Best Chilean documentary movies

Chile paralelo 56 (1964)

The last surviving natives of the Llaganes and Alacalufes tribes can be seen on the canals of southern Chile.

The FrogFish (2008)

Daniel SS is a maladjusted man whom, after a failed suicide attempt, tries to restart his life from Río Maipo to the centre of Santiago, on a journey in which he finds no reason not to kill himself.

We'll be Singing by September (2023)

A collective narrative about the origins of the New Chilean Song movement, beginning with Violeta Parra, the emblematic groups, the influence of Víctor Jara, and their intersections with other musical styles. This is the story of the musical epic of the generation that had a profound impact on the triumph of the Popular Unity alongside Salvador Allende.

Mon Laferte, I Love You (2024)

Artist and singer Mon Laferte recounts intimate moments of her life as she navigates a world tour, motherhood, and her deepest wounds.

Los Jaivas: La Ruta Infinita (2025)

Los Jaivas take a symbolic train to celebrate their 60 years of musical life. A choral story where the protagonists narrate the intimacy in this journey of commemorations and obligatory stops throughout Chile connecting it with their music. The band together with other authorized voices reflect on the free and democratic circulation of Chilean cultural heritage, closing the year's tour with the realization of the mural in Cal y Canto station of the Stgo subway by René Olivares and the great final show at the Quinta Vergara in Viña Del Mar.

Rosita, The Favorite of The Third Reich (2013)

The life of Rosita Serrano, the "Chilean nightingale" who entertained the Nazis when she was living in Berlin 1937-1943. In 1943 while on tour in Sweden, Serrano was accused by Germany of being a spy—she had donated a benefit performance to Jewish refugees. Rather than returning to Germany to be arrested, she traveled to Chile.

Los Bunkers: MTV Unplugged (2024)

On October 9, 2024, the Chilean rock band Los Bunkers performs the first MTV Unplugged recorded in Chilean territory, in the studios of Chilevisión. Becoming the third Chilean band to perform an MTV Unplugged.

El Viaje - A Road Trip into Chile's Musical Heritage (2016)

The Right to Live in Peace (1999)

A moving portrait of Chilean singer-songwriter and political activist Victor Jara (1932-73) that chronicles the life of the talented artist who was imprisoned, tortured and machine-gunned by the country's dictatorship.

Quien dice patria dice muerte (2021)

The Battle of Chile: Part I (1975)

The chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.

Adriana's Pact (2017)

Lissette's favorite aunt Adriana, who lives in Australia, is arrested in 2007 while visiting her family in Chile and accused of having worked for dictator Pinochet's notorious secret police, the DINA, and of having participated in the commission of state crimes. When Adriana denies these accusations, Lissette begins to investigate her story in order to film a documentary about her.

Beyond My Grandfather Allende (2015)

Marcia, granddaughter of Salvador Allende, the first democratic socialist president who was overthrown by the Army in September 1973, seeks to reconstruct the personal and familiar image of her grandfather, buried by his historical person, her exile and the family pain.

The Death of Pinochet (2011)

On December 10th, 2006, General Pinochet dies unexpectedly at Santiago's Military Hospital. His decease triggers a 24 hours revival of political divisions that marked with violence and death Chilean recent history. With high quality original footage and testimonies of four characters that deeply experienced a journey of strong contrasts and surrealistic nuances, the film narrates in an innovative, exciting way the ending of a key chapter in Chilean history.

Us (2017)

The struggle of many women to raise their daughters and sons, through the story of their grandmother.

The Winds Know That I'm Coming Back Home (2016)

Looking for extras and locations, a filmmaker settles on Chiloé, the second largest island off the coast of Chile. He does auditions, but mainly listens patiently to the stories of young and old people. As an outsider, he cautiously searches for the soul of the community and its underlying tensions.

The Mole Agent (2020)

When a daughter becomes concerned about her mother's well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83-year-old man who becomes a new resident—and a mole inside the home, who struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents.

The Eternal Memory (2023)

Augusto and Paulina have been together for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Both fear the day he no longer recognizes her.

The Pearl Button (2015)

The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.

The Doomsday Cult of Antares de la Luz (2024)

Almost 10 years after being charged with a heinous crime, former members of a Chilean cult share their haunting experiences.

The Battle of Chile: Part II (1976)

Chronicles the events immediately surrounding the CIA- supported coup itself.

Santiago, Italia (2018)

After the coup d'État of the Democratic government of Allende, the embassy of Italy in Santiago played a major role in helping the opposers of the regime, and extradited many of them to Italy.

The Cordillera of Dreams (2019)

"In Chile, when the sun rises, it had to climb hills, walls and tops before reaching the last stone of the Cordillera. In my country, the Cordillera is everywhere. But for the Chilean citizens, it is an unknown territory. After going North for Nostalgia for the Light and South for The Pearl Button, I now feel ready to shoot this immense spine to explore its mysteries, powerful revelations of Chile’s past and present history." Patricio Guzmán

One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train (1990)

Tells the story of a group of Chilean children who discover a larger reality and a different world through the cinema. Each Saturday, Alicia Vega transforms the chapel of Lo Hermida into a film screening room as she conducts a workshop for children under the auspices of the Catholic church. The hundred or so children involved had never seen a movie, and in the workshop they see and learn about the cinema: photograms and moving images, projection, camera angles and movement, film genres, and much more. And they watch movies: Chaplin, Disney, Lamorisse's 'The Red Balloon,' the Lumieres' 'The Arrival of the Train to the Station.' Finally, each child designs his own film with drawings. And then, for the first time in most of their lives, the children got to the movies in downtown Santiago.

Hombres que sueñan (2021)

The life and experiences of six emblematic Chilean actors. One by one, they relate aspects of their trajectories, origin and dreams, reliving and analyzing not only their careers, but also happy and historical moments that marked their lives.

¡Vivan las Antipodas! (2011)

What would be the shortest route between Entre Rios in Argentina and the Chinese metropolis Shanghai? Simply a straight line through the center of the earth, since the two places are antipodes: they are located diametrically opposite to each other on the earth's surface. During his visits to four such antipodal pairs, the award-winning documentary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky captured images that turn our view of the world upside down.

Los Reyes (2019)

Chola and Fútbol are a couple of street dogs that live in the Los Reyes skatepark. A microcosm is organized around them, composed of things, animals and young adolescents in conflict with an adult world that they reject but are required to enter.

Muestrario (2023)

Unarchiving a territory. On the verge of disappearing due to industrial extractivism, we begin to glimpse what still subsists in the forest of Hornopirén, in the south of Chile. Not only do we observe it, but it also looks back at us.

Cuando respiro en tu boca. La creación de Peces (2018)

Santiago de Chile, 1994: financed by mysterious textile entrepreneurs, the rock band Lucybell enters the Sonus Studios to record their first album, by the hand of the famous Argentine producer Mario Breuer. The budget is enough for only eight days. Santiago de Chile, 2017: after being disappeared for twenty-three years, the videotapes with the chronicle of those eight days come to light. This was the creation of Peces, one of the most important Chilean records of the '90s.

El soltero de la familia (2016)

Daniel Osorio will face his ghosts through the search of his only true love, the woman who left him because he was not able to settle down.