Departmental Research Seminar - ‘Alternative Video’ in Latin America: TELEANÁLISIS, Images of the Invisible Country

5 - 6.30pm - Room MI A0.28 Followed by a wine reception.

In the second half of the 1980s, a group of journalists formed part of a clandestine ‘audiovisual magazine’. This was an illegal monthly newsreel distributed among diverse social organisms committed to the struggle against Pinochet’s military dictatorship in Chile. Its name was Teleanálisis and for six years it documented strikes, protests, and demonstrations, as well as varied social and cultural events concealed by the media of the time.

During these years, Chilean political reality was replayed throughout the region. Military dictatorships scourged Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Under this scenario, a movement began in Latin America, animated by the experiences of ‘alternative communication’ and the appearance of home-video technology, which promoted the democratization of communications to transform society. This was called ‘Alternative Video’ or ‘Popular Video’ and Teleanálisis became one of its most outstanding expressions.

This lecture is an exploration into Chile’s recent past in order to gain an understanding of the experience of Teleanálisis and place it in the context of the ‘Alternative Video’ movement in Latin America. It is a type of ‘case study’, as an example of a dozen or so projects, mostly funded by European NGOs, which fought to re-establish democracy in their respective countries and became a channel of expression for populations on the margin of the social and political system.