The Battle of Chile(1975)
created by Patricio Guzmán
Chile, filmed in the year before the coup.
Where to watch: Subscription: OVID; rent $4.99 and buy $10.99 on Apple TV for Part I (JustWatch US, checked 2026-09-23). Verify which parts are on each service.Letterboxd ↗
Guzmán and a small crew filmed Chile in the year before the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende, as the right organized strikes, shop owners shut their doors and workers took over factories. The trilogy is a record of a country coming apart, shot by people who didn't know how it would end. Footage was smuggled out of Chile and the film was finished in Cuba.
Why it’s here
It is the best document we have of how a democracy gets taken apart from inside and outside. What's punk is the camera: the crew was filming while the coup began, and the cameraman Jorge Muller was later disappeared. What's pedagogical is the way it lets students see strikes, propaganda and the US role in real time. Pairs with The Jakarta Method, Open Veins of Latin America and Nostalgia for the Light (suggested 10-29). Note: three parts, over four hours in total; Part I is the entry point.
Where This Series Lives
- Setting
- Chile • Latin America
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