Description

Chileans of the North is an exceptional film ? a documentary that transcends its genre and becomes a story telling, brilliant for its clarity, compass of many issues and the tender respect shown for its subjects so that rather than being interviewed, they are telling their own story.

Director Chris Paul wanted to tell the story of the Chilean refugees who came to Sheffield and Rotherham in the 1970s; why they came and what had happened in Chile; the people who organised to receive and support them; the Sheffield Trades Council and trade unions who helped to find them jobs; their experiences and feelings; some of the downsides, such as the frequent targeted or casual racism they encountered; their mounting sense of dislocation; their hopes of returning to Chile and the difficulties they experienced when they tried to do so; the strength of their own community and culture and the music, food and festivities they shared with their hosts; their children, born in Britain or growing up here, and their feelings about Chile, their families and their own identity.

No less important was the impact the Chilean community had on Sheffield. This is described in the film with eminent clarity by Helen Jackson, a Labour movement activist at the time, who went on to be MP for Sheffield Hillsborough from 1992 to 2005. ?It was the real contact with people writing to you from prison in Chile that switched people on. This wasn?t just a mechanical piece of solidarity. These were real people who were active in a labour movement there. It was that bond that made the difference.?

Description

27-29 High St,

Swansea,

Wales,

SA1 1LG.