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Courtesy of Kino Lorber
The Pearl Button: A Masterpiece of Documentary Filmmaking
Written, directed, and narrated by the prolific, highly accomplished Patricio Guzmán, The Pearl Button is the most beautiful documentary film I have ever seen.
Part ecstatic, poetic, cinematic essay, and part tragedy—in its coverage of the centuries of violence that destroyed Chile’s indigenous populations and cultures; and the violence of Pinochet’s 20th century, U.S.-financed mass murder of his own people—The Pearl Button draws the viewer into an inescapable world of beatific images, histories, ideas, and mysticism.
Water is the connecting image. The pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the South American region known as Chile lived nomadic lives on and in the coastal estuaries. Like virtually all of Earth’s indigenous peoples prior to the ascent of cultivation of plants, these people lived in oneness, respect, and harmony with nature.
Although Guzmán’s film is a eulogy for these people and their culture—and by extension for all indigenous peoples—the images and his softly-spoken narration evoke a deep, layered, contemplative mood beyond the travails of our Earthly existence.
After viewing The Pearl Button, it is hard to imagine living my life not having seen it. This is utterly masterful filmmaking.
The Pearl Button is also available on Blu-ray, and that is the ideal way to view it on home video—until it becomes available on 4K.
Don Schwartz