NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT

Title: NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
Description: For his new film director Patricio Guzmán, famed for his political documentaries (The Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case), travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe. The Atacama is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, “disappeared” by the Chilean army after the military coup of September, 1973. So while astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies, at the foot of the mountains, women, surviving relatives of the disappeared whose bodies were dumped here, search, even after twenty-five years, for the remains of their loved ones, to reclaim their families’ histories. Melding the celestial quest of the astronomers
Subject: Environment/Geography, Politics/Human Rights
Type: Documentary
Year: 2010
Director: Patricio Guzmán
Country: Chile
Film ID: 785
Comments:
Created: 7/27/2012
Copy: M   Format: DVD   Language: Spanish   Subtitles: English   Length: 90 Minutes   Copy ID: 1413   Comments:    Source: Icarus Films   Price: 400   Acquired: 7/25/2012

CASO DE PINOCHET, EL (THE PINOCHET CASE)

Description: This film investigates the origins and development of the international legal prosecution of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. It explores how a small group of people in Madrid laid the groundwork for his arrest. After Pinochet’s arrest by Scotland Yard, the film follows the workings of the British legal system that ensued. The film also movingly incorporates the stories of many Chileans who traveled to Madrid to testify, including relatives of the “disappeared” and others who survived horrifying torture in secret prisons. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 109 minutes

CHILE: MEMORIA OBSTINADA (CHILE: OBSTINATE MEMORY)

Description: Chile, Obstinate Memory visits with Chileans who experienced Augusto Pinochet’s coup first-hand. Survivors reminisce as they watch Patricio Guzmán’s film The Battle of Chile, recognizing lost comrades and recalling their courage, gaiety, and love of life. Those who were not killed during the coup itself were crowded into the National Stadium in Santiago, where many were tortured, disappeared, and never seen again. Survivors talk about the terror that characterized the Pinochet regime until the dictator was finally obliged to relinquish power.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 58 minutes