PROPOSAL
My final bridge project: “Even if they take our eyes” is about the current situation in Chile and what’s been happening since October 18th. The protests are the consequence of 30 years of injustice and repression by the government since the end of the dictatorship. Since these events are very recent, there aren’t many publications about it and very few are in English. My objective is to show and inform on what’s happening in Chile. Make an approachable audiovisual documentary in English to expand the range of people receiving the information of the situation and to show the reality of the events, without altering or censuring any information. This video is meant to rely on real facts and my own experience during these weeks. Being so far away has been very hard but it has allowed me to see the reality of what’s happening and not be lied to by the national news like everyone else. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have become the main information sources so it has been very accessible for everyone abroad. People post information, videos, testimonies and all kinds of recordings that evidence the brutality of the police and the military. Also, footage of all the different performances during the protests: dances, music, songs, chants, and many others.
The documentary is meant to be seen by people of all ages and cultures. I want to give a chance to people who don’t speak Spanish to be able to understand what’s happening in Chile. Another one of my objectives is to make people empathize and care about the situation and hopefully inspire them by showing how the people united against something bigger than them. The unity that we are seeing today is something very special. People of all social backgrounds, contexts, and professions are together on the streets protesting. There have been protests all around the world by Chileans who live abroad, demonstrating the same. And finally how this unity has been demonstrated in many different art forms like songs, music collaborations, theatrical performances, and signs and illustrations.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The documentary was meant to inform and inspire people because of what’s happening in my home country. I really enjoyed making more illustrations about the events and being able to share the Chilean situation through my art. The biggest challenge was choosing what to say and what to leave out. It’s such a complicated story that leads back to the dictatorship that ended 30 years ago I wanted to be fair and try to give as much information as I could about the situation so that everyone got a general vision of what’s happening. Every time I chose to cut something it literally hurt I wish I could have had more time to show everyone the whole story and not just what I could fit in the documentary. For example, I really wanted to include testimonies in the documentary but regardless of the time problems I thought that there are so many versions and different situations that people have gone through that It was going to be impossible to make a fair compilation of all of them and I could not have been able to decide which ones to include and which ones to leave out.
Nevertheless, I am very happy with the result. Even if I couldn’t expand on some of the subjects and I couldn’t be completely up to date on the information since it evolves every day, I think people got the main facts and ideas I wanted to convey. The first time I showed the final rough cut to two of my classmates they said that they got chills at the end and I could not have been happier, that was exactly the reaction I wanted to evoke so I was very pleased. I had a lot of fun doing this project even though it was so much work because I was very passionate about what I was sharing with everyone and it felt like the only way I had to support the movement from so far away.
PROCESS
- First rough cut: first ideas about how to start the documentary
- Second rough cut: final beginning and intro
- Third rough cut: almost finished documentary with a couple of illustrations and images missing
- First LP post
- Second LP post
Link to: Documentary Script
Original Illustrations
Originals in Spanish and their translation to English
I forgot one of the facts so I had to add it
BONUS
Subtitled performances I think everyone should see 🙂
The right to live in peace, written by Victor Jara who was killed during the dictatorship because of his songs of protest. The most important Chilean singers got together to play it again with some changes in the lyrics to apply to the current events.
The letter, a song about the dictatorship written by Violeta Parra, also famous because of her songs of protest. Here sung by Mon Laferte one of the most famous Chilean singers who I like very much.
Performance by the feminist movement that was very recent so I couldn’t incorporate it in my documentary. After the first group of women who did it in Chile, it has been performed all over the world.
