Documentary Cinema in Chile

A comprehensive analysis of the role documentary has played in confronting the history, memory and trauma of Pinochet’s dictatorship.

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Nearly three decades after the end of the dictatorship of General Pinochet, the documentary cinema of Chile has confronted with sophisticated and incisive approaches the memory of this nation’s historical catastrophe. More than any other medium amidst a diverse and active political memory culture, documentary films have exposed state-sponsored atrocities and their perpetrators, recovered survivors’ memories of loss, suffering, and resilience, and posed decisive questions that continue to unsettle the collective conscience of Chileans today.

Documentary Cinema in Chile contributes an original focus to an established critical literature in English on screen culture’s responses to the aftermath of historical disaster, while also engaging with the rapidly expanding Spanish-language critical literature concerned with the legacy of dictatorship in Chile and other South American countries. Through an encompassing discussion of documentaries made during and after the 1973-1990 military regime, this book is an essential source for students, researchers, and general readers interested in the historical legacy of genocidal atrocity in post-conflict societies and the role of cinema, more precisely the documentary film, in processes of working through collective trauma and national reconciliation.