Original article: «Una sombra oscilante»: Documental filmado en 16mm entrelaza la memoria de un fotógrafo chileno exiliado con el presente de su hija Following its international premiere at FIDMarseille and a celebrated festival run across France, Spain, Colombia, China, and Chile, the distribution program Miradoc Estrenos is set to showcase «A Flickering Shadow» in theaters nationwide. This poignant debut by Chilean-Argentinian photographer and visual artist Celeste Rojas Mugica is based on her father’s photographic archive—a former MIR militant who had to flee to Ecuador before returning clandestinely to Chile. Produced by Bomba Cine and Eaux Vives, the documentary features footage captured throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including notable events like the popular funeral of Salvador Allende following Chile’s return to democracy.
Through this material, Rojas Mugica reconstructs her family’s history, creating a hybrid autobiographical essay that contrasts her father’s captured past with her own recent recordings in contemporary Chile. “My father had retired and was more inclined to reclaim a political experience he had to suppress throughout his life, deeply intertwined with his relationship with photography and his role as a photographer. It was in this context that I began to envision a film with him,” Celeste Rojas Mugica reflects.
She adds, “Slowly, we found a way—rooted in respect—to understand each other and make a film together, where he could shed his reticence and also feel there was space to honor the memory of his comrades and their struggles. ” Based on a photographic exhibition conducted from 2017 to 2019 that later evolved into a photobook, «A Flickering Shadow» explores how images shape and deconstruct memory—of both a family and a nation—and examines the interplay of light and shadow in photography. This theme is juxtaposed against the tensions between dictatorship and revolutionary aspirations, a father and his exile, and the multiple identities shaped by the experiences of the past.
“The film’s deeply personal yet political character aims to foster a connection with our country’s history that avoids monumental or totalizing narratives and instead approaches its story from the angles of fragility and fragmentation, offering an open and contested account,” emphasizes the documentarist. “Additionally,” she notes, “there is a distinct material and sensory dimension: the relationship with archives is viewed not just as evidence but as structures that can accommodate speculation, along with the experimentation with 16mm film, proposed as modes and possibilities for imagining and constructing alternate futures. ” International Journey In 2024, «A Flickering Shadow» premiered internationally in France as part of the First Film Competition at the International Documentary Film Festival of Marseille (FIDMarseille), earning a Special Jury Mention.
The Chilean premiere occurred the same year during the Chilean Feature Competition at the Valdivia International Film Festival (FICValdivia), where it won the Best Chilean Film Award. Moreover, the feature film secured the Grand Prize in the International First Film Competition at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Bilbao (ZINEBI), the DOCMA Award for Best Documentary at the L’Alternativa Independent Film Festival in Barcelona, the Best Film Award in the National Competition at the Santiago International Documentary Festival (FIDOCS), and Best Documentary at the Hainan Island Film Festival. In 2025, the documentary was honored with the Best Cinematography Award at the Chilean Film Festival (FECICH) and the Luis Ospina Award for Best Direction at the International Film Festival of Cali (FICCali).