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The Spark in the Meadow
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The Spark in the Meadow follows the story of Sofía Brito, a law student who experiences sexual harassment by her professor, a prominent lawyer and member of Chile's Supreme Court. At the time, Sofía was working as his research assistant on a project regarding the three exceptions for legal abortion in the country.
Torn between her commitment to women’s reproductive rights and the gendered discrimination she faced from the very man who could influence the decriminalization of abortion, Sofía’s experience became a catalyst for broader change.
Her inner struggle to press charges and the support of her fellow students sparked the feminist movement in Chilean universities in 2018. Students were inspired to protest and occupy campuses, demanding an end to machismo, male harassment, and gender-based violence.
"Memorable film" — Female Film Festival
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Distributor subjects
Women; Activism; Education; Gender + Sexuality Studies; Short Films; Criminal Justice; SociologyKeywords
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This short film contains descriptions of sexual violence.
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There were different things.
Sometimes small things.
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Like when I went to work and he said:
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"Nice earrings, your hair is really nice,
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let me touch you, let me hug you."
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But sometimes,
terrible things happened,
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like when he actually threw himself
on top of me
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when we were working.
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I reported it,
it was really difficult.
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A lot of people told me not to do it,
that I shouldn't take that risk.
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That I should leave through
the front door.
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That was what people
said at the time.
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To leave through the front door,
without the repercussions
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of reporting such an important figure
in Chile.
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The feminist revolt
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that sparked the "Feminist May" of 2018
as it is called
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immediately resonated with me as
a feminist and a professor.
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I've lived outside of Chile for many years,
in New York
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but I've always stayed connected to what's
happening in the country
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especially in terms of culture and literature.
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This time I returned with a film crew
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to interview and film young feminist students
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who had risen up against decades
of patriarchal abuse
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inside the institutions of higher education.
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My idea was to create an archive;
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a space for feminist memory of the present
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as well as their connections to the past
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and the fight for women.
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The spark in the meadow
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Sofía, since when
you call yourself a feminist?
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And why?
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I think there are two ways
of declaring yourself
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a feminist, at least for me.
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The first one has to do
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with a theoretical imprint
related
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to the academic books
that were more or less forbidden
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at that time,
in the early years
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of the university.
Along with some schoolmates,
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we started to read a lot of Judith Butler, Foucault.
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Then, we started reading
about decolonial feminism.
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And then, there's another side
that I think has to do
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with a connection to the body.
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I realized this
thanks to a classmate,
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she complained
at the University of Chile
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about a student
who was a political leader.
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She made a public complaint
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and it was really important for us
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to realize that deep down
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that feminism wasn't just reading
or thinking rationally about
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how to change the perspective of life.
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It meant giving an account of the pain
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that we carried in our bodies.
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I could answer you how
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my students answer when I ask them
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the same thing:
"Since when and why are you feminists?”
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Many of them have told me,
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''It's a way of breathing.
It's a drive.
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It’s something that’s just there.”
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I’m very interested in the feminist movements
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because I was very active in the '80s
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precisely when the so-called
second feminism started.
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We returned to film a second time
in November 2019
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during the social revolt and witnessed the
civil uprising.
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A transversal movement that had
taken over the streets
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and where feminisms were a catalyst
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the imprint of which could be seen everywhere:
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in graffiti, murals on walls,
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in plazas, on monuments
in performances,
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throughout the public sphere the
new feminism was present.
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The fourth wave that exploded in the South
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because of something quite traditional
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and part of tradition through history,
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which is hierarchical sexual abuse,
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in other words, professors using their
position to get close
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in an improper way to female students.
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I come from a generation
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that I believe that it has been holding back
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and repudiating many actions
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but we still normalize many other things
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and the next generation
which is the one that sort of made everything explode
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and also made us explode
and that is wonderful
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because the youth has
to have the place that it has
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and that is always the role of the young people
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and our role is to support them
and join them, and spill it out.
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It emerged in the universities,
on university campuses.
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I would say that it was spectacular
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because it arose in the South of Chile,
at Austral University,
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where a student accused her
professors of sexual harassment.
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That was like some kind of spark
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that sets fire to a meadow
since it actually triggered
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a bunch of accusations
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where the most important one,
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the one that caused the huge movement
here in Santiago in the University of Chile
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specifically at the Law School,
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was an accusation of harassment
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made by the young student and assistant too,
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Sofía Brito,
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who accused none other than
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her professor, who was a member
of the Constitutional Court.
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Sofía, a brilliant law student
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who studied with Carmona
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a well known lawyer
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that at the time was
the President of the Constitutional Court.
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A well known man
of the “concertación” governments.
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He was very close to the governments.
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He was in that role.
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And the major abuse that Sofía talks about
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it's precisely an abuse
that is done
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while they were preparing the allegations
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for the law on abortion under
three conditions.
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I worked with this professor
directly in court
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and I was his assistant
in lectures.
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I was sexually harassed
by this professor,
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and I also suffered
work harassment
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while we were working
in the project
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of law on abortion under
three conditions in 2017.
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I was working directly
with him in court,
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and at a given moment,
I actually realized
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that the relationship
between us
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was a relationship of
power abuse and
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harassment.
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Somehow, I had to pay
with my body
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because I was working with him.
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I had to pay favors
with my body.
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And she was locked up with this hero
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of Chilean law
they knew, we all knew
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and that he was of great support to the law.
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So, she couldn't do
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the complaint at that time.
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Besides they called him
"The Republic", that's his nickname.
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I found that out, it was tremendous.
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For them to call this character, "The Republic"?
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She was locked up with, "The Republic of Chile"
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with "The Republic" on top
while they were preparing this situation
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she would say, "No, I can't say anything
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because it doesn't benefit us.
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It doesn't benefit us women.
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Despite this, having
The Republic on top of me,
00:08:11.782 --> 00:08:13.284
this is not a good time to say it."
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Everything fell into that spiral
and it was so understandable
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because finally I think that
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all of us women
have felt that sort of abuse
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This wave of accusations,
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where the new generation
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says enough is enough to something that
had been normalized within the classroom
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and in campuses all over the country,
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How did I see it?
I saw it as
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the wake-up call of a movement
that wasn't just any movement.
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Not just me, many of us appreciated
that this was an interesting thing,
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that it had to do with a very powerful
indication of a cultural change
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that was being hatched in Chilean society
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but that this was some sort of wake-up call.
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It seemed to me that this was
a phenomenon worth following,
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studying and, obviously, supporting.
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Maybe, the interesting thing is
what the movement has achieved so far.
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It was able to inscribe
a word that was quite problematic
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which was 'feminism.'
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That word has always been,
I wouldn't say a cursed word,
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but it was mostly prohibited.
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I come from a very left-wing
family
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So politics has always been
present in my life.
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Ever since I was very young, I've been involved
in different organizations,
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whether they were small collectives
or larger organizations.
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Feminism was came late.
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I always say
it was like an acquired taste.
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It was not something I thought of.
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I received no such formation
at home, at least,
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and neither in my school education.
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And in university,
at the beginning of 2011,
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I think we started questioning
the logic behind vertical leadership
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and how we approached
the subject of democracy.
00:10:08.858 --> 00:10:10.401
I believe that feminism has a lot
00:10:10.443 --> 00:10:11.444
to do with that,
00:10:11.485 --> 00:10:13.029
with expanding democracy's borders.
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When we started grasping that,
it made a lot of sense. It was like,
00:10:16.991 --> 00:10:19.577
there's a whole history behind this
that we don't know about,
00:10:20.369 --> 00:10:21.370
and this has happened before.
00:10:22.204 --> 00:10:23.873
I mean, we became aware of it
when we started reading,
00:10:23.914 --> 00:10:27.585
we were learning about
our comrades from the 1980s,
00:10:27.627 --> 00:10:30.671
we found out about Diamela,
Kena Lorenzini.
00:10:32.465 --> 00:10:35.301
Also, we started reading their work
and listening,
00:10:35.593 --> 00:10:38.220
and we realized that
there was a traveled road
00:10:38.304 --> 00:10:40.056
that had been completely erased
from history.
00:10:41.390 --> 00:10:42.933
That the return to democracy
00:10:42.975 --> 00:10:45.186
had not been a pact
between gentlemen,
00:10:45.227 --> 00:10:47.855
as they said so many times,
00:10:48.314 --> 00:10:51.192
but there was a movement
of women behind it.
00:10:52.652 --> 00:10:54.528
Women who were erased from history
as far as I'm concerned.
00:10:55.029 --> 00:10:56.072
In various moments I realized that
00:10:56.238 --> 00:10:58.991
unlike other times, repressed voices
are being recovered.
00:10:59.283 --> 00:11:03.120
It reminds you that the female history
was interrupted and erased,
00:11:03.871 --> 00:11:07.667
but now, there isn’t that erasure.
00:11:07.958 --> 00:11:10.503
I am lucky to have a lot of comrades,
00:11:10.503 --> 00:11:12.004
and a lot of friends,
00:11:12.421 --> 00:11:15.466
many people from my family
who supported me.
00:11:16.092 --> 00:11:17.718
Also, I worked as Secretary
of Gender
00:11:17.843 --> 00:11:19.845
at the university and somehow,
00:11:19.887 --> 00:11:23.474
that made me feel like I had
to draw strength from somewhere
00:11:23.516 --> 00:11:26.394
to report this situation.
00:11:26.852 --> 00:11:29.814
However, the procedure
was extremely tedious,
00:11:29.814 --> 00:11:32.650
extremely complex,
and also extremely painful,
00:11:32.733 --> 00:11:35.903
in addition to the heavy load I carried
thanks to the prosecutor's office
00:11:35.986 --> 00:11:38.072
investigating the case.
00:11:39.949 --> 00:11:42.284
They always put the weight of
what had happened on my back,
00:11:43.536 --> 00:11:44.495
always trying to say,
00:11:44.495 --> 00:11:46.872
“Why were you
in that place at that time?
00:11:47.289 --> 00:11:49.250
Why were you working
with him so late?
00:11:49.250 --> 00:11:51.502
Why didn't you tell him
“no” at that moment?"
00:11:52.795 --> 00:11:56.674
They questioned several people
and even questioned my professors,
00:11:57.007 --> 00:11:58.884
other professors
I had worked with.
00:11:59.343 --> 00:12:01.721
And they were asked if I was
too flirtatious.
00:12:44.096 --> 00:12:46.640
Finally, this procedure
00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:51.896
declared that indeed, there was
sexual and work harassment.
00:12:51.896 --> 00:12:52.688
However,
00:12:52.688 --> 00:12:54.774
at that time, no law existed
in Chile allowing
00:12:54.774 --> 00:12:57.943
the accusation of this professor
for sexual and work harassment.
00:12:58.402 --> 00:13:03.365
They started looking for ways
to establish sanctions
00:13:03.365 --> 00:13:05.034
for violating administrative probity.
00:13:05.576 --> 00:13:08.120
Meanwhile, through feminism, we’re starting
00:13:08.579 --> 00:13:12.082
to see the marks
that the different forms of patriarchy
00:13:12.541 --> 00:13:14.710
left in us.
00:13:15.002 --> 00:13:17.254
The abusive situations
that we've experienced,
00:13:17.338 --> 00:13:18.380
the harassment we've been through,
00:13:18.839 --> 00:13:21.008
the machismo in our
daily relationships
00:13:21.050 --> 00:13:22.718
with our families,
with our partners,
00:13:22.802 --> 00:13:23.803
with our friends.
00:13:24.845 --> 00:13:29.183
That's where you truly realize
that feminism
00:13:29.266 --> 00:13:30.684
becomes a necessity.
00:13:32.353 --> 00:13:34.688
That being a feminist is no longer
a theoretical choice,
00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:36.565
it's not a way of saying,
00:13:37.107 --> 00:13:39.652
"I belong to a certain
school of thought."
00:13:39.693 --> 00:13:44.240
Rather, it's a physical need.
00:13:44.490 --> 00:13:47.243
A need to finally tear down
00:13:47.284 --> 00:13:48.702
the oppression
that we've been through,
00:13:48.744 --> 00:13:49.745
that we carry around.
00:13:50.162 --> 00:13:52.832
Sofía's case detonated everything.
00:13:52.957 --> 00:13:54.750
I would say that it's like if it opened Pandora's box
00:13:54.875 --> 00:13:58.712
because that one case made
others come out into the light
00:13:58.838 --> 00:14:00.714
but, shockingly, all of them were from Chile.
00:14:00.798 --> 00:14:05.219
It was like some kind of plague.
They began to close the schools.
00:14:05.344 --> 00:14:08.472
They took over the schools,
the assemblies began.
00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:12.101
The different cases began to come out.
One, two, three, millions
00:14:12.184 --> 00:14:16.939
and the crazy thing was that the patterns of
the cases repeated themselves.
00:14:17.398 --> 00:14:20.568
If it were just a student thing,
it wouldn't be a cultural change.
00:14:20.609 --> 00:14:21.610
It's something much deeper.
00:14:21.944 --> 00:14:25.656
you could say that this is actually
a movement that questions
00:14:25.906 --> 00:14:28.993
intergenerationally all the generations.
00:14:29.034 --> 00:14:32.121
In that sense, this meeting between
the feminists of the '80s,
00:14:32.872 --> 00:14:34.999
of all times, with these young women
00:14:35.082 --> 00:14:37.918
is very interesting
because they've engaged in dialogue.
00:14:38.002 --> 00:14:40.546
You can see how they discuss
on certain occasions,
00:14:40.588 --> 00:14:43.799
in the academy,
outside the academy, on the street.
00:14:43.924 --> 00:14:46.719
I think that has really been generated,
00:14:47.177 --> 00:14:48.762
and in that sense,
00:14:49.263 --> 00:14:52.558
this movement and also
these young women are considered
00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:53.726
a continuum.
00:14:54.226 --> 00:14:55.644
Like some sort of relay race.
00:14:56.061 --> 00:15:01.191
They're not the first ones, and they won't
be the last ones or the only ones either.
00:15:01.483 --> 00:15:05.696
In that sense, from the first feminists
at the beginning of the 20th century,
00:15:05.738 --> 00:15:09.283
end of the 19th century,
up until today's feminists,
00:15:09.491 --> 00:15:12.536
there's a relay race,
and they've passed on the baton
00:15:12.578 --> 00:15:14.246
from generation to generation.
00:15:14.371 --> 00:15:17.291
That really makes it
an extremely fascinating movement.
00:15:18.250 --> 00:15:21.211
I think this project is significant to me
00:15:21.670 --> 00:15:24.632
because it made it possible to explore
00:15:24.673 --> 00:15:28.427
a series of questions with different
generations of women
00:15:28.427 --> 00:15:31.096
about their positions as feminists.
00:15:31.096 --> 00:15:32.723
their experiences of gender
00:15:32.723 --> 00:15:39.355
and their perspectives on different historical
periods and political contexts.
00:15:40.105 --> 00:15:44.568
It also meant the excitement of experiencing
00:15:45.069 --> 00:15:48.113
the many struggles and achievements in
the public space
00:15:48.322 --> 00:15:52.284
and the assembly of people summoned by
the desire for social transformation
00:15:52.534 --> 00:15:56.664
which had been going through my
mind for a while.
00:15:57.289 --> 00:16:03.420
The surge of feminism and the call for
change across Chile
00:16:03.462 --> 00:16:06.715
for dignity and justice for all,
00:16:06.715 --> 00:16:11.887
cannot be understood without the
feminist youth activism
00:16:11.887 --> 00:16:14.306
and the social demands they made.
00:16:19.186 --> 00:16:23.732
A lot of professors
said things like,
00:16:23.899 --> 00:16:26.110
“But what can we do
if the man fell in love?
00:16:27.569 --> 00:16:29.196
There's nothing to do.
There's no crime here.
00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:30.864
There's nothing we can do.”
00:16:31.991 --> 00:16:34.660
And it was there when--
00:16:35.119 --> 00:16:36.453
I wasn't at the university
00:16:36.537 --> 00:16:39.915
at the time. I was here
in my house feeling a little desolate
00:16:39.957 --> 00:16:41.291
with everything that was going on.
00:16:42.001 --> 00:16:44.128
All of a sudden,
a friend called me.
00:16:44.461 --> 00:16:49.508
It was April 27, 2018.
It was a Friday, I remember,
00:16:50.134 --> 00:16:52.803
and she said, "We took over the school."
Distributor: Pragda Films
Length: 17 minutes
Date: 2023
Genre: Expository
Language: Spanish
Grade: High School, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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