Description
| Title | I Was, I Am and I Shall Be |
|---|---|
| Duration | 1 hour 16 mins 26 secs |
| Collection | Educational and Television Films Ltd |
| Language | |
| Country View on map | |
| Subjects | |
| Terms of Use | more… |
Description
Documents the conditions in two prision camps in Northern Chile shortly after the 1973 military coup. It uses personal testimonies of prisoners and their jailers.Credits
A Film by Heynowski and Scheumann and Peter Hellmich. Chief cameraman and documentation Peter Hellmich. Camera and special shots: Horst Donth and Winifred Goldner. Montage: Traute Wischenewski. Film Graphics: Walter Martsch. Editors: Robert Michel and Wolfgang Von Polentz. English Translation: John Peet. Cutter Ilse Radtke. Sound: Manfred Berger and Klaus Freymuth. Music: Sergio Ortega and Aparcoa Instrumental Group. Production Manager: Mathias Remmert. Studio H and S. German Democratic Republic 1974.
Segments
?Segment 1
Starts: 0:00
(9:05)
Credits. General Pinochet. Pinochet's anti-Marxist tactics. Ruins of mine workers homes. Investigations into the Junta's concentration camps for political prisoners. Documentation issued by Pinochet licensing the film crew to film but not interview the prisoners. A piper Cherokee plane is hired along with a Pinochet endorsed flight permit. General Lagos, chief of Marshall Law in August province is given the documents and the film crew board his helicopter. Inter-titles cut with footage: travelling over the Atacama Desert they go to the Chacabuco Concentration Camp. Filming is allowed only with the permission of an escorting officer. It was necessary for the film crew to agree to these conditions, in order to identify as alive as many Chilean patriots as possible. Shots of Junta troops surrounding the concentration camps. The prisoners did not know with whom they were dealing and the film crew could not reveal its origin or attitude. They were watched at all times. The film describes the desert environment and the atmosphere and conditions in the concentration camp. Methods of capture and imprisonment described by General Lagos.
Segment 2
Starts: 9:05
(9:46)
Shots of prisoners in the camp. Comparison with Nazi concentration camps made. Prisoners do not have the benefit of evidence, charges, or trials. Interviews with inmates. Evidence of both political and non-political prisoners, detained without evidence or charges and kept without notice for trial. A detained doctor describes physical and psychological effects on inmates, due to their detention. General Lagos makes statements about the facilities provided in the camps. Inmates are exploited to make souvenirs. Shots of watch towers and barbed wire, military personnel are shown, proving the function of the place as a concentration camp. General Lagos speaks further on the camp's facilities and the apparent respect for religious observances and the encouragement of artistic expression. Filming of religious services. An imprisoned doctor sings in the service. Stills of atrocities committed in the concentration camp taken by a hidden camera.
Segment 3
Starts: 18:51
(8:02)
41 photographs expose atrocities committed by Junta troops in the National Stadium of Santiago: pictures of beatings and killings. Inside the stadium prison camp, the camera crew are constantly escorted. Model of prison camp showing areas out of bounds to the film-makers. Allegations of atrocities in these areas. October 1973 international press are given a conducted tour of prisons. An army colonel in charge of all the Junta's prison camps talks of the facilities that are available to the prisoners, including food and clothing. Comments on efforts by Sweden and other Scandinavian countries to take political prisoners to their own countries. The Colonel claims that those is an effort by these countries to improve the genetic stock of their country people in the same way that settlers in Chile wished to improve the indigenous stock. Still - Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, victim of the Junta. Hospital facilities in the prison camp. Staged scenes for camera contrasted with secretly taken photographs and film. Sun protection provisions for guards not provided for prisoners.
Segment 4
Starts: 26:53
(6:42)
Panning and aerial shots of the prison camp. Descriptions of the environmental and psychological conditions of the prisoners. Atrocities committed against the prisoners. Prisoners give descriptions of their previous occupations and their arrest and accounts of experience in camp. Many of these prisoners are journalists and they describe their efforts to keep up prisoner's morale through an in-house publication.
Segment 5
Starts: 33:35
(10:25)
The prison post office. Interview with the Deputy Commander of the prison who notes the history of the prison site as a previous salt mine: stills of workers. Display at Santiago Museum of items used by the workers and photographs of the workers and their conditions. All these items were destroyed after filming. Spring 1973: nationalisation of the salt mines. An old worker describes his previous experiences as a worker, and of learning about socialism and becoming a workers' representative as a union leader.
Segment 6
Starts: 44:00
(13:30)
An abandoned salt mine is now a national memorial. A witness describes how the fascists crushed the workers at the mines when run by private mining companies. Stills of atrocities that occurred during the rebellions. Another witness describes how in the mid Twenties, communist factions were formed and took over another mine. This organisation was again crushed. Conversion of salt factory into prison. A witness describes the conversion of a salt factory into a concentration camp and the installation of prisoners there in the 1940's. Stills - hunger strike undertaken by prisoners in the concentration camp. Archive footage of president Gabriel Gonzalez Videla in the 1940s. Description of his pro-American and anti-communist policies. Fidella filmed in 1973 gives his account of the activities of the 1940's and the crushing of the communist rebellion and their imprisonment. Comparison to Pinochet.
Segment 7
Starts: 57:30
(7:42)
Exterior and interior shots of the concentration camps and prisoners. Secret filming reveals prisoners forced to march and sing national songs. Interviews with political prisoners. Evidence of imprisonment without trial. Further shots of marching prisoners. Description of Junta policies compared to the crushing of the rebellions in the 1940s. Description of the cross section of social-groups and backgrounds in the prison. Interviews with female prisoners. More evidence of political prisoners and their imprisonment without trial and without notice of length of term to be served.
Segment 8
Starts: 1:5:12
(11:14)
Marching prisoners into prison barracks. A secret photograph taken by the crew is evidence of physical torture. Political prisoners. Description of Junta's breach of human rights. A spokesman from the CIA defends Junta policies and justifies the taking of political prisoners. July-August 1974 sees over 20,000 new arrests. Pinochet describes his anti-Marxist policies. Panning shots over Pinochet's prisons. Voice-over poem by Brecht sympathises with the prisoners. Prisoners forced to sing government songs on parade. Singing of the new national anthem [translation provided].
