Traveling Memories

Abstract

This chapter examines recent homecoming films as documents informed by experiences of exile in the context of postdictatorial Chile. It analyzes three first-person documentaries by second-generation women directors who were born or grew up in exile: En algún lugar del cielo (Somewhere in Heaven) (Alejandra Carmona, 2003); El edificio de los chilenos (The Chilean Building) (Macarena Aguiló, co-directed by Susana Foxley, 2010); and El eco de las canciones (The Echo of Songs) (Antonia Rossi, 2010). Using the notion of “traveling memories,” the chapter considers these women directors' cinematic construction of childhood memories, which are deeply entangled with the experience of growing up in an environment marked by political displacement. It shows that these directors' memories of displaced childhood are of a deeply affective nature and are often conveyed through the deployment of abundant archival materials (family pictures, home movies, letters, and drawings), the significant use of the traveling shot, as well as the elaboration of sophisticated reenactment sequences.