Events in Valparaiso

THE VALPARAISO FILM FESTIVAL

Valparaiso has had a film festival since 1997. Its mission is to showcase Chile’s film heritage, premiere restored movies, custodianship samples, special cycles dedicated to film schools or factories, tributes to national and foreign authors, present cult classics or films never seen before in Chile, retrospective films, issue-specific cycles, heritage and historical short films – such as the funerals of Neruda and Luis Emilio Recabarren or a walk around Playa Ancha in 1902 and of course, the competition that awards the best documentaries.

The Festival awards the best documentary a cash prize and the Santiaguillo, a trophy which alludes to the Spanish caravel which bore the first Spaniards to Valparaiso. Prizes are also awarded for Best Research, Editing, Cinematography and Sound. The festival is open to Chilean or foreign directors who have resided in the country for at least two years and productions from other countries directed by Chileans. All current digital formats are acceptable.

Outstanding past features at festival have been Eisenstein, Welles, Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Wenders, Herzog, Bresson and Dreyer. There have also been tributes to Chilean filmmakers such as Rafael Sánchez, Sebastián Alarcón, Raúl Ruiz, José Bohr and Cristián Sánchez. There have also been animated features, soccer films, Hammer horror films and others.

The 2008 festival brings us Caliche Sangriento, a classic Chilean film by Helvio Soto, restored almost 40 years after its premiere. Another attraction is the remastered premiere of the controversial film by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Berlin Alexanderplatz -1980- an epic film which lasts over 15 hours and focuses on the German Weimar Republic. It also features Shoah (1985)by French director Claude Lanzmann, a nine and a half hour documentary on the Holocaust featuring interviews with survivors, witnesses and former Nazis. Other restored films include Simfoniya Donbassa by Dziga Vertov and People on Sunday, a joint production by Siodmak, Ulmer, Zinnemann and Wilder. The festival also features strange short films by George Melies and Spanish directors Luis Buñuel and Segundo de Chomón.

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