Reconstrucciones del pasado: análisis historiográfico y estilístico del documental La memoria obstinada de Patricio Guzmán

Patricio Guzman’s 1997 documentary film La memoria obstinada contains highly interesting narrative elements. These performative devices, also called re-enactments, are remarkably effective in historiographical, psychological, and cultural terms. These stylistic devices present in the Chilean director's cinematographic work manage to materialize memory within the sociocultural context to which they belong. The film thus fulfils its objective of enlightening new generations of young people about a past that has been denied to them, giving them back an important part of their identity. Our work seeks to highlight the historiographical scope of this narrative technique and of Guzman’s work in general, through a semiotic and historiographical analysis of select scenes from La memoria obstinada in which this relevance is evident. To this end, we will primarily use the terminology of cinematic semiotics present in the work of both Robert Stam and Bill Nichols. We will also refer to the work on memory studies by philosopher Paul Ricœur, the historiographical analysis of La memoria obstinada by Kaitlin Murphy, and the biographical study about Patricio Guzman and his work by critic Jorge Ruffinelli, among other analyses of this same film. We will thus argue that this documentary retains—despite the passing of time—its relevance and continues to move audiences. In this way, we can promote the educational relevance of Guzman’s work and demonstrate its level of transcendence or impact on Chilean collective memory.