The Battle of Chile

The Battle of Chile is a documentary film directed by the Chilean Patricio Guzman, in three parts The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie 1975, The Coup dtat 1976, Popular Power 1979. It is a chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. It won the Grand Prix in 1975 and 1976 at the Grenoble International Film Festival. In 1996, Chile, Obstinate Memory was released and followed Guzmn back to Chile as he screened the 3part documentary to Chileans who had never seen it before.

In the election Allende makes gains to 43.4 percent of the votes, though the opposition bloc is strong too, up to 56 percent. The film has street interviews, speeches, the violent confrontations, the mobs and meetings, the parades with workers chanting. Part One finishes with newsreel footage from an Argentine cameraman Leonardo Henrichsen who was photographing street skirmishes. A soldier takes aim and kills the cameraman, and the image spins skyward.Part Two The Coup dtat begins with the right wing violence of the winter of 1973 June is winter in the southern hemisphere against the government. Army troops seize control of downtown Santiago but the attempted coup is snuffed out in a few hours. The film leaps from one group to another... It shows the different elements in the explosive situation with so much clarity that its a Marxist tract in which the contradictions of capitalism have sprung to life. We actually see the country cracking open. Step by step, the legal government is overthrown. ........

Source: Wikipedia