Due to the passing of Chilean exile director Patricio Guzmán Tuesday, September 15, in Paris, Columbia University will be honoring the monumental legacy of one of the world’s foremost documentary filmmakers. For the occasion, we are pleased to be screening his landmark film Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997) on a 35mm print. The event is open to all, but reservation is required.
In Chile, Obstinate Memory, Guzmán returns to his home country to present his emblematic trilogy The Battle of Chile (1975–79) for the first time to fellow nationals. This militant work chronicles the passionate and turbulent three years of Salvador Allende’s socialist government, which was tragically interrupted by the September 11, 1973, military coup. By documenting the impactful encounter of different generations of Chileans with unseen images of their country’s revolutionary period, Guzmán achieves an exceptional and enduring portrait of a shattered country as it grapples with its recent past.
The screening will be followed by an all women-panel of Chilean artists, filmmakers, and scholars who will talk about Guzmán’s legacy from a plurality of approaches and feminist perspectives. The conversation will be moderated by Associate Professor Elizabeth Ramírez-Soto (Film and Media Studies, Columbia University School of the Arts), and guests include Cecilia Vicuña (artist), Daffne Valdés Vargas (Colectivo Lastesis), Nicole Costa (director of The Journey of Monalisa), Bernardita Llanos, academic (Brooklyn College, CUNY), and Associate Professor María José Contreras (Theatre, Columbia University School of the Arts).
This event is organized by the School of the Arts Film and Media Studies Program and co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER), the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS), Sundial House, and the Hispanic Institute.
