(October 17, 2006) UN?s Desert Nights Film Festival will Premiere the Chilean Film Deserted Memory, which Deals with Chile?s Nitrate Mining History, its Human Rights Legacy under Pinochet and its Deficit of Cultural Memory.
The Chilean documentary film Deserted Memory was accepted to premiere at the United Nations? Desert Nights Film Festival, from December 1-7, in Rome, Italy, because of the film?s stories about life in Chile?
s Atacama Desert.
Deserted Memory relates the history and present-day condition of Chacabuco, an abandoned nitrate mining town that also served as a Pinochet concentration camp and is currently surrounded by nearly 100 lost landmines.
declared 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD).
In an effort to raise public awareness through film, the one-time has sought real-life stories from desert?s and dry-lands communities throughout the world.
The film festival Honors Committee includes Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, Columbian writer and Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel Garc?
a Marqu?z, German director Wim Wenders, Brazilian photographer Sebasti?o Salgado, and Indian writer Amitav Ghosh.
http://www.desertnightsfestival.org/honour_committee.
htm
Deserted Memory, , which is directed by Chilean independent filmmaker Niles Atallah, features archival images of Chacabuco, digital video footage, Super 8mm film footage and still photographs.
Those interviewed include a nitrate mining town architectural expert, two former political prisoners under Pinochet and two spiritual guardians of the ghost town ruins, one of whom currently lives alone in Chacabuco.
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I wanted to use the empty spaces of the desert and the ruins of Chacabuco to convey the loss of memory in Chile, and the struggle to bring it back,? said Atallah.
Deserted Memory is produced by The Chacabuco Project http://www.
chacabuco.org, a Santiago, Chile based effort created by Atallah and co-producer Will Sherman in April 2006.
In May, The Chacabuco Project raised nearly USD $2,000 for production costs through an internet-based, grassroots fundraising campaign.
The project recently launched a second fundraising drive to cover costs of post-production, distribution and continued film festivals submissions.
In addition to Desert Nights Film Festival, Deserted Memory will be shown in universities and cultural centers in the United States, Europe and Chile.
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