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Directed by Patricio Guzmán
Chile/Cuba/France, 1975, DCP, black & white, 96 min
Spanish with English subtitles
DCP source: Icarus FIlms
The Battle of Chile began as a boldly spontaneous attempt to comprehensively document Allende’s truly revolutionary experiment in social justice in its formative stages. Using film stock provided by Chris Marker, a thirty-one-year-old Guzmán, fresh out of film school in Madrid, led a team of cameramen into the streets of Santiago and outlying towns to capture the different sides forming staunchly for and increasingly against the visionary leader. The first part of Guzmán’s epic chronicle focuses not on Allende or his progressive government, but rather on the vehement middle-class resistance to Allende’s program that would eventually empower and inspire the military uprising. Working with his talented cinematographers, Guzmán has crafted a mesmerizing verité account of Allende’s fall, energized by the many voices of Chilean citizens rendered vivid on film. Offering singular insight into the disintegration of Allende’s regime, The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie is also one of the most riveting documentary accounts of history in the making.
This screening is part of Chile Año Cero / Chile Year Zero
Special thanks: Haden Guest, Director, Harvard Film Archive
Presented in collaboration with Harvard Film Archive