Look Again. Jan 19 – 29, 2012 Park City, Utah

Like a Chilean Edith Piaf or Bob Dylan, Violeta Parra was a folksinger and pop culture icon whose songs, like “Gracias a la Vida,” expressed the soul of her nation and protested social injustice. Violeta Went to Heaven tells Parra’s extraordinary story, tracing her evolution from impoverished child to international sensation to Chile’s national hero, while capturing the swirling intensity of her inner contradictions, fallibilities, and passions.

Director Andrés Wood, whose films are distinguished for crystallizing Chile’s zeitgeist, wisely moves beyond linear biography, drawing on an impressionistic structure and a reverberating performance by actress Francisca Gavilán, to unearth the elusive, charged core of this magnetic character. Wood evocatively interweaves key set pieces from Parra’s life—her humble family roots, her Paris foray as a celebrated visual artist, her travels through Chile to preserve disappearing traditional culture, her tenuous hold on motherhood, and her tumultuous love life. And then there’s the music. Violeta’s heart-wrenching, indelible songs permeate this film, and they will penetrate the viewer’s soul.

Award Winner
World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic
Click here for award screening information - C.L.

Alejandra Garcia
alejandra@awood.cl
Wood Producciones
Santiago 7500975
Chile
Violeta Went to Heaven

Andrés Wood's previous feature films are La buena vida (The Good Life, 2008); Machuca (2004)—selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes; La fiebre del loco (Loco Fever, 2001); Historias de fútbol (Soccer Stories, 1997); and El desquite (Revenge, 1999), an adaptation of the play by folksinger—and brother to Violeta—Roberto Parra. Wood's short films include Reunion de familia (Family Reunion, 1994) and Idilio (Idyll, 1992). Violeta Went to Heaven was the Chilean entry for best foreign language film at the 2011 Academy Awards.