Directing
Mar 6, 1952
Santiago, Chile
Ignacio Agüero
Directing
Biography
Ignacio Agüero is one of the most renowned documentary filmmakers in Chile. He studied Architecture and Cinema, and graduated from the School of Communication Arts of the Universidad Católica de Chile, with the title of Artistic Director with a mention in cinema in 1979. He is a founding member of the Association of Documentary Filmmakers of Chile, of which he was its first president. Although he has stood out for making independent documentaries, he has also worked as a producer, editor, cameraman, actor, and has been a judge in national and international competitions. In 1988 he participated as co-director and editor of "La Franja del NO", a television message in the campaign for the plebiscite that overthrew the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Parallel to his work as a filmmaker, he has produced numerous works commissioned by television, both national and foreign. Among them, the most important ones: Neruda, all the love (1998), with script by Antonio Skármeta, filmed for Canal + Spain, and several chapters of the series Heredia & asociados, based on the stories of novelist Ramon Diaz Eterovic. From his production company Ignacio Agüero & Asociado, he produced the series Maldito corazón, about historical crimes in Chile, winner of the National Television Council contest and produced for Chilevisión in 2011. No olvidar (1982), his initial film, touches on the theme of the so-called "Lonquén Ovens Massacre", committed in 1978 and discovered a few years later. In 1988, Agüero made a documentary that made history, One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train. From misery and marginality, the film tells the innocent story of a group of children who travel from their town to the center of the city to attend a film session for the first time. It was awarded the First Prize for a Documentary at the 1988 Havana Film Festival, the year of its premiere. In 1993 she premiered the documentary Dreams of Ice, which won the Grand Prize for Documentary at the Mannhein-Heidelberg Festival in 1994, and in 2000 her documentary Aquí se construye, first prize at the Docupolis Festival in Barcelona, and best national documentary at FIDOCS (Santiago de Chile) in 2001. In 2004 he made the documentary La mamá de mi abuela le contó a mi abuela. Later he made the outstanding documentary El diario de Agustín (2008), about the active participation of the newspaper El Mercurio in the military coup and later in the consolidation of the military dictatorship. In 2011, he made a documentary about the building that currently houses the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center, GAM (2001) and in 2012 he premiered his personal documentary El otro día, a film with Al that won the Altazor 2014 Award for documentary direction. This is the fourth Altazor obtained by Ignacio Agüero after the triumphs of 2005 with La mamá de mi abuela le contó a mi abuela, 2006 with Heredia y Asociados and 2009 with El diario de Agustín. He has conducted numerous training workshops in Chile, Mexico, Barcelona, Bolivia, and has developed project tutorials in Mexico, Costa Rica, Buenos Aires, Nicaragua and Chile. Ignacio Agüero is an associate professor at the Institute of Communication and Image (ICEI) of the Universidad de Chile and Coordinator of the Master's Degree in Documentary Film.
Feature Films (18)
Belgian civil engineer Gustave Verniory still had a lot to learn when in 1889 he was hired to construct a railroad across the unspoiled natural landscape of Araucanía, a region that had recently become part of Chile. The tumultuous past and the ever-changing landscape are a constant background presence in Notes for a Film.
Notes for a Film
In a bar in Santiago, two old men talk over their past. This is a strange discussion. In fact, they talk of themselves as if they were dead. We don't know what is true or false, what is dream or reality.
Days in the Country
This was a man. He lived with his mother. He cared a manor house in the countryside of Chile. One day the man found a bone in the garden. The bone was bored. That was a bone flute. The man with the flute music play. And music song became. The voice of the song begging to seek the other bones of his scattered body. The man and his mother were in those ways of God and hell, looking for the bones that make up the skeleton of that Christian. And give him a Christian burial. And they saw what they saw, they lived what they lived. Many stories lived. And although they did not tell anyone, others told them.
La Recta Provincia
Leo Quinteros music is the base to this film in which filmmakers, actors and actresses and other creators reunite in different hotel rooms.
11 Habitaciones en Antártica
The house of the director has a door out to the sidewalk. This gate separates the inside from the outside. The interior contains the filmmaker's personal story and his world of objects, thoughts and imaginations. Outer space contains the city of Santiago de Chile. The stories of the world inside the house are interrupted when the doorbell rings unknown and thus come into the film.
The Other Day
Television & Series (3)
An ode to Chilean maritime myth and storytelling. Sailors onboard the Lucerna tell stories, but before long their stories intersect.
Litoral
This was a man. He lived with his mother. He cared a manor house in the countryside of Chile. One day the man found a bone in the garden. The bone was bored. That was a bone flute. The man with the flute music play. And music song became. The voice of the song begging to seek the other bones of his scattered body. The man and his mother were in those ways of God and hell, looking for the bones that make up the skeleton of that Christian. And give him a Christian burial. And they saw what they saw, they lived what they lived. Many stories lived. And although they did not tell anyone, others told them.
