September 11, 1973: On the 50th Anniversary of the Coup in Chile 

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état in Chile, when a fascist junta led by dictator Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. For those of us who are on the left, the story should be familiar by now: Allende had charted a ‘Chilean way to socialism' ("La vía chilena al socialismo") quite distinct from the Soviet Union and communist China, a peaceful path to socialism that was fundamentally anti-authoritarian, combining worker power with respect for civil liberties, freedom of the press, and a principled commitment to democratic process. For leftists who had become disillusioned with the Soviet drift into authoritarianism, Chile was a bright spot on an otherwise gloomy Cold War map.

What happened in Chile was one of the darkest chapters in the history of US interventionism. In August 1970, Henry Kissinger, who was then Nixon’s national security adviser, commissioned a study on the consequences of a possible Allende victory in the upcoming Chilean presidential election. Kissinger, Nixon, and the CIA—all under the spell of Cold War derangement syndrome—determined the US should pursue a policy of blocking the ascent of Allende, lest a socialist Chile generate a “domino effect” in the region. 

When Allende won the presidency, the US did everything in their power to destroy his government: they meddled in Chilean elections, leveraged their control of the international financial system to destroy the economy of Chile (which they also did through an economic boycott), and sowed social chaos through sponsoring terrorism and a shutdown of the transportation sector, bringing the country to the brink of civil war. Particularly infuriating to the Americans was Allende’s nationalization of the copper mining industry, which was around 70% of Chile’s economy at the time and was controlled by US mining companies like Anaconda, Kennecott and the Cerro Corporation. When the CIA’s campaign of sabotage failed to destroy the socialist experiment in Chile, they resorted to assisting general Augusto Pinochet's plot to overthrow the democratically elected government. What followed was a gruesome campaign of repression against workers, leftists, poets, activists, students, and ordinary Chileans—stadiums were turned into concentration camps where supporters of Allende’s Popular Unity government were tortured and murdered. During Pinochet’s 17-year reign of terror, 3,200 people were executed and 40,000 people were detained, tortured, or disappeared, 1,469 of whom remain unaccounted for. Chile was then used as a laboratory for neoliberal economic policies, where the Chicago boys and their ilk tested out their terrible ideas on a population forced to live under a military dictatorship.

It shatters my heart, thinking about this history. I feel a personal attachment to Chile, not only because my partner is Chilean (his father left during the dictatorship), but because I’ve always considered Chile to be a world capital of poetry and anti-authoritarian leftism. The filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky asks, “In how many countries does a real poetic atmosphere exist? Without a doubt, ancient China was a land of poetry. But I think, in the 1950s in Chile, we lived poetically like in no other country in the world.” (Poetry left China long ago — oh how I wish I’d been around to witness the poetic flowering of the Tang era!) Chile has one of the greatest literary traditions of the twentieth century, producing such giants as Bolaño and Neruda, and more recently, Cecilia Vicuña and Raúl Zurita, among others. 

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the coup, the Harvard Film Archive has been  screening Patricio Guzmán’s magisterial trilogy, The Battle of Chile, along with a program of Chilean cinema. I watched part I and II the last two nights and will watch part III tonight. It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Guzmán’s work, and even quoted his beautiful film Nostalgia for the Light in the conclusion of my book Carceral Capitalism, when I wrote about the Chilean political prisoners who studied astronomy while incarcerated in the Atacama Desert. Bless Patricio Guzmán. This man has devoted his life and filmmaking career to the excavation of the Chilean soul. 

Parts I and II utterly destroyed me. I left the theater last night shaken to my core, my face covered in tears. 

The films are all the more remarkable when you consider it was made by a scrappy team of six people using film stock provided by the great documentarian Chris Marker. After the coup, four of the filmmakers were arrested. The footage was smuggled out of Chile and the exiled filmmakers completed the films in Cuba. Sadly, in 1974, the Pinochet regime disappeared cameraman Jorge Müller Silva, who is assumed dead. 

It’s one thing to know the macro-story of what happened in Chile and quite another to see the view from the ground: the footage of the upswell of support for radical transformation, the marches, the street battles, the internal debates on the left about how to stop the fascist creep, the descent into chaos, the face of the military officer as he aims his pistol at the Argentine cameraman Leonard Hendrickson during the failed putsch of June 1973 (an ominous prelude to the September coup), the audio recordings of Allende on the morning of September 11, the bombing of Palacio de La Moneda—the military is closing in. Allende is dead. The crumbling edifice of the presidential palace becomes the rubble of revolutionary dreams—the bombs, a dirge for what was never even given a chance to live.

“El botón de nácar” 2015

Happy 82nd, Patricio Guzmán.

With cinematographer Jorge Müller shooting The Battle of Chile (1975).

La cordillera de los sueños (2019), dir. Patricio Guzmán

AUCUN DANGER

Maintenant qu’il n’y a aucun danger dans le métro qui me déplace vers d’autres lignes à Gare de l’Est jamais vers des planètes mais j’ai déjà mon aventure sur un strapontin à faire défiler les images sur mon téléphone et j’ai pris trois photos depuis que je suis rentrée à Paris depuis deux mois est-ce peu ou beaucoup cela fait 0,05 photo par jour Le porte-monnaie égaré puis retrouvé de Juliette sur la pelouse du parc de la Villette quand nous étions fatiguées toujours réglées aux heures des nuits du Canada

Le ticket de la contravention reçue dans un wagon car ne pas avoir vu le contrôleur à temps pour lui dire que j’étais dans le train d’avant coûte 190 euros mais je n’aurais pas pu le trouver j’ai même oublié de le chercher absorbée que j’étais dans un film avec des constellations

Le photogramme après Vierzon un peu avant l’amende quand les rayons du soleil éblouissaient deux lignes de sous-titres sur mon écran

me rappellent ce moment où l’on croit qu’on cesse d’être un enfant

Maintenant qu’il y a mon arrêt Ménilmontant rue des Bluets je pense à toutes les photos que j’ai prises chaque jour au Québec face aux photos d’ici que je ne prends pas dans l’un de ces moments où je crois ne plus pouvoir m’étonner

Documental sobre el trabajo astronómico en el desierto de Atacama (Chile). Película disponible para ver online en 1080p, sin subtítulos.

Still from Nostalgia for the Light, dir. Patricio Guzmán, 2010 (all images courtesy Cinema Tropical)

チューリヒへの旅より

チューリヒへの旅より：5月8日からごく短期間チューリヒを訪れた際に接したトーンハレ管弦楽団の演奏会、《フィデリオ》の公演、リートベルク美術館での展覧会や映画の上映などについて記しています。

前アルプスを望むチューリヒ湖の風景 広島では初夏のような蒸し暑い日が続いています。みなさまお元気でお過ごしでしょうか。去る5月8日から11日にかけて、ごく短期間ではありますが、スイスのチューリヒへ出かけました。クリストフ・フォン・ドホナーニが指揮するチューリヒのトーンハレ管弦楽団の演奏会を聴くのが主たる目的でしたが、それ以外にもオペラを観たり、美術館を訪れたり、旧知の友人と、前アルプスを望むチューリヒ湖畔でゆっくり語らったりすることができました。音楽に身を浸す喜びだけでなく、今後の研究へ向けた刺激も得ることもできました。この時季の緑はとても鮮やかで、眩いばかり。チューリヒ湖畔から前アルプスを望むと、冠雪の残る山並みと多彩な緑のコントラストも楽しめました。 5月9日と10日の2日間、トーンハレでこの響きの豊かな「楽堂」の名を冠したオーケストラの演奏会を聴きました。曲目は、ルドルフ・ブッフビ…

View On WordPress

El botón de nácar Patricio Guzmán Chile/France/Spain/Switzerland, 2015 ★★★ Netflix* just made three Patricio Guzmán documentaries available.

Sometimes Netflix is good.

*netflix latam, that is

MON PAYS IMAGINAIRE

J'anime des séances de cinéma consacrées à Mon pays imaginaire de Patricio Guzmán, avec l'ADRC. Pour en savoir plus sur les modalités d'interventions : cliquer ici

The Pearl Button

on Kanopy

Seasoned filmmaker Patricio Guzmán, whose groundbreaking 1975 The Battle of Chile was a key event in the history of the documentary form, follows his astonishing recent work Nostalgia for the Light (2011) with a similar exploration of familiar themes such as memory and the historical past. The Pearl Button was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Script at 2015 Berlin Film Festival. —filmflaneuse.com

Chili's decennialange strijd voor rechtvaardigheid loopt als een rode draad door deze optimistische documentaire.

“El botón de nácar” 2015

OUR IMAGINARY COUNTRY:

Director records

Second revolt of Chile

Strength of the people

La cordillera de los sueños (2019), dir. Patricio Guzmán

love a gorgeous rock . how they witness and how they remember