Based on an actual murder case that ignited a furious debate over the death penalty in Chile in 1960, this experimental social drama portrays the life and death of an illiterate peasant who, while drunk, murdered the woman with whom he had a relationship and her five children.
In 1962 Joris Ivens was invited to Chile for teaching and filmmaking. Together with students he made …A Valparaíso, one of his most poetic films. Contrasting the prestigious history of the seaport with the present the film sketches a portrait of the city, built on 42 hills, with its wealth and poverty, its daily life on the streets, the stairs, the rack railways and in the bars. Although the port has lost its importance, the rich past is still present in the impoverished city. The film echoes this ambiguous situation in its dialectical poetic style, interweaving the daily life reality (of 1963) with the history of the city and changing from black and white to colour, finally leaving us with hopeful perspective for the children who are playing on the stairs and hills of this beautiful town.
Absurdist short about a man with a suitcase and a man inside that suitcase.
Two guerrillas (Miguel Littin and Jorge Guerra) wander lost in the desert until one of them dies. A jeep appears in the distance to rescue the survivor, but unable to read the signs of comradeship pointed out to him by the drivers of the vehicle, he shoots them.
Through images showing the precarious conditions in which the poorest families in the country live, and the testimonies of the mothers themselves, a denunciation of child malnutrition in Chile is made. It also shows a hospital ward and babies in a state of extreme malnutrition, and images of a funeral, in which the coffin is evidently that of a child. The narration provides facts and figures that reinforce the magnitude of the problem.
Documentary filmed during the shooting of “À Valparaiso” which shows the children’s reactions to the performance of a circus show. “It is the tender gaze of a poet on the smallest circus in the world and his audience of children”.
Sequences that illustrate moments in a woman's life, in parallel to the political events happening in South America during the 60's.
A survey documentary filmed in the wheat fields of the community of Calquinhue, near the town of Hualqui, in the province of Concepción. The film shows the gestures in the various tasks of the community members engaged in harvesting the wheat, from the harvest to the sale.
Montage documentary, built on footage taken during an expedition with the participation of writer Enrique Zorrilla, photographer Roberto Montandón and Leopoldo Castedo. Synthesis of a journey of one hundred thousand kilometers between Mexico and Tierra del Fuego around the heritage of the native peoples of Latin America.
A boy goes to his friend's funeral procession. When he realizes that his grave does not have flowers like the others, and that he does not have money to buy them, he goes out looking for some in the streets of Santiago.
Experimental montage based on the filming of an essay by Pablo Neruda, while he recites a verse of the "ode to the simple man".
Detailed record of the operative technique used by Professor Dr. Alfonso Asenjo to perform surgery on a patient with Parkinson's disease at the Hospital de Neurocirugía de Santiago.
A poet recites his verses. The people who listen to him, inspired by him, form the Spring Party, which later becomes the Spring Army. It is decided to eliminate possible opponents. The poet is considered an enemy and is shot.
This documentary shows the inhuman conditions on which the patients of Iquique's Psychiatric Hospital live.
A docudrama based on the family planning policies for the population with limited resources. A low-income lady resorts to clandestine ways to get an abortion...
We remain on the street, this space that is perhaps the great territory of invention for Latin American cinema. Held at the Centro de Cine Experimental of the Universidad de Chile - one of the most prolific and enduring poles of militant cinematographic production at the time -, this experimental fiction about class relations is one of Miguel Littín's first films, which would become one of the central references of the political cinema in Latin America. Por la tierra ajena was one of many films that sought to take part in the process of raising awareness that would lead to the election of Salvador Allende in 1970.
A maid loses all her jobs because her son cries at night, and that bothers her bosses. The play portrays the wandering and desperation of the protagonist to get a job, which ends in her failed attempts due to the "Angelito".
A poetic film that records the excavations carried out by Swiss ethnologist Jean Christian Spahni at the mouth of the Loa River. Through the bone remains and objects found, the testimony of the Chango indigenous people is revealed.
From the ruins of the Santa María School in Iquique, the events of the saltpeter strike in the north, which ended in 1907 with the slaughter of thousands of workers, are recounted. The documentary looks at this history through the eyes of a survivor.
