In Wheeler Auditorium

Admission: $2.50

“The Power of the People is the long-awaited final part of The Battle of Chile, Patricio Guzmán's celebrated documentary trilogy dealing with the last year of democratic government in Chile before the military coup of September 11, 1973. The first two parts of the trilogy, The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie and The Coup d'Etat, have received or been nominated for 18 awards at international festivals, and have been ranked among the most outstanding documentaries in recent years. Like the previous films, The Power of the People is the result of nine months of intensive filming, seven days a week and often 24 hours a day, in the factories, farms, streets and homes of Chile by Guzmán and his poorly equipped crew. The material was eventually smuggled out of the country piece by piece and edited at ICAIC, the Cuban Film Institute. Guzmán himself was detained during the coup in the infamous Santiago Sports Stadium, while his cameraman, Jorge Müller (Silva), was arrested a year after the coup and has not been seen since. The film deals with what may come to be seen as the most significant aspect of the Popular Unity period: the creation by ordinary workers and peasants of thousands of organisms of ‘popular power' to distribute food, occupy, guard and run factories and farms, oppose black market profiteering, and link together in ‘community zones' grass roots social services, factory, farm and other organisations, first as a defence against strikes and lock-outs by factory owners, tradesmen and professional bodies and then increasingly as soviet-type organisations demanding more resolute action by a vacillating government.”