Chile’s Storyboard Media brings its latest documentary venture to Berlin, a project centered on Jorge González, a Latin American music legend frontman of Los Prisioneros.
Set to be shown at the EFM, the doc feature charts the life and legacy of a musician whose songs became anthems of resistance during Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, and are still played loud when protests flare.
Their hit song “Tren Al Sur” captured a longing for escape and with its opening chorus line “And don’t call me poor” a punchy naming of inequality and judgment that rested over Chile under Pinochet, and indeed after.
Titled simply “Jorge,” the film tracks his tumultuous journey through music, politics and a a life-changing stroke in 2015 that nearly claimed his life, and his realization he will not be able to perform regularly on stage again.
“Jorge” marks the directorial debut of Nicolás Pavie who met González in a plaza shortly after his stroke and spent eight months documenting his recovery, told through a trove of unpublished archive material.
Pavie’s background – editing for a number of leading TV companies in Chile for over a decade – has built a perfect skillset to piece the trove together with much needed care.
It’s a good time for the Chilean doc scene no doubt buoyed by “The Eternal Memory” nabbing an Oscar nom this year.
Storyboard Media heads Carlos Núñez and Gabriela Sandoval produced with Pavie. Its development stages were rewarded, with three prizes taken at Chile’s premier international documentary forum, Conecta, making it that year’s most awarded project.