What’s the essence of good storytelling? Academically speaking it’s a combination of plot, characters, conflict, and resolutions. However, a certain Chilean documentarist would say that there has to be a soul linked to the intimate, profound observations one can catch in the everydayness of often overlooked subjects.
Maite Alberdi
Maite Alberdi is a film director, producer, scriptwriter, and film critic from Chile. Her works as a filmmaker usually focus on the oddities of the people around us: a lifeguard who can’t swim, a group of old ladies having tea time, a senior citizen who is also a spy.
Alberdi’s work manages to uncover the universality of local stories that reflect the vulnerabilities of those most marginalized, giving them a proper voice.
The director graduated from Audiovisual Direction at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, having worked in multiple areas of the filmmaking process, from sound design to photography.
Her first documentaries, Carrete Down (2004) and Los Trapecistas (2005) obtained praise from different local award ceremonies. Premiering in 2011 was her first feature film El Salvavidas (The lifeguard), which would set precedence for her following works as a director.
The twice Oscar nominee has created beautifully crafted films that highlight the invisible people in daily life.
Personal narratives and social intimacy
El Salvavidas (2011)
As mentioned, El Salvavidas is her earliest feature film starring Mauricio, a lifeguard who strolls around the central coast. This disciplined man never enters the water, instead ensuring that the beach’s rules are followed to a tee. The director interviewed about a hundred people to get someone whose life matched exactly what she wanted to communicate through her film.
In 2014, she released La Once (Tea Time), documenting the monthly rite of a group of friends that, for the last 60 years, has gotten together for tea time. In this film, we can intimately observe the conversations between the women, which allows us to be a part of their stories down memory lane.
In the words of Alberdi herself:
“They are at a point in their lives where they do not need to keep up any appearances, they accept themselves as they are.”
La Once (2014)
This statement reflects the openness with which the characters speak to each other and, as a result, with the audience as well.
These movies manage to immerse the viewer into narratives of both the individual characters and them as a group, creating a deep bond with the characters and inviting us to explore the wonders of everyday life and the bizarre nature of humanity.
In 2020, Alberdi would reach her biggest milestone yet with her Oscar-nominated film, The Mole Agent. This film is a blend of investigative work and heartwarming storytelling, following an 83-year-old man who becomes a spy inside a nursing home, discovering the profound loneliness faced by the elderly population.
The heartwarming movie manages to move the audience with its personal and close look at the state of humanity as it reaches old age, by getting to know stories from real people within the nursing home—seeing how people with Alzheimer’s call for their parents, how women try to flirt their way into a relationship with Sergio, the protagonist, showcasing the overpowering sadness that accompanies senior citizens and the abandonment most suffer in nursing homes.
Recently, Alberdi has been dabbling with themes of aging through The Eternal Memory (2023), another academy-nominated film that explores love and memory in the face of Alzheimer’s, featuring Chilean actress Paulina Urrutia.
The Eternal Memory (2023)
Why we watch her work
Maite Alberdi has done a lot for the Latin American film industry, more specifically documentary filmmaking, in terms of international recognition. Her works have helped shape an image that is both uplifting yet profoundly sad. They reveal the ambivalence of humanity and life through a masterful approach to both complex and seemingly mundane societal issues.
Through her art direction, she introduces beauty even within the constraints of documentary film.
Wonderfully intimate is what defines her work—portraying simple moments and making them fascinating to the senses.
I encourage you to try Maite Alberdi’s work to get a look into the world of intimate yet entertaining documentaries.
Catalina Jahnsen
AUTHOR
Catalina is a scriptwriter, researcher, and communications professional with experience across the media landscape. A true jack of all trades, she has dedicated herself into various facets of the creative industries. Her journey reflects a passion for storytelling, a scholar perspective, and a deep bond to media and arts.
Culterate Blog 
Leave a comment