SCREEN/THE BIG SCREEN
LOST IN THE STARS Nostalgia for the Light illuminates a people and a problem GEORGE PRENTICE In Nostalgia de la Luz, the most beautiful title of any film so far this year, we are instantly swept away to a breathtaking tour of the cosmos. But in short time, we recognize that our cinematic journey will not only explore the heavens but also Earth and, ultimately, hell. Released as Nostalgia for the Light, the film from master documentarian Patricio Guzman transports us to the relatively unknown Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Even from space, the big blue marble on which we live is Chile’s Atacama Desert is a place of wonder—and thousands of mummified bodies. scarred by the brown patch that is Atacama. At 10,000 feet in elevation, the desert has that only the Atacama and its guardians of But the mystery of why the Atacama absolutely no humidity, and the air is crystalstars and planets know the truth. Desert contains so many human remains is line and dangerously thin. As a result, scienNostalgia for Light also introduces astroltists have fallen in love with the Chilean sky— a shameful reminder of mid-20th century ogers looking to the heavens and a group of astronomers found that they could “touch the history. In the 1973 Chilean military coup women who wander through the desert, siftled by Augusto Pinochet over the demostars” and began building the planet’s largest ing scorched earth with their fingers, searchcratically elected government of President telescopes in Atacama. ing for remains of their husbands, brothers Salvador Allende, thousands of citizens Even without the aid of magnification, the or children. In a beautiful moment near the were murdered and up to 80,000 political night sky is brilliant with nebulae, constelend of the 90-minute film, two of the women prisoners were inlations and galactic terned, many of them are invited inside a massive structure, which mysteries. But the tortured. Many of the houses a telescope. They look inside the lens driest portions of the NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (NR) while a young astronomer beams. But even so-called “desapareregion have never Directed by Patricio Guzman he knows that none of his science can assist cidos” (the disaprecorded a drop of Featuring Patricio Guzman, Gaspar Calas, the women’s journey for closure. peared) were transprecipitation and the Lautaro Nunez Of the countless images of Nostalgia for ported to abandoned land is permeated with Opens Friday at The Flicks the Light, one is burned indelibly into my mining camps in the salt. No insects, birds memory: As beautiful images of starbursts Atacama Desert that or animals have ever and planets dissolve into one another, the became makeshift survived there, and camera settles on something that resembles concentration camps. due to the environmental confluences, human the surface of Mars. But as the lens pans Most of the prisoners were never acremains are mummified in the desert, frozen in down, we realize that it is not another planet, time. As Guzman narrated the nearly impossi- counted for in the two decades that Pinobut a bronzed, seared human skull. chet remained in power. A few mass graves ble-to-believe story, I had to remind myself to were discovered, but most Chileans know breathe—the visuals were overwhelming.
SCREEN/THE TUBE AN OPEN LETTER TO DIRECTV AND DISH NETWORK Dear Mr. DirecTV and Mr. Dish, I know you have been terribly busy trying to bash each other’s brains in, but could one of you, please, please, please consider adding a stateside edition of Canadian channel CBC to your lineup? For goodness sakes, BBC America is a major success here in the United States. Plus you fill our schedules with programming from Korea, Italy, Central America and everywhere else—but Canada. What do you have against our neighbors to the north?
22 | JULY 27 – AUGUST 2, 2011 | BOISEweekly
Little Mosque on the Prairie—the Ingalls’ problems were never this funny.
Having grown up in a border town, I used to love original programming on the CBC, such as The National, Street Legal and, of course, Hockey Night in Canada. And to this day, anytime I travel to Toronto or Vancouver, I’m reminded that their shows have only gotten better. Little Mosque on the Prairie (that’s a real show), George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight (that’s his real name) and The National (it’s still on the air and has been since 1954) are all swell. So how about a little love for our hoser cousins, eh? —George Prentice WWW. B O I S E WE E KLY. C O M