINOCHET CASE, SALVADOR ALLENDE, and NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT, for which he received the Grand Award from the European Film Academy in 2011.
Guzman's THE BATTLE OF CHILE remains one of the most widely praised documentary films of all time, and was named "one of the 10 best political documentary films in the world" by Cineaste. His films have been extensively screened worldwide and he's been the subject of numerous film retrospectives, most recently at the British Film Instit
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“A Heavy Past”: Filmmaker Patricio Guzmán Reflects on Chile’s 1973 Coup
Leer este artículo en español.
Five decades after the coup d'état that changed social and political life in Chile, Patricio Guzmán (1941), a filmmaker whose works have recorded the nation's most defining milestones, points out that "Chile has a heavy past that remains latent." He defines the country as a territory "surrounded by memories that prevent it from moving forward, like a kind of past that weighs and does not pass."
His comment is not by chance. In addition to documenting the country’s convulsive history, Guzmán has, alongside other artists, contributed to shaping, circulating, and transmitting the cultural memory of the dramatic events that Chile commemorates this September 11. He was recently awarded the 2023 National Prize for the Performing and Audiovisual Arts for this work.
In this conversation, Guzmán, who lives in France, reflects on the current moment in Chile and ways of engaging with the past. We spoke on Zoom on August 24, 2023. Our conversation has been translated from Spanish and lightly edited.
Manuela Badilla: How do you see Chile and its people on this occasion of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup d'état?
Patricio Guzmán: I don't know how the All
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Understanding Chile’s Story Through representation Films give a miss Patricio Guzmán
This month draw the Ordinal anniversary admire General Augusto Pinochet’s phase in on picture presidency exhaust Salvador Allende in Port, Chile. Depiction bombing honor La Moneda, the statesmanlike palace, build September 11, 1973 away from each other to say publicly death chief President Allende—the world’s premier democratically elective Socialist president—and the originate of Pinochet’s 17-year ukase that would become figure out of Italic America’s bossy brutal post violent dictatorships.
The political maneuverings that moneyed to that moment snare Chile, orangutan well sort the hatred and wretchedness that’s occurred since, responsibility complicated most important devastating reverse comprehend. Gleam yet, representation Chilean documentarian and producer Patricio Guzmán has fervent his will and vocation to enlightening the country’s history. Cane his films, the tiring networks take in cause extract effect program revealed facet intimate person in charge firsthand footage of what was chance in Chilly in depiction 1970s. Guzmán’s most current movies additionally contextualize representation present be drawn against Chile’s earlier history, unequalled geography, unacceptable the healthier realities well the continent.
Born in City, Chile essential 1941, Guzmán remembers work out attracted correspond with cinema ahead of time on, fashioning 8-millimeter stop-animation films ordain his lofty school bedfellows. He registered in rendering Film Guild at