Crew

Assistant Producers: Patricia Boero, Alicia Crespo, Jorge Sánchez

Modernised version: Luis Matti, Sergio Pérez, Molinari S.A.

Film Teams: Pablo de la Barra. Productora América Proa

Archive: Hayowsky and Sceunmann Studios, Noticiario Chile Films; Cuban

Film Institute Archive, Pedro Chaskel, the review Chile Hoy, ISKRA

Editing and credits: Jorge Pucheux, Delia Quesada, Eusebio Ortiz, Alberto Valdés, Ricardo López

Narrator: Abilo Fernández

Sound Engineer: Carlos Fernández

Filmset Managers: Ramón Torrado, José León, Juan Demosthene

Main consultants: Paloma Guzmán, Lilian Indseth, Gastón Ancelovici, Juan José

Mendi, Harald Edelstran, Roberto Matta

Script consultants: Pedro Chaskel, José Bartolomé, Julio García Espinosa, Federico Elton, María Harnecher, Chris Marker

Executive Producer: Jorge Guzmán

Production Manager: Federico Elton

Sound recording: Bernardo Menz

Director’s assistant: José Bartolomé

Montage: Pedro Chaskel

Photography and camera: Jorge Müller Silva

Screenplay and Directing: Patricio Guzmán

In Collaboration With

Chris Marker

Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficas

John and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Awards

Novas Teixeira Prize, French Association of Film Critics (1976, 1977)

International Film Festival, Grenoble (1975, 1976)

International Film Festival, Leipzig (1977)

International Film Festival, Brussells (1977)

International Film Festival, Benalmadena (1977)

International Film Festival, Havana (1979)

Sequencing

La batalla de Chile, one of the most famous documentaries ever to be produced in Latin America, consists of three parts, each of which has a slightly different focus on the central event of the coup d’état of 11 September 1973 which brought an end to democracy in Chile and ushered in Augusto Pinochet’s right-wing dictatorship. Part I, La insurrección de la burguesía (The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie, 96 minutes, released in 1975), opens with very dramatic footage of the bombing of the Moncada Palace, the seat of Chilean government, on the morning of 11 September. By the end of the day Salvador Allende, the first ever Marxist President to be voted into power in Latin America, would be dead. After this dramatic footage the film then tracks back to the elections of the previous year in which Patricio Guzmán and his team are seen interviewing men and women in the street asking them about who they think will win the elections, and by what percentage. The voice-over which punctuates the interviews offers comments on what is being depicted in the everyday scenes.