aiff_program09_interior.xp 3/5/09 5:13 PM Page 18
Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi Ask Not
ies 88 minutes a73 2008 a73 USA/Chile a73 In Competition 73 minutes a73 2008 a73 USA a73 In Competition
Thursday 6:20p
a73
Friday 3:20p
a73
Saturday 12:20p Thursday 6:40p
a73
Friday 3:40p
a73
Saturday 9:40p
Plays with: Wait for Me (p41) Plays with: The War of 33 (p41)
Directors/Producers: Quique Cruz, Marilyn Mulford a73 Cinematographer: Vincente Franco a73 Director: Johnny Symons a73 Producers: Johnny Symons, Leah Wolchok a73 Cinematographers:
Editor: Michael Chandler a73 Music/Composer: Quique Cruz a73 Principal Cast: Nubia Becker, S. Leo Chiang, Peter Logreco, Andy Schocken a73 Editor: Andrew Gersh a73 Music/Composer:
Quique Cruz, Anita María Moreira, Guillermo Nuñez a73 archeologyofmemory.org Norman Arnold a73 Principal Cast: Jarrod Chlapowski, Haven Herrin, Charles Moskos, Alex
Nicholson, Jacob Reitan, Alan Steinman a73 asknotfilm.com
documentar
Growing up in Chile, Claudio is full of music and dreams,
relishing artistic freedom and an optimistic social climate created Ask Not is a rare and compelling exploration of the effects of the
by the election of Salvador Allende. Everything seems possible. U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. A provocative
But after the CIA-backed coup in 1973, the dreams become portrait of bravery amidst exclusion, the film reveals the
nightmares. Under General Augusto Pinochet, Claudio is personal stories of Americans willing to risk their lives in a
“disappeared.” After his time at the infamously brutal detention military that criminalizes the act of coming out. Gay soldiers
18
centre Villa Grimaldi, he is forced into exile to the United States. from before and after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” discuss how
discrimination affects them during their tours of duty as they
Under his new identity Quique Cruz, the film’s protagonist
struggle to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they can
gathers together six artists—poets, painters, writers, and
trust when trust is necessary to survival.
musicians—all fellow survivors of incarceration under the
regime. They have created a narrative from the contradictions The film also follows gay veterans and young organizers
of terror and aesthetics, pain and beauty and so bring darkness working to overturn the policy in a time of unmet military
into light. Testimony to the power of art to transform even the recruitment goals and an ongoing war. Ask Not provokes
deepest pain, Archeology Of Memory: Villa Grimaldi thoughtful dialogue about the merits of banning those who are
incorporates their art, intimate accounts, and an extraordinary honest about their identities from serving their country. [adult
musical score to illuminate a journey back into the dark days of content, language]
Pinochet’s state-sponsored terror. [subtitles, graphic description
of torture] Johnny Symons
Quique Cruz
Director’s Statement
One of my previous films, Daddy & Papa,
Director’s Statement
dealt with gay men who had decided to
The day after my nineteenth birthday, become parents, and I was eager to look at
I was detained by Pinochet’s secret how gay people participated in other
police and spent one month as a institutions that have traditionally been
desaparecido in the Villa Grimaldi
Quique Cruz and Marilyn
considered “heterosexual territory”. Exploring how gays and
torture center. Later, I spent one long
Mulford
lesbian service members negotiate and shield their identities
year in four different concentration camps in central Chile. In while serving their country seemed especially relevant given
1976, I was expelled from the country and was allowed to return the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
safely only towards the end of the dictatorial regime in 1989.
As I made Ask Not, I was inspired to help give voice to people
It finally dawned on me that I had been carrying around a who have been silenced under enormously stressful conditions.
fragmented history inside a hermetically sealed suitcase which I Against the provocative and politically charged framework of
had never really wanted to unpack. One of the most important sexuality and war, articulate and charismatic individuals speak
contributions that I have to offer to the discussion about memory, out for the more than 12,000 service members discharged under
torture, the relationship between terror and aesthetics, political “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
violence, and survival, is to pick up the pieces and try to assemble
the dark puzzle that is the legacy of the dictatorial period. Filmography: Beauty Before Age, Beyond Conception, Daddy & Papa, Shaving the Castro
Filmography: Cruz: Directorial Debut; Mumford: Chicano Park, Freedom On My Mind
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84