Playing through Thursday, July 16.
 

• Ticket price: $7.50 for Amherst Cinema Members, $10.75 for non-Members (plus $1.00 service fee). Once purchased, the program is available to watch through end of day Thursday, July 9.
   
• How to watch: Available to watch through the internet browser on your computer, phone, or tablet.
   

Questions about Virtual Cinema? Technical issues? Check our FAQ page. When you watch Virtual Cinema films, you provide direct financial support to Amherst Cinema during our temporary closure. Thank you.

On Tuesday, July 7, curator Anto Astudillo and a number of filmmakers from THE PEOPLE'S REVOLT joined Amherst Cinema's George Myers for a virtual discussion. Click the button below to watch this informative talk. 

In October 2019, a new popular movement was born in the streets of Santiago, Chile. Triggered by a fare increase of 30 pesos (around four cents), the movement soon came to embody 30 years of social discontent with a neoliberal model and a constitution imposed in 1980 under Pinochet’s dictatorship. As this new movement continues to grow in different cities of Chile, it is making its way to different social media platforms that have quickly formed a communal network. With a more direct way to share first-hand information coming from every neighborhood, people no longer need to rely on the national press, which is often controlled by wealthy families or the government.

The movement has also been marked by a resurgence of street photography. A profusion of images captured with portable cameras and phones are now part of a collective virtual encyclopedia. History in Chile has never had this much media coverage from so many angles. The paucity of images captured during the 1973 coup forced filmmakers at the time to use poetry in order to portray the missing picture. The long history of poetic documentaries in Chile, led by renowned directors like Patricio Guzmán, Pedro Chaskel (co-founder of the Experimental Cinema Center at the Universidad de Chile in 1957), and Ignacio Agüero, continues to this day with the duo Perut+Oznovikoff and José Luis Torres Leiva, among others. Their films explore different styles that break the conventions of documentary filmmaking, creating hybrid forms that share similarities with the American avant-garde cinema tradition.

New experimental cinema in Chile exposes and criticizes the abuse of power coming from governmental authorities, the police, and the military by borrowing elements of journalistic photography and Chile’s unique documentary culture. However, this time nothing can stop the proliferation of new film and video work in a vertiginous media revolution.

This program – organized on the occasion of the current social uprising in Chile – presents a diverse selection of new experimental work made by Chilean filmmakers living in Chile and abroad. Many of the works included here have never been screened theatrically before.

THE PEOPLE'S REVOLT is guest-curated by Anto Astudillo, who also wrote the description above. Click here for shownotes, including descriptions of each short.

Film list:

Franci Duran, CUENTOS DE MI NIÑEZ (1991, 9 min, 16mm-to-digital)
Cecilia Araneda, WHAT COMES BETWEEN (2009, 6 min, 16mm-to-digital)
Nicolás Rupcich, EDF (2013, 5.5 min, digital)
Malena Szlam, ALTIPLANO (2018, 15.5 min, 35mm)
Nicolás Rupcich, IS NOT THE WAY (2019, 1 min, digital)
Anto Astudillo, GOLPES (2019, 7.5 min, 16mm-to-digital)
Matias Carvajal, AFTERSHOCK 00101011 (2019, 5.5 min, digital)
Colectivo Somoslacélula, PARA QUE NUNCA MÁS (2019, 3.5 min, digital)
Nicolás Rupcich, OASIS DE LA REGIÓN (2019, 1 min, digital)
Kati Antivilo Escobar, ESTADO ASESINO (2019, 1 min, digital)
Gregor Egregor, NOCTVBRE (2019, 6 min, digital)
Colectivo Cinematográfico Pedro Chaskel (CCPH), LOS HUESOS (2019, 1.5 min, digital)
Colectivo Cinematográfico Pedro Chaskel (CCPH), LAS MANOS (2019, 4 min, digital)

Flavichan Samurai y Makzeecat, BANDERA FALSA/Colectivo Caos Germen llamado, NO BASTA CON GRABAR, CHILE AHORA, CHILE NO ESTA SOLO (2019, 3 min total)
Sebastián Arriagada, ESTE ES UN CIUDADANO CHILENO/Colectivo Caos Germen llamado, NO BASTA CON GRABAR,  (2019, 1 min, digital)
Daniela Sabrovsky, CAMUFLAJE/Colectivo Caos Germen llamado, NO BASTA CON GRABAR,  (2019, 1 min, digital)
Cristóbal Acevedo, VIDEO LÁSER/Colectivo Caos Germen llamado, NO BASTA CON GRABAR,  (2019, 1 min, digital)
Margarita Carrasco, BARRICADA/Colectivo Caos Germen llamado, NO BASTA CON GRABAR,  (2019, 1 min, digital)
Brigada de Registro, QUÉ DIRÁ EL SANTO PADRE/Colectivo Caos Germen llamado NO BASTA CON GRABAR,  (2019, 1 min, digital)
Comunidad Catrileo+Carrion, NGOYMALAYIÑ – NO OLVIDAMOS (2019, 3 min, digital)
Flavichan Samurai y Makzeecat, CORAZONES UNIDOS EN LA LUCHA (2019, 2 min total)
Eduardo Menz, YOU CAN TAKE THE STREETS AND RULE THEM BECAUSE WE ARE OF THE SKY (2014, 13 min, digital)