Cannes 2022: Chilean Doc in Special Screening and Docs In Progress

 

The Chilean documentary continues to captivate. Four projects have been selected to participate in the Docs-In-Progress Showcase Chile at Cannes Docs 2022, the documentary section of the Marché du Film at the Cannes Festival: ‘Notes for a Film’, ‘The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine’, ‘Malqueridas’ and ‘Asteroid 2518’.

This is the third time Chiledoc is showcasing films. It is scheduled for May 23 within the framework of Cannes Docs, which takes place from May 17 to 25.

The return of Patricio Guzmán to the Cannes Film Festival

In addition, one of the most important Chilean documentarians, Patricio Guzmán, will have the world premiere of his latest film a French-Chilean coproduction, My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario, in the Special Screenings section of the Cannes Festival. (ISA is Pyramide).

Produced by Alexandra Galvis, My Imaginary Country. Protests exploded onto the streets of Chile’s capital of Santiago in 2019 as the population demanded more democracy and social equality around education, healthcare and job opportunities. The doc goes from the social explosion to the formation of the constituent assembly and exclusively includes testimonies from female voices such as the journalist Mónica González, the feminist collective Las Tesis, the Mapuche constituent Elisa Loncón, the writer and actress Nona Fernández, the photographer Nicole Kramm and the political scientist Claudia Heiss, among many others.⁣

My Imaginary Country will premiere in Special Screenings, a section that is part of the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, in which The Mountain Range of Dreams screened in 2019 and which won the Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary.

My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario by Patricio Guzmán

“October 2019, an unexpected revolution, a social explosion. One and a half million people demonstrated in the streets of Santiago for more democracy, a more dignified life, a better education, a better health system and a new Constitution. Chile had recovered its memory. The event I had been waiting for since my student struggles in 1973 finally materialized.”

Docs-In-Progress Showcase Chile:

Notes for a Film, directed by Ignacio Agüero is a Chilean-French co-production, and is produced by Tehani Staiger, Viviana Erpel, Amalric de Pontcharra and Elisa Sepúlveda.

This feature film, based on 10 years in the Araucanía 1889–1899, a book with the memoirs of the young Belgian engineer Gustave Verniory, draws a parallel between the present and the past, slipping between the human landscape and the geographical landscape, to reveal the deep essence of the Araucanian territory.

The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine, directed by Alfredo Pourailly and produced alongside Francisco Hervé portrays Toto, the last gold miner of his kind in remote Tierra del Fuego, who is 62 years old and whose body is sick. His son Jorge designs a machine that should relieve the exhausting work.

Malqueridas, directed by Tana Gilbert and produced by Paola Castillo, narrates the experiences of motherhood lived by women in prison, filmed clandestinely with prohibited cell phones. The project participated in the Visions du Réel Pitch in 2021, earning the opportunity to participate in the German festival DOK Leipzig and its market, DOK Co-Pro Market 2021.

In Asteriode 2518, directed by Amanda Rutllant, who produced it with Constanza Luzoro, a filmmaker becomes obsessed with an asteroid that bears her last name and with the lost story of her great-grandfather, a Chilean scientist who pioneered world astronomy in the 1950s and dreamed of building the largest observatory in the Southern Hemisphere as his legacy in the Atacama desert. As she discovers the darker sides of herself, Amanda defies her family’s legacy, as she confronts an autoimmune disease that begins to attack her body.

The prestigious North American weekly Variety, dedicated to cinema and culture, spoke with Paula Ossandón, director of Chiledoc, about the sample of selected projects at Cannes Docs:

“They stand out for their surprising characters, sensitive and imaginative stories, some very loaded with a good dose of humor”, and she revealed the growing attention to Chilean documentaries in the world.

In addition Directors’ Fortnight is screening 1976, directed by Manuela Martelli and Alejandra Moffat, a coproduction of Chile, Argentina and Qatar, being sold internationally by Luxbox. Chile, 1976. Carmen heads off to her beach house to supervise its renovation. Her husband, children and grandchildren come back and forth during the winter vacation. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to.