Miguel Littín's Jackal of Nahueltoro
Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 7pm
361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn
Jackal of Nahueltoro, Miguel Littín, 1969, 16mm, 95 mins
Miguel Littín’s gut wrenching debut feature Jackal of Nahueltoro stands as a landmark of the short-lived New Chilean Cinema, emerging alongside the earliest works of Raúl Ruiz and Aldo Francia. It imagines the true story of Jorge del Carmen Valenzuela Torres (Nelson Villagra), an impoverished farmworker who, in a drunken rage, killed Rosa Rivas Acuña (Shenda Román) and her five young children. Based on statements made by Valenzuela to journalists and the court, Littín’s film presents Valenzuela’s truncated life as the stages of a great tragedy, including his youth as a child laborer, his itinerant adulthood, his slaughter of the family who took him in, and his pursuit, capture, trial, and imprisonment. During his time incarcerated, Valenzuela learns to read and to pray, enjoys the company of his fellow inmates, and crafts guitars as part of his rehabilitation, until, some three years later, he finally faces the firing squad. Shot with a documentary eye by cinematographer Héctor Rios Henríquez, Jackal looks unflinchingly at the social and political forces that ensured the misery of Valenzuela’s existence.
When first released in Chile, Littín’s film was a surprise hit, drawing half a million theatergoers to witness the life of one of the country’s most marginal figures. “People of all classes came, but the impact was notably greatest among the common people,” Littín remarked some years later. “We were present at the shows and conversed directly with the audience about the ownership of the land by the very few, the latifundio, about the class justice or injustice, and furthermore, we asked the people what kind of cinema Chile should have, and they answered: Critical. New. Revolutionary.”
Tickets - Pay what you can ($10 suggested donation), available at door.
Please note: seating is limited. First-come, first-served. Box office opens at 6:30pm. No entry 10 minutes after start of show.