Battle of Chile director Patricio Guzmán dies aged 85

The death of Patricio Guzmán marks the loss of one of Latin America’s most prominent non-fiction filmmakers, described by Cinema Tropical as a filmmaker, screenwriter, researcher, theorist, and teacher who dedicated over five decades to chronicling his homeland. Born in Santiago on August 11, 1941, Guzmán left Chile in the 1960s to study at the Official School of Cinematographic Arts (Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía, or EOC) in Madrid before returning to Chile in the early 1970s.

The Making of The Battle of Chile

Guzmán’s career was defined by his monumental three-part documentary, The Battle of Chile (1975–1979), which captured the social democratic experiment of Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government and the violent 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, culminating in Allende’s suicide. Working as the head of documentary at state cinema company Chile Films after Allende’s election in 1970, Guzmán and his young crew filmed the mounting political crisis on the streets under extreme danger, responding to the febrile political atmosphere after earlier working in advertising and studying film in Chile and Madrid. His early feature The First Year / El primer año (1972) had already caught the attention of French director Chris Marker, who stepped in to help distribute the film in Europe.

As raw film stock became impossible to purchase in Chile, French film-maker Chris Marker personally arranged for thousands of feet of 16mm film stock to be shipped from Paris to Santiago, supplying film stock and connections that proved vital to make the film. Following the military takeover on September 11, 1973, Guzmán was detained by Pinochet’s forces in Santiago’s National Stadium for ten days, where he was subjected repeatedly to simulated executions, alongside being arrested and eventually released while the coup broke out.

While Guzmán gained release and fled into exile—living in Cuba, Spain, and France—tragedy struck his production team. His chief cinematographer, Jorge Müller Silva, was arrested by the secret police (DINA) along with his girlfriend Carmen Bueno in late 1974, and they were arrested, tortured and “disappeared” in 1974.

Exile, Landmark Trilogies, and Poetic Realism

Working from exile in Havana alongside editor Pedro Chaskel, Guzmán assembled the smuggled rolls into The Battle / La batalla de Chile (1975–1979). The landmark three-part chronicle—released as The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie / La insurrección de la burguesía (1975), The Coup d’État / El golpe de estado (1976), and The Power of the People / El poder popular (1979)—premiered across successive editions of the Cannes Film Festival. Described by the Guardian as an outstandingly photographed example of a newsreel film that captures the drama and volatility of the period, it has continued to attract acclaim since then, hailed as one of the greatest documentaries ever made by Sight and Sound and Time Out, one of the ten best political films in the world by Cineaste. Despite his extensive political chronicling, Guzmán resisted the idea that he was an activist, political filmmaker.

He later told the Guardian: I’m a film-maker who was very marked by the ways of the dictator. It has remained with me for ever. I cannot leave it behind. He added: I’m not a sociologist. Neither am I a politician. I make films that are metaphorical and poetic; I interpret reality through my own personal way of looking.

In later decades, Guzmán directed about twenty documentaries, including a trilogy reflecting on the legacy of his country’s 40-year military dictatorship: Nostalgia for the Light (2010)—which was shown at Cannes where he stated, Memory has its own gravity… States that bury their past crimes are lagging behind—The Pearl Button (2015), which won Berlin’s Silver Bear for Best Screenplay, and The Cordillera of Dreams (2019), which won the Golden Eye documentary prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Teaching, Festivals, and Final Works

For all of us at Cinema Tropical, where we have had the honor of presenting, championing, and distributing his films in the United States across many years, his passing marks a profound loss for world cinema. Guzmán left behind a legacy that included filming the footage shot by camera operator Leonardo Henrichsen as he is shot dead by the soldier he is filming.

His final documentary was My Imaginary Country, which came out in 2022, exploring his native country’s contemporary politics and a massive popular revolt that shook Chile in 2019 around democracy and social equality. Throughout his life, his philosophy remained anchored by a singular conviction regarding documentary art.

One of his favourite sayings was: A country without documentary cinema is like a family without a family album.