Hidden Treasures and Hidden Films

Abstract

The short film Hidden Treasures/Películas Escondidas (2013) and the feature-length documentary Hidden Films. A Journey From Exile to Memory/Películas Escondidas. Un viaje entre el exilio y la memoria (2016) explore Chilean films made by the East German state-owned production company DEFA in the 1970s and 1980s as transnational memories of the Cold War. With these works, film scholar Claudia Sandberg and director Alejandro Areal Vélez highlight the importance of the East German film archives, not just as a form of political diplomacy but as a carrier of memory for quite disperse groups. Hidden Treasures and Hidden Films assess the role of filmmaking as a seismograph for larger geopolitical ev..