Not from Here, Not from There: A First-Person Perspective on Chilean Exile in Cinema

This chapter examines how filmmaking facilitates a first-person perspective on the personal experience of Chilean exile through the essay film Tales from My Childhood (1991), the fiction film Bastards in Paradise (2000), and the documentary The Chilean Building (2010). It analyzes migrant stories conveyed via small-gauge formats, digital video, archival footage, and animation. This chapter argues that these cinematic strategies transform exile into a “cinema of us” centered in childhood memories, kinship, and alternative communities. By reworking traumatic exilic experiences into creative expression, the films probe complex affiliations across time and space. The filmic approach elicits personal stories while constituting shared experiences of displacement and diaspora. Ultimately, this chapter reveals how marginalized groups restore agency through filmmaking practices representing subjective migration narratives.