During the Unidad Popular election campaign in 1970, the Ramona Parra Brigades mobilised young activists across the country. They painted political messages on facades and walls using brushes and buckets of paint. In “Brigada Ramona Parra” (1970), Álvaro Ramírez – who continued to work as a filmmaker in exile in the GDR – documents the sometimes daring work of one of these groups. Leonardo Céspedes’ “Pintando con el pueblo” in turn shows the new direction of Chilean cultural politics under Salvador Allende. Artists and art students create a huge mural in front of the presidential palace, La Moneda, in Santiago, under the eyes of passers-by. The site becomes a stage for a rally organized by the Unidad Popular.The film ends with a speech by Allende about art as “an art for all the people”. The 16mm distribution print held by the Arsenal archive is probably the only surviving copy of “Pintando con el pueblo”. It was digitised for this retrospective.

Florian Wüst