Documentary Film from the Southern Cone during Exile (1970-1980)

Soon after the establishment of the Southern Cone dictatorships many artists and intellectuals, mostly political activists, had to go into exile. The documentary filmmakers among them continued to work in their countries of exile producing testimonies, denunciations, and reflections with their countries of origin as a central focus. An analysis of the most important works of the period called "film from exile," from 1973 (Augusto Pinochet's coup against Salvador Allende in Chile) to the democratic transitions taking place in the subcontinent in the mid- and late 1980s, reveals a progression in themes from militancy through reflection on the condition of exile to the defense of human rights. The documentary films from exile recorded the diversity of resources used by the filmmakers to bear witness to the absent, a rich palette that combined staging, archival material, interviews, and reflection to produce the only traces of free cinema during this period.