Documentary in Chile has witnessed sizeable growth over the last 10 years. Maite Alberdi’s Oscar nomination last year for The Mole Agent marked yet another symbolic breakthrough for the country’s documentary filmmakers, following up on the successes already achieved in the fictional sphere by Pablo Larrain with his Oscar nomination for No and the Oscar win for Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman.
Meanwhile, veteran auteur Patricio Guzmán is in Cannes with My Imaginary Country. In the doc, Guzmán asks how out it happened that a million and a half people poured out onto the streets of Santiago in October 2019, demanding democratic reforms.
There are many younger directors now making challenging docs about Chile’s history and identity, the treatment of the indigenous population, the political upheavals of recent years and about the fight for gender equality.
Chiledoc is the promotional body for the sector. Director Paula Ossandón and Diego Pino, Chief Executive, are in Cannes this week to talk up the latest docs – and to draw attention to the extraordinary new talents now flourishing within the Chilean documentary system.
“Chile has a tradition of documentary but in the last 10 years, we have had an internationalisation of Chilean films. We created Chiledoc thinking about how to support new filmmakers and [to help] experienced filmmakers be present in these kind of festivals [like Cannes],” says Pino.
One remarkable new film being shown in the Cannes Docs works-in-progress showcase is Tana Gilbert’s first doc Malqueridas, about women in Chilean prisons reconstructing their experience of motherhood using videos and photographs.
“It’s incredible…they’re talking about how these women can raise their children from the prison and how they communicate everything,” enthuses Pino. Produced by Paola Castillo, this is due to be completed later this year but distributors, festival programmers and sales agents can catch an early glimpse of it in Cannes.
Another work in progress from a director of huge promise is Alfredo Pourailly’s The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine, about the last gold digger in Tierra del Fuego, a man now in his 60s and who is physical pain but still keeps on searching for the precious minerals that can make his fortune. He’s not eligible for social security but his son has devised a new machine which helps with the back breaking work. This will be ready in January.
Asteroid 2518, directed by young auteur Amanda Rutllant, has an intriguing premise. The director looks at the problematic legacy of her great grandfather, a leading astrophysicist who, during the Cold War, set out to build the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere. He had an asteroid named after him. She revered him but, in making the film, discovered the darker side of this story. She looks at her material from a very personal perspective, that of a woman being ravaged by auto-immune disease.
Another new title, Ignacio Agüero’s Notes For A Film, looks at the radical transformation of the newly acquired territory of Araucanía at the end of the 19th century, through the eyes of a young foreigner, Gustave Verniory. Produced by Tehani Staiger, Viviana Erpel and Amalric de Pontcharra, this has been made as a Chilean/French co-production.
One trend that Ossandón notices in both the work from Agüero and Rutllant is their “humour and ironic tone.” Young Chilean filmmakers are increasingly using satire. They show that you can make serious personal and political points without being too earnest about it.
To the relief of the cultural sector, a progressive new government led by the country’s youngest-ever president, Gabriel Boric, is now in power. The new administration is committed to boosting spending on the arts. The long-term future is therefore brightening. In the short-term, though, there are still financial challenges. “In the last 10 years, the funds for production and development have not increased,” Pino notes. “We hope that in the next years of this government, we will have the opportunity to do more films because we will have more resources.”
Chiledoc is supported through public money. It doesn’t have a remit to invest in production. Nor officially is the organisation involved in distribution – but it works hard to get Chilean films seen by Chilean audiences while organising international delegations to festivals and markets. The organisation works closely with national body Cinema Chile which has a mission to promote all Chilean cinema, from shorts to animation, features to docs as well.
“We go to the markets and also we invite the decision-makers from the markets to Chile,” Ossandón says of the strategy that her organisation is pursuing.
One of the paradoxes about Chilean documentary is that it is sometimes now easier for filmmakers to work with European and North American partners than with traditional South American partners in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador where there has been a big squeeze on film funding. Chile has a co-production agreement with Venezuela but that hasn’t yielded much in recent years.
“We do more co-production, I think, with France, Canada and Germany because in South America it is more difficult, but we work a lot with Mexico and Colombia,” Pino explains the way co-production has been shifting in recent years.
Notable recent co-productions include Alis by by Clare Weiskopf and Nicolas van Hemelryck which was in the Berlinale earlier this year. It was made as a Colombian/Chilean/Romanian co-production. A former winner of the Forum Award for Best Project at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the film looks at the traumatic lives of eight teenage girls living in a school in Bogota. Alis will screen in Sheffield as well.
Chilean doc makers are now beginning to turn their attention toward TV. Projects like series Los Niños del Agua by by Joy Penroz (about how kids discover knowledge from ancient civilisations to protect water) and Ancestral Secrets by Jota Loyola Crovetto, about the medicinal rituals of ancient communities, have been made for the small screen.
Chiledoc embraced the online world during the pandemic. “We increased the [Chilean] presence because we had more of a possibility to get more filmmakers and people accredited. We continue doing that. We never stop!” Pino says of the organisation’s determination to promote Chilean documentary work both online and in the physical sphere.
internacional@chiledoc.cl
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