Aldo Francia
Directing
Biography
If there is a filmmaker who embodies the so-called New Chilean Cinema, it is Aldo Francia. Although he was the author of a short filmography of only two finished films, Valparaíso mi amor (1969) and Ya no basta con rezar (1972), France understood cinema from the first moment as a collective action and his individual authorship always remained in the background with respect to his most beloved creation: the Viña del Mar Film Festival. A pediatrician by profession, Aldo Francia developed as a self-taught filmmaker. As he recalls in his book New Latin American Cinema in Viña del Mar (1990), his first approach to cinema took place in Paris on a cold autumn afternoon in November 1949. "On one of those evenings in a small cinema in the quartier, on the side of Boulevard Saint Michel, where the film projector had just been turned off and the lights on in the room, we all found ourselves with tearful eyes, without any possibility of concealing it. They had just projected Bicycle Thief by Vittorio de Sica. And we had the feeling that something new had started in the cinema. At that moment, being already a doctor, I decided that one day I would also be a filmmaker" (Francia, Aldo. New Latin American Cinema in Viña del Mar Santiago: CESOC: Chile-America, 1990. 242 p.). The exhibition of the classic of Italian Neorealism left a deep impression in Francia. He soon got a Paillard 8mm camera and began a career as an amateur filmmaker. Paris in autumn (1957); Paceña (1959), about the indigenous neighborhoods of the city of La Paz; Carnaval (1960), filmed in Rio de Janeiro; and Lluvia (1961), made in the Latin quarter of Paris, were his first works. He later founded a Cine Club (1962), built the Cine Arte cinema in Viña del Mar, created a film magazine and, once all that was achieved, launched an international call for other amateur filmmakers from around the world. Thus was born the first Viña del Mar Amateur Film Festival (1963).In that city, the greatest Latin American film meeting of the time was held and Aldo Francia was its host par excellence. He discovered that his desire to make and learn was also a way to generate social change. The airs and graces of the revolution turned Viña del Mar into the ideal space for reflection and dissemination of a cinema in process.
Known For
Assigned to South America, US official Philip Michael Santore is employed by a counterinsurgency agency. His position makes him a target for a local band of guerrillas, and, before long, Santore is kidnapped. As a prisoner, he undergoes interrogation, shedding light on the violent situation in the country. Once the insurgents are done with their questioning, they must decide whether Santore lives or dies.
State of Siege
Many socially-concerned priests in Catholic Latin America have at some time left their parish churches to go and work in the fields and factories of the poor. Such priests, usually adherents of "liberation theology," are called "worker-priests." This Chilean film tells the story of how one man became a "worker-priest" and won the trust of the poor.
Enough Praying
Experimental film by Aldo Francia that consists in diverse situations through the 123 steps of the Santa Justina staircase in the Cerro Larraín of Valparaíso.
La Escala
A story inspired by real events that took place in the port of Valparaiso. Four poor children have been abandoned because their father, who is out of work, steals cattle to feed them and the police have arrested him. The story takes up the children's point of view and is structured in four episodes that describe their inevitable descent into the world of marginality and crime. Faced with life in a brutal way, from their problematic social situation, they head towards a marginality that is difficult to avoid.
Valparaiso My Love
Unfinished film made by Aldo Francia in 1966. It tells the story of a solitary subject who walks the streets of Valparaíso.
Solo
Anthropological record with aspects of this festival, when it did not yet have the subsequent production levels.
Carnaval
A tour of one of the most famous districts of Paris, marked by the passage of umbrellas, especially a red one that seems to be the protagonist of the short film.
Rain in the Latino Quarter
Sequence filmed at the popular religious festival of the Virgin of Andacollo, Chile.
Baile de los Chinos
A counterpoint between what happens in a Parisian cemetery and in the Latin quarter of the same city.