As part of the film cycle Chile, a country invited to PHotoEspaña 2025, and on the occasion of the exhibition Chile 1971: los primeros días de Allende by Michael Mauney, Casa América is screening this afternoon at 6.30 pm in its cinema room Iberia Chile, the great challenge, directed and written in 1973 by Álvaro Covacevich. Free admission up to 70 seats.
The work of the American Michael Mauney, an unpublished archive from 1971, reveals the gaze of a Life photographer on the hopeful Chile that preceded the break with democracy. It is also part of PhotoEspaña 2025 in which the guest of honor is the southern country.
This film cycle is organized by Casa de América and the Embassy of Chile with the collaboration of the National Cinema Library of Chile, and consists of three feature films on the Popular Unity in Chile: Ya no basta con rezar (Aldo Francia), El gran desafío (Alvaro Covacevich) y En septiembre canta el gallo (Nano Stern and Luis Emilio Briceño), three films that make up a portrait of the first year of Salvador Allende’s government. The films account for the transformative spirit that the country as a whole had during that year, 1971.
After giving itself a pictorial vision of Chile, from north to south, the film records President Salvador Allende’s tour through the following countries: Mexico, Algeria, USSR, the United States and Cuba. Scenes of welcome events, official acts and typical archival notes are presented in each location.
