Filmmaker Karin Cuyul offers a fresh perspective on Chile's recent history in her feature-length documentary, 'La vida que vendrá.' Through a non-linear narrative, the film spans the period from the Popular Unity government to the 2019 social uprising, utilizing visual records originally captured in color to challenge the traditional monochrome narrative.
As reported by the newspaper El Mostrador, the director employs an autobiographical structure and an archaeological approach to imagery to argue that history is cyclical. Cuyul asserts that the use of color is a fundamental political choice, intended to restore agency to historical subjects.
“I feel that color gives the film the character of a living archive,” Cuyul told El Mostrador. The director added that black-and-white footage often reduces people solely to victims of violence, whereas color allows us to see organized individuals who believed in collective projects.
A Democratic Archive and the Resilience of Material
The research process, which formally began in 2021, allowed the director to access a vast bank of images captured by foreign correspondents who covered Salvador Allende’s election and the years of the Popular Unity. Cuyul described the discovery of these original reels as a “time capsule” due to the sharpness and quality of the film stock.
However, the production faced obstacles in securing certain materials. The director recounted to the outlet that she had to discard official foreign archives due to the transactional demands of some rights holders. In one specific instance, a Dutch filmmaker denied the use of his footage housed at the Museum of Memory, arguing that including his material in a new documentary constituted a form of profit-seeking.
The film’s title is taken from a line in the Quilapayún song “El Pueblo Unido.” Cuyul explained that the choice of this name reflects the need to maintain a vision of the future and political resistance, even in the face of personal defeats.
The filmmaker, a graduate of the Arcis University Film School, has focused much of her work on themes of personal and territorial identity. With 'La vida que vendrá,' Cuyul seeks to consolidate a reflection on how the past remains relevant in contemporary social memory, avoiding the separation of individual stories from broader historical processes.
