La ciudad de los fotógrafos

During Augusto Pinochet's heydays in the 1980s, an independent movement of photographers was gaining force in the Chilean capital of Santiago. They photographed what was not meant for the public eye, and this gradually brought about a revolution. It all started with the publication of pictures of people buried alive and hung upside down in the mine shaft at Longuér. The photos of this place made Chile aware of what was happening under Pinochet. The Independent Photographers Guild Association - AFI in Spanish - was founded. The group was made up of both professional photographers and amateurs who simply owned a camera. When foreign media also started publishing their work, the AFI became a party to reckon with for the junta: "Our work helped end the tyranny. That's why they went after us." The photographers' eyewitness accounts and pictures convincingly visualise the story of these passionate people. The documentary gains strength through the well-documented addition of film footage: the photographic moments literally come alive in the archive footage. We see the photographers running for their lives or saving their companions from the corrupt police. Filmmaker Sebastián Moreno's father was among them. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)