The Battle of Chile

On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende's democratically-elected Chilean government was overthrown in a bloody coup by General Augusto Pinochet's army.

Patricio Guzmán and five colleagues had been filming the political developments in Chile throughout the nine months leading up to that day. The bombing of the Presidential Palace, during which Allende died, would now become the ending for Guzman's seminal documentary The Battle of Chile, an epic chronicle of that country's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it.

Now restored, The Village Voice called it, "The major political film of our time," and the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "A landmark in the presentation of living history on film."

Also included is Guzmán's debut feature, The First Year (El primer año), which chronicles the jubilant 12 months following the election of Allende. These two films provide an invaluable opportunity to witness the genesis of Guzmán’s body of work and to gain insight into a critical period in Chilean history.