Island Narratives and Filmic Imagination. Chiloé’s Archipelago in the Chilean Cinema (Twentieth Century)

Abstract

The archipelago of Chiloé in Southern Chile has become today an iconic place for Chilean cinema. In this article we inquire into the genealogy of narratives that fed the cinematic imaginary elaborated on Chiloé in the 20th century. Our analysis of feature films shot in the archipelago aims to characterize the narrative structures and subjects, and the poetic of spaces that produces the visions and auditions of the island’s imaginaries. Within the framework of a chronological survey through the cinema made in Chiloé and/or with Chiloé people, this characterization will allow to identify the distinctive place occupied by islandscapes and islanders in two narrative paradigms of cinema—formulated by the major Chiloé filmmaker Raúl Ruiz (1941-2011)—: the cinema of central conflict and shamanic cinema.