Film Screening: Salvador Allende

October 8, 2024 - 6:00 pm

Segal Theatre
The Graduate Center, CUNY

Film screening followed by a Q&A Session

The film focuses on the tumultuous three years following Allende’s election, and the declaration of his socialist program, “la via chilena,” which nationalized large-scale industries and began an agrarian reform program. Former U.S. Ambassador Korry provides an insider’s account of President Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s determination to thwart Allende, but he is unrepentant about the CIA-sponsored coup that overthrew the Chilean government.

SALVADOR ALLENDE also reveals little-known, more intimate aspects of the man, with moving personal reminiscences of his sense of humor, his remarkable energy, personal charisma and popular political appeal. Through archival footage and eyewitness and participant accounts, the film re-creates the military assault on the Moneda, Allende’s last radio broadcast to the people of Chile, and rare photos and footage documenting the final actions of Allende and his staff on that day, including his suicide.

Guzmán’s personalized voice-over commentary provides a compelling narrative thread for this political biography, one which, in his attempt to understand the impact of Allende on his own life and his nation’s political history, also serves to illuminate this controversial and inspirational public figure for an international audience.

 

Jerry W. Carlson (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is professor and a historian of narrative forms with special expertise in narrative theory, the history of the novel, global independent film, and the cinemas of the Americas. From 2013 to 2022 he served as Chair of the Department of Media & Communication Arts at The City College CUNY. In addition, at the CUNY Graduate Center he is a member of the doctoral faculties of French, Comparative Literature, and Film & Media Cultures and a Senior Fellow at the Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies. He has lectured at Stanford, Columbia, Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (Cuba), the University of Paris, and the University of Sao Paulo, among others. His current research is focused on how film and prose fiction from the Global South portray the histories and legacies of slavery, imperialism and colonialism. Moreover, he is an active producer, director, and writer with multiple Emmy Awards. As a Senior Producer for City University Television (CUNY-TV), he created the series City Cinematheque about film history, Canapé about French-American cultural relations, and Nueva York (in Spanish) about the Latino cultures of New York City. As an independent producer, his work includes the Showtime Networks production Dirt directed by Nancy Savoca and Looking for Palladin directed by Andrzej Krakowski. In 1998, he was inducted by France as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques.

Curator & Moderator: Jerry W. Carlson, Senior Fellow, The Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies & Professor, The City College & Graduate Center, CUNY

TO REGISTER send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu