The four videos produced by Fundación Imagen de Chile and released for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état, have already had almost 8 million views on Youtube.
A little over a month after its release, the documentary “50 years: Identity, Memory and Future” has accumulated almost ten thousand views on YouTube. This documentary was produced by Fundación Imagen de Chile and is the centerpiece of the institution’s campaign to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état. It aims to bring together the reality of Chileans living abroad and those who live in Chile. Today there are more than 1.2 million Chileans, or descendants of Chileans, living abroad.
“”We wanted to collect, portray, and share that reality, to show those lives, those personal experiences, of Chileans who live in those little pieces of Chile, lodged in those memories and customs, but also in concrete day-to-day life. What they think, how they live. What aspects of Chilean culture do they keep, how do they coexist in this mix, what do they yearn for, what do they value about Chile,” said Rossana Dresdner, executive director of the Fundación Imagen de Chile.
The 33-minute documentary presents testimonies of Chileans living in Sweden, Mexico, and Argentina, many of whom fled into exile after the military coup and now, 50 years later, have carved out a new life and identity in other lands. It also includes testimonies from Chileans who have traveled more recently, for work or to study, and who have become part of the Chilean community abroad.
In addition to the main piece, three additional documentaries have been produced, each focusing on one of the previously mentioned countries. Together, these documentaries and their corresponding trailers, have accumulated almost 8 million views. A website has also been launched as part of this initiative, which hosts the four audiovisual pieces, and which also offers other types of content that reflect the reality of Chileans who live far from their homelands and how they have been perceived by the world over the last 50 years.
“We believe that this is universal subject matter that speaks of a current and future reality in Chile, but also in the world: migration, exile and national identity beyond physical borders. We wanted to portray individual experiences and based on them, show the ties they maintain with Chile and the Chilean identity,” adds Dresdner.
