I missed the ninth session of class, and as a result, I did not know we were studying a new director,Patricio Guzmán and his works. Upon learning this,I wondered what sort of films Guzmán is known for and what his general filmmaking style is. At the time,I only saw Sara Gomez and Glauber Rocha’s films, and they are vastly different in both subject and style. Both directors use their films to criticize their country’s society,class structures,and the people who take advantage of the systematic oppression built into them. Gomez, however,has a more subtle and personal style of filmmaking. A majority of her films are documentaries that focus on the marginalized groups in Cuba,mainly women and Afro-Cubans. She takes the time to interview people in those groups and to both humanize them and use their stories to emphasize the main topic of her films. She also takes the time to criticize movements within oppressive societies that claim to be more progressive yet continue to leave the most vulnerable behind,such as women in Mi Aporte (1972) and children in a subplot within One Way or Another (1977). Rocha also has documentaries in his filmography,however his critiques are embedded in more narrative films. Barravento (1962), Black God,White Devil (1964) both have characters that cling to religion to cope with the poverty and disenfranchisement they face,and their conflict is meant to reflect how intertwined religion and politics are in the real world. In contrast to Gomez,however,his films express these themes in ways that are much less down-to-earth. In Black God,White Devil (1964), there are multiple bloody murders,including one of an infant. There is much spectacle in his non-fiction works. 

     If Gomez and Rocha are opposite ends of the same spectrum,Patricio Guzmán and his works are in the center. The first film I saw from him, Chile,The Obstinate Memory(1997), is a documentary closer to the works of Gomez and includes much of the same techniques she uses. There are interviews from people involved in the capture of Palacio de La Moneda,the ensuing protests against the new president, Augusto Pinochet,and life under his dictatorship. He also critiques the parts of society that accepted and supported Pinochet in these interviews,such as the women featured in his first film supporting Pinochet years later. He also takes a page out of Rocha’s book by creating brutal narratives in between these interviews to show the dissonance between life within Chile post-Salvador Allende and the image that was projected onto the rest of the world. An example would be the scene involving Chile’s National Stadium. It served as a prison for political activists and supporters of Allende,which was later used to host soccer games. It shows footage and photographs of soldiers preparing to execute prisoners,only to be met with thousands of people in the stands shooting rockets,climbing fences,and covering the area in smoke. Guzmán shows the humanity of the people who lived during the time while also showing the chaos of society at large with brutal honesty.