Dreaming from Far Away. Places of Memory in the Documentaries El edificio de los chilenos (Macarena Aguiló, 2010) and La cordillera de los sueños (Patricio Guzmán, 2019)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the places of memory in two recent Chilean documentaries, El edificio de los chilenos  (Macarena Aguiló, 2010) and La cordillera de los sueños (Patricio Guzmán, 2019). First, we go through the biographies of both directors to account for their respective places of enunciation. Then, we analyze the relationship that the voice establishes with the places of memory it inhabits, and with other subjects and objects with which the “I” enters into dialogue. Finally, we show how both documentaries perform a subjective discourse from which the directors inquire into their respective individual pasts as exiles and aspire to build bridges with other subjects in order to contribute to the formation of a collective and transgenerational memory.