This week, the Usach Heritage Archive made a significant announcement for our university’s cultural heritage: it has received the audiovisual archive of filmmaker Pablo Salas, who became the foremost documentary archivist of the dictatorship’s dark period in Chilean history.
Having completed his secondary education at Instituto Nacional and studied civil and mechanical engineering, the photographer, producer, and documentary director then joined Teatro Ictus’s newly formed audiovisual production company.
Between 1981 and 1984, he bravely recorded the initial uprisings against the military regime. Risking his life countless times, he became the quintessential audiovisual journalist of the protests against Augusto Pinochet and his civilian dictatorship.
Beyond unofficial domestic media, Salas’s collaborations extended to prominent international outlets, including RAI (Italy), TVE (Spain), and ARD (Germany).
Recognized by prominent filmmakers like Patricio Guzmán, who featured his archive in El Caso Pinochet, Salas was also awarded the Pudú Prize for Lifetime Achievement at the 30th Valdivia Film Festival.
The documentary filmmaker stated, “The tapes now arriving at the University of Santiago, successor to the Technical University of the State, carry many memories of the worst period our country has ever experienced. Their content is so varied and abundant that, as I make this transfer, I am amazed by the quantity and curious to see what remains of such a sad time.”
He also noted that since the military dictatorship’s end, society has shown a vague interest in its recent past, primarily evoked by a few individuals or occasional commemorations.
Salas emphasized the current global climate: “The era we are living in is one of denial, or worse, of vindication of injustices, abuses, and crimes that we thought would never return. This makes it so important to rescue memory, to astonish and show that it must never happen again.” He concluded, “My tapes are now better cared for in the Usach Heritage Archive, and I hope that our country can also take care of its memory. I am grateful for the tremendous work involved in rescuing this little piece of memory, which is so badly needed at this time.”
Michelle Ribaut Kompatzki, audiovisual manager at the Usach Heritage Archive, stated that adding Pablo Salas’s recordings is a fundamental milestone in their commitment to preserving, researching, and disseminating the country’s historical memory.
She described the collection as “a unique source of great heritage value for our University and for Chile,” noting it consists of “more than two thousand tapes that directly and courageously document the main social and political events since the 1980s.”
Ribaut also noted that handling this archive means taking on the responsibility of preserving not only its contents, but also its critical and committed stance on human rights, freedom of expression, and collective memory.
The head of our University’s film heritage concluded, “We understand the importance of preserving this legacy, ensuring its accessibility, and activating it in dialogue with new generations. We aim to strengthen the democratic use of heritage, always with its creator, integrating this collection into the public domain, and opening new avenues for research, creation, and education in academic, cultural, and community contexts.”