From ‘Obstinate Memory’ to Explosions of Recollections: Social Documentaries and Cultural Sites of Remembrance in Chile

• In Event: Memoria y violencia política: cine documental, literatura y arte (Ecuador, Chile, Uruguay y Centroamérica)

Abstract

The unsettling of memory in the land of tranquil habits at the ends of the earth invites a tension addressing what, when and how to remember. Reconstructing memory through the collages housed in social documentaries by Patricio Guzmán (“Chile, The Obstinate Memory” 1997; “Salvador Allende” 2004), the director counterbalances remembrance with the recognition of what cultural critic Nelly Richard terms “forced obsolescence”, that which whitewashes and creates a past devoid of meaning. Through the ruins of history and architectural sites previously dedicated to detention and torture, both Guzmán and Richard (“Sites of Memory, Emptying Remembrance”) present a richer, deeper and more complex national history that resists annihilation.

Author

• Julia A Kushigian, Connecticut College