I wonder what you will remember of September

Synopsis

A haunting personal response to the events of September 11, 2001, informed and complicated by the filmmaker’s status as a Chilean citizen living in the U.S. With evocative imagery from both past and present, Cornejo weaves together her own fading childhood memories, her parents vivid recollections of the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile that brought the notorious dictator Augusto Pinochet to power, and post-9/11 conversations with her own young daughter. The resulting montage thoughtfully explores how personal and collective histories intersect, as well as how trauma is lived, supposedly erased, and passed on from one generation to the next.
(Women Make Movies).

Awards

2006  Award of Merit in Film, Latin American Studies Association. San Juan, PR.
2005  Special Jury Mention, Cine Las Américas International Film Festival. Austin, TX.

Selected Screenings

2015  Filmmaker’s partial retrospective, University of California at Irvine, CA
2008  Artist talk and screening, “Autobiographical filmmaking and trauma.” University of Chicago, IL
2007  Festival de Cine Pobre, Holguín, Cuba
2006  Melbourne Latin American Film Festival, Australia
2006  Latin American Film Festival, Sydney, Australia
2005  MoMA, Documentary Fortnight, New York, NY
2005  Puerto Vallarta International Film Festival, Mexico
2005  Tucson Underground Film Festival, AZ
2004  InVideo: Festival of Video Art and Cinema, Milan, Italy
2004  L’Alternativa, Festival de Cine Independiente de Barcelona, Spain
2004  FIDOCS, Festival Internacional de Documentales de Santiago, Chile
2004  1588 Minutes de Cinéma Chilien Documentaire, Paris, France
2004  Arsenale, Berlin, Germany
And over 50 other screenings worldwide.

Credits

Director, Producer, Screenplay, Camera, Edit, Sound Design: Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo
Production Assistant: Mónica Cornejo Sotelo
Additional Camera: Luis Ulloa
Sound Recordists: Fabrizio Carvacho Cornejo, Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo
Musicians: Arturo and Andrés
Performers: Francisca Carvacho Cornejo, Carolina Carvacho Cornejo, Yanko Carvacho Soto

Quotes

“A poetic essay on the nature of historical rapture and its effect on the individual…”
Daniel Eisenberg
Chair, Film/ Video and New Media, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

“With intelligence and a gentle lyrical grace, national identities, borders, and familial relationships are negotiated through the lived memories of another September 11: the 1973 Chilean (Allende/Pinochet) coup.”
Camille Seaman
Dept. of Communication Studies, University of Iowa

“A graceful haunting work…”
Christian Keathley
Film & Media Culture, Middlebury College

“Beautifully intertwines past and present; emigrants and immigrants; us and them to reinstall memory and remind us there was another September 11: that of Chile, 1973.”
Juana Suarez
University of North Carolina, Greensboro

“Highly recommended as a complimentary item to documentaries about the military coup against President Allende and the resulting government of General Augusto Pinochet.”
Rafael Ocasio
Criticas

Reviews, Essays, Publications

Artforum, September 2004, Vol. 43, NO. 1, Choire Sicha > Top Ten
https://www.artforum.com/print/200407

Kid On Hip, Camera In Hand
https://kidonhip.com/films/september/

Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Terror in Literature and Culture. Deb Basuli, Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature ~ 2014

The Post-Dictatorship Generation in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay: Collective Memory and Cultural Production. Ana Ros, Palgrave Macmillan ~ 2012