● Among the official selection of the prestigious European competition is the film Socialist Realism, a film shot unfinished by Raúl Ruiz in 1973, which was finished this year by Valeria Sarmiento and produced by Poetastros, which will have its world premiere in 2023 at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
● Also included in this selection is The First Year, directed by Patricio Guzmán in 1970 and produced by María Teresa Guzmán. Two of this year’s most acclaimed Chilean documentaries are also in the official selection: The Eternal Memory, directed by Maite Alberdi and produced by Micromundo and Fabula, world premiere at Sundance, and Malqueridas, directed by Tana Gilbert and produced by Paola Castillo, world premiere at the Venice Critics’ Week.
● The Chilean-Argentine co-production, Mixtape La Pampa, which premiered this year at San Sebastian, completes this list of official feature films.
● IDFA has opened great spaces for new languages, and this year they selected in the official competition of immersive non-fiction projects, the Chilean production Going Back Home MOTHER VR, a short film project in Virtual Reality directed by Catalina Alarcón and produced by MimbreFilms and Mucha Media.
● In addition to this great presence of Chilean documentaries, there are two projects in the renowned IDFA Forum, more than nine projects that will be part of the Dutch market and a delegation of fifteen producers and filmmakers, coordinated by Chiledoc.
CHECK THE CHILE AT IDFA-2023 CATALOGUE
Santiago, Chile, November 2023.- With significant participation and delegation of filmmakers, Chile is preparing to land at the 36th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam IDFA, which will take place between November 8 and 19. The Chilean delegation is composed of twelve women: Chamila Rodríguez, Alexandra Galvis, Daniela Camino, Catalina Alarcón, Maite Alberdi, Tana Gilbert, Paola Castillo, María José Díaz, Carola Fuentes, Ximena Pereira, Francisca Silva and Claudia León, plus the two producers Fernando Fuentes, Niles Atallah and Antonio Luco; and Diego Pino, deputy director of Chiledoc.
The Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, through the Council for the Arts and the Audiovisual Industry, supports this mission and the presence of the Chilean delegation at IDFA 2023. In this sense, the Minister of Culture, Carolina Arredondo, says: «Chile enjoys recognized international prestige in the field of documentary filmmaking. Works by Raúl Ruiz, Patricio Guzmán and Maite Alberdi lead this year’s participation of our country in the 36th edition of IDFA, as part of a predominantly female delegation that will undoubtedly keep the name of the local audiovisual industry high. The commitment of institutions such as Chiledoc and the Ministry of Cultures itself is fundamental in this, for which we value and thank the work of those who once again allow Chilean cinema to have this important European showcase».
Chiledoc will be present at this prestigious event and market to coordinate the delegation and the respective networking and socialization activities with representatives of the global documentary sector. Diego Pino, deputy director of the sectorial brand, states: «The Chilean documentary sector is once again demonstrating its international consolidation with many films and projects selected at the world’s most important Documentary Film Festival. This year, there is a special emphasis on the diversity of generations of directors and thematic richness and languages, reflecting the quality and diversity of Chilean productions. This strong presence of Chile at IDFA shows the sector’s great capacity to create partnerships and internationalize with high-quality films and projects.»
Special Screening and Dutch Premiere
Socialist Realism is a feature film filmed in 1973 by the renowned Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruíz and was completed in 2023 by Valeria Sarmiento, together with the film production company Poetastros, which will be present at IDFA represented by Chamila Rodríguez. The film offers a satirical reading of the Popular Unity process of President Salvador Allende before the 1973 civil-military coup.
Focus: 16 Worlds on 16
For the 100th anniversary of 16mm, the festival has selected classic Cinema Verité titles from filmmakers such as Agnès Varda, the Maysles brothers, and Abbas Kiarostami for this focus. Featured in the section is The First Year, a documentary directed by Patricio Guzmán and produced by María Teresa Guzmán, which chronologically details the events of the first year of the Popular Unity government.
IDFA DocLab Program and Competition
Going Back Home MOTHER VR, directed by Catalina Alarcón and produced by Daniela Camino, María Ignacia Court, and Catalina Alarcón, is a virtual reality documentary short film (360 video + 3D space) co-created with a group of incarcerated women who dream of reconnecting with their children. Through virtual reality, families can send 360 video messages to the imprisoned women, offering the fleeting chance to return home for a few seconds.
Signed
In the Signed section of IDFA, the festival showcases, in its own words, «the latest films by the most interesting contemporary filmmakers, whose filmographies we greatly appreciate, and whose works we await with excitement.»
Selected for this category is The Eternal Memory, directed by Maite Alberdi and produced by Micromundo and Fabula. The film narrates a profound and moving love story, balancing the vibrant individual memory with the longevity of an unbreakable human bond. Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, their lives changed forever with Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Also in this section is Mixtape La Pampa, a Chilean-Argentine co-production about the diary of a journey through the Pampa in the footsteps of Guillermo Enrique Hudson, alias William Henry Hudson. He is an enigmatic figure, full of paradoxes: he was an Argentine gaucho who became an English writer. He fought in the army against the «savages» but also defended them. He wrote obsessively about his homeland but never returned. In the comings and goings along the way, documentary speculation, Argentine history, personal memory… and dreams are mixed.
Best of Fest
Award winners, audience favorites, and outstanding titles from the international festival circuit. That’s what we find in IDFA’s Best of Fest section, where representing Chile is Malqueridas, directed by Tana Gilbert and produced by Paola Castillo. A voice reveals the experiences of being a mother in prison. Furtive images recorded with forbidden cell phones reveal the great archive of collective memory inside the women’s prison. Malqueridas reflects on the meanings of motherhood and the persistence of affection.
IDFA Forum
Created 30 years ago to bring together creative documentary filmmakers with potential financial and commercial collaborators, the IDFA Forum has become a world reference space for exploring co-production, co-financing, and distribution strategies. On this occasion, two projects in development from Chile are presented in this section. One of them is Celestial Twins – The Bardo VR, a first-person experience in which the user, with the perspective of an avatar, Fenix9, must save the fragile balance of The Bardo, a virtual forest on the verge of disappearing. The experience immerses the user in a journey of reflection on the relationship between technology and ecology. Directed by Niles Atallah and produced by Giancarlo Nasi, Fernando Arriaza, and Alba Gaviraghi.
Knowing Your Nature is also part of this section. It is a Mixed Reality experience, directed by Francisca Silva and produced by María José Díaz, in which the biodiversity of a native forest is explored, offering multiple practices of mindfulness and training skills such as concentration, calmness, perspective, and compassion, among others. As you delve into the forest, you will discover the fascinating connections between the surrounding nature and the richness of your own mind.
Docs For Sale
Docs for Sale facilitates the sale and distribution of high-level documentary films, providing tailored services that include partner search, consultations, sales and distribution workshops, and strategic insights for the selected films.
This section includes The Broken Goddess, a documentary directed by Ximena Pereira and produced by Ximena Pereira and Carolina Dávila; In the Shadow of Light, directed by Isabel Reyes Bustos and Ignacia Merino Bustos and produced by María José Díaz and Francisca Barraza. The films selected for the festival, The Eternal Memory, Mixtape La Pampa, and Malqueridas, are also included.
Chilean projects
In addition to all of the above titles, Chilean delegates will represent several projects during the networking activities at the IDFA market. These are documentaries in the development stage such as The Conference, directed by Rodrigo Marín and produced by Valentina Roblero; Antártida: In Search of Adaptation, directed by Jota Loyola and produced by Carola Fuentes and Rafa Valdeavellano; The Mutant, directed by Constanza Tejo and produced by Valentina Roblero; Not All Gilrs, directed by Carolina Astudillo and produced by Macarena Aguiló; Volcano, directed by Stefanne Prijot and produced by Claudia León and Sebastián Lavados; Garden City, directed by Javier Zoro and produced by Macarena Aguiló; The Snowy Winter in the South directed by Sebastián Vidal and produced by Sebastián Vidal and Sebastián Lavados; Dream Democracy, directed by Rafa Valdeavellano and produced by Carola Fuentes; Ruiz desde el silencio, directed by Galut Alarcón and produced by Chamila Rodríguez; and Oasis, directed by Felipe Morgado, Tamara Uribe and produced by Diego Pino, Alba Gaviraghi and Antonio Luco.
Chiledoc is a public-private alliance between the Chilean Corporation of Documentary CCDoc and ProChile, part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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