The 1973 Chilean military coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power was perhaps one of the most important events of the twentieth century in terms of sparking internationalist solidarity organizing among leftists and socialists around the globe. The presence of exiled Chileans and their cultural production in these spaces of activism fostered great interest in the human rights abuses occurring under dictatorship and presented a vital movement for exposing and denouncing state violence across the Americas. José Miguel Palacios’s study of Chilean exile cinema presents an important new set of analytical concepts that will enrich future conversations not only about Latin American cinema, but also about how we understand transnational solidarity movements. It joins a broadening scholarly exploration of transnational, or world, cinema, engaging in many of the central debates that inform these studies regarding the movement of peoples, ideas, and resources across wide geographies.

The book traces the conditions and many routes of film production by Chileans during exile, considering a body of more than 200 works. Exploring the connections that filmmakers made as they navigated unfamiliar spaces, it is also a reflection on what life in exile was like, what it had to offer, and its many frustrations. Palacios connects with the emotional state of directors as they faced real fears for their own lives and the lives of their loved ones, and it considers the affective states that informed filmmakers’ political subjectivities. The author contextualizes the production of several well-known Chilean films and others that benefited from Chilean cinematic expertise as newcomers to film industries in host countries, exchanges that were shaped by solidarity and the experience of exile.

Palacios details the intimate accounts of how individual films were made, stored, recovered, and ultimately remembered in the Chilean diaspora. Drawing on extensive interviews, he presents nuanced tellings of the individual struggles and creative exploits of established filmmakers such as Raúl Ruiz, Pedro Chaskel, and Miguel Littin. He describes their feelings of fragmentation and loss, the difficulty of return, and the chaotic processes by which lives were torn apart and then cobbled back together. Palacios also sheds light on the career interruptions that exile created for others. One rather remarkable contribution to the field includes the book’s fifth chapter, which introduces the experimental “diary film” made by filmmakers such as Angelina Vázquez, Marilú Mallet, and Antonio Skármeta. This chapter documents the intimate mediations on the esthetic forms and artistic labor of each director. Another gem is the book’s treatment of bootlegs, cine club screenings, solidarity events, and other informal modes of circulation of Chilean film work. It highlights key events and political strategies of circulation, such as the story of CUNY TV’s Cinema Then, Cinema Now program, or various Third Cinema festivals.

The concept of transnational cinema solidarity that Palacios uses is described as a form of solidarity that relies on political and creative friendships to mobilize action. He argues for a reframing of cinema of solidarity or exile as non-national and makes a strong case for moving away from the study of Latin American cinema through national frameworks. The book is dedicated to the legacy of cinema studies’ scholar Zuzana Pick, and its sharpness of focus is evidence of the strong intellectual currents to which Palacios is indebted. Palacios’ work is also influenced by the archival turn in film studies, with an excellent final chapter of the book focused on the archival practices of collecting, exhibiting, and eventually repatriating diasporic film back to Chile. This final chapter wrestles with the limitations of institutional archival practices and asks for a reconsideration of the interstitial nature of scattered bodies of work.

Palacios’ work is entirely fresh and captivating. It makes a substantial contribution to thinking about the place of Chilean exiles in global film history and to the nature of cultural production as a form of transnational solidarity.