Patricio Guzmán passed away on 15 September 2026 at the age of 85. The Chilean documentary filmmaker was a frequent guest at DOK Leipzig, most recently with his film “Nostalgia de la luz”, which opened the festival in 2010.

Over the course of decades, Patricio Guzmán documented Chile’s political history and, in his films, recorded the human rights abuses committed under the dictatorship. In the 1970s, he directed the trilogy “The Battle of Chile”, which is now regarded as a milestone in political documentary filmmaking and which also received the International Jury’s Special Prize in Leipzig in 1976.

His first film, “El primer año”, will screen as part of our retrospective this year. In it, Patricio Guzmán examines the first year under Allende’s popular government. Chile’s working class celebrated the victory, but the right wing did everything in its power to sabotage the transition to a fairer society.

Our thoughts are with the family of Patricio Guzmán, with his friends and his colleagues.