There
is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by
Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends
Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The next scheduled vigil is on Nov. 6.
Black Lives Matter. Since this is the First Friday, there will be a
potluck dinner after the vigil, followed by a DVD screening of a film.
The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker
Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake
Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL
CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. The DVDs will be shown at Homewood Friends
Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21218, usually on the First
Friday. At 7:15 PM, from September through December, a DVD will be shown with a
discussion to follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be
available. The series theme is CAN WE HAVE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE?
On Fri., Nov. 6 see NOSTAGLIA
FOR THE LIGHT (Spain, 2010, 90 min.) is a documentary by Patricio Guzmán which
addresses the lasting impacts of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Guzmán
focuses on the similarities between astronomers researching humanity’s past, in
an astronomical sense, and the struggle of many Chilean women who still search,
after decades, for the remnants of their relatives executed during the
dictatorship. The director narrates the documentary, which includes interviews
and commentary from those affected by the coup and from astronomers and
archeologists. Contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.
Chile’s Past Is Present in the Desert
Nostalgia for the Light
·
NYT Critics’ Pick
By STEPHEN HOLDEN MARCH 17, 2011
A
scene from the documentary “Nostalgia for the Light.” CreditIcarus Films
The
Atacama Desert in northern Chile — the setting of Patricio Guzmán’s transfixing
cinematic essay “Nostalgia for the Light” — is a place
where heaven and earth converge. Or some might say heaven and hell.
Situated
on the leeward side of the Chilean Coast Range, more than 10,000 feet above sea
level, it is one of the highest deserts and driest places on Earth. Viewed from
space, it is a brown spot on the planet. No rainfall has ever been recorded in
its driest parts, and without moisture, everything is preserved. Pre-Columbian
drawings were inscribed in rock some 2,000 years ago.
The
thin atmosphere and low humidity have made the desert a magnet for astronomers.
Here their telescopes can gaze farther into the universe than from anywhere
else in the world. The opening image is the interior of a radio telescope
pointed to the stars, which are so bright and clear they seem to flare like
miniature high-wattage light bulbs.
Because
much of that incandescence emanates from thousands of light years away, the
film emphasizes, astronomy is really a study of the past — eons of it — the
better to discover who we are, where we came from and where we might be headed.
But
the Atacama was also the site of a concentration camp created in the 1970s by
the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet from the workers’ barracks in the
abandoned 19th-century salt-mining town Chacabuco. Thousands of political prisoners,
many of whom later “disappeared,” were kept there. Today their surviving
relatives, carrying shovels, go to dig for their remains, most of which were
very likely dumped into the ocean.
For Mr. Guzmán, who is best known for his
monumental documentary trilogy in the 1970s, “The Battle of Chile,” and for his sorrowful
2004 screen biography, “Salvador
Allende,” the parallel searches for cosmic origins and for the
disappeared people are interlocking metaphors for the human search for meaning
and continuity. Astronomy and archaeology, he believes, are variations of the
same quest, with one directed toward the sky and the other into the earth.
Mr.
Guzmán’s quietly reflective narration (in subtitled Spanish) is a poetic
meditation on time and distance. But it is also pointedly political in its
focus on remembrance. On a personal level, “Nostalgia for the Light” is his “À
la Recherche du Temps Perdu” in its expression of his longing for a time when
Chile was “a haven of peace, isolated from the world,” a place where “only the
moment existed.”
Defining
the moment, however, is tricky. We meet Gaspar Galaz, a young astronomer who
theorizes that the present doesn’t exist because of the time it takes for light
to reach a viewer. The only example of cinematic overreaching is its
juxtaposition of what looks like digital stardust — or is it a purposeful
double exposure of the heavens and the earth? — on earthbound images.
We
meet two women in their 70s, Victoria and Violeta, who have spent the better
part of three decades combing the landscape for the remains of their loved
ones. Victoria found a foot with her husband’s shoe on it, and she takes
comfort from the discovery. We also meet Miguel, a survivor of five
concentration camps, who from memory drew precise layouts of each prison after
his release.
The
film’s passionate insistence on remembrance lends it a moral as well as a
metaphysical weight. Mr. Guzmán’s belief in eternal memory is an astounding
leap of faith.
Written,
directed and narrated by Patricio Guzmán; director of photography, Katell Djian;
edited by Mr. Guzmán and Emmanuelle Joly; music by Miranda & Tobar;
produced by Renate Sachse; released by Icarus Films. In Spanish, with English
subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. This film is not rated.
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment