Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi

The documentary genre is at the same time one of his best creative, and face risks of mass production. Ten years ago MTV revolutionized the genre when he mixed with the “Reality”, with its series “The Real World and the documentary has since taken two ways: it has become more stark and honest, or has become more commercial and vacuous.

Quique Cruz, director of Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi, is no stranger to this crossroads. While his parentage documentary seems to want more to tradition, it is inevitable to compare it with modern realities such as those conducted by the documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. In particular, that while the intention of the filmmaker was simply helping to film a documentary about his memoir, in the end it ends Cruz not only participating in the story as it is giving. And the result is devastating. Certain episodes of the documentary are heartbreaking: the death of the mother during the shooting, or as a track protagonist improvises on the commemorative plaque at Villa Grimaldi. Or as the apotheosis climax where we see the concert finally Archeology of Memory, presented by none other than Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s current president and a survivor of Villa Grimaldi.

What is Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi? It is a reality documentary winks Michael Moore style, which explores the horrors that were committed due to the coup that gave Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1973. However, this exploration is done through the art of the musician Quique Cruz, while director of the film. Cruz was one of the inmates of the Villa Grimaldi concentration camp who manage to survive only thanks to closure a clerical error that left him at liberty. Hundreds of fellow bulls did not run the same fate and the documentary is a horrifying journey through the memories of their stay in the villa.

In particular, the presence of a friend’s documentary filmmaker, painter Guillermo Nunez, also a concentration camp survivor, gives greater weight to the documentary. The visual aspect, already low budget with paintings rose Nunez, while the narrative of the painter brings a darkness to Cross finds it difficult to convey, by the strong emotions involved.

Produced by PBS, Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi, is a powerful journey through the dreams and tragedies of a generation marked by the Pinochet dictatorship, but at the same time has reached his artistic maturity. A document to pain and art, which recalls the films of Michael Moore in the compromise, but at the same time has elements of horror told by its own protagonists.