NEXT SCREENING - THE BATTLE OF CHILE I

On September 11, 1973, the Chilean army led by its recently appointed chief of staff, Augusto Pinochet, overthrew, with the active support of its national bourgeoisie and the government of the United States, the democratic government of Salvador Allende.

The bombing of the Presidential Palace, La Casa de la Moneda, ended the Chilean experiment to socialism, where “for first time in the history of the revolutionary processes, the path towards social change had been opened via elections, through a pacific via. An event unique in history, the first of its type”, as Fidel Castro remarked in his speech at the National Stadium in Santiago during his three week visit to Chile in 1971.

In "The insurrection of the bourgeoisie", the first part of the legendary documentary film "The battle of Chile", Patricio Guzmán captures and analyses with surgeon’s precision the dynamics of the revolutionary process that brought Allende to the presidency, his relationship with the Chilean masses of workers and poor peasants, and the destabilising actions of the Chilean counter-revolutionary forces aided by the helping hand of the US administration in the events that led the failed attempted coup of June 29th.

“I would declare “The battle of Chile” a film of “democratic interest”; its screening should be compulsory in schools”. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Mundo Obrero.

"Great films rarely arrive as unheralded as The Battle of Chile." – Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

"The major political film of our times - a magnificent achievement." – Tom Allen, Village Voice

SCREENING WILL BE FOLLOWED BY DEBATE WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 - BOLIVAR HALL (WARREN STREET) - 6:45 PM