A Promise to the Dead ( Director: Peter Raymont, Country: Canada, Release: 2006, Runtime: 92)

Screening Fri Jun 13: 6:30 and Wed Jun 18: 1:30

Peter Raymont’s portrait of the life of exiled writer and activist Ariel Dorfman takes us on a tour of the places that defined his life and combines the present with the past to provide a captivating reflection on revolution. Dorfman’s life was never static as he was born in Argentina, moved to the US when he was a young boy and then moved to Chile when he was 12. From 1970-1973 he served with radical Chilean president Salvador Allende and become enveloped in a time of revolution and political change. The military coup of September 11th, 1973 that ended with General Augusto Pinochet coming into power led Dorfman into a life of exile, writing and the constant search for “home.”

A Promise to the Dead isn’t just a film about the past however and as we join Dorfman as he revisits the places of his past today, we get a silent commentary on change and the current state of revolution. Flashes between archival footage and the same places as they look today provide visual reminders of all that Dorman has been through, as the places themselves have moved on with time. Although the past of Dorfman is more than interesting enough to fill an entire film regardless of present day comparisons.

The seamless weaving of the past and present allows for a carefully crafted film that does justice to the man that inspired a Roman Polasnki film and also wrote a book about how Donald Duck was a tool to promote capitalism and greed. Interesting tid-bits of information like the fact that his grandmother was the first person to translate Anna Karenina into Spanish and an anecdote about how Walt Disney attempted to buy the rights to Dorfman’s Donald Duck book in order to suppress it, keep the pace of the film lively and informative and add color to the bigger picture issues of the film.

Stories of Dorfman’s childhood fascination with American media culture and his sadness with the progression of politics in “the country of Jefferson, of Lincoln and of Hemingway”  connect to the film’s larger themes of home, community and how two different countries dealt with their September 11ths. In an age where the internet connects us and while also keeping us more isolated than ever before, Dorfman’s life seems a profound example of how to go with the flow, stand up for what you believe in and engage in the world while still keeping your integrity in tact - as he says in relation to where home is - “we belong to overlapping communities and where those communities overlap the most is home.”