In 1980, Ricardo Rifo was instructed as a dog trainer by Ingrid Olderöck, the most powerful woman of the secret police during the Chilean dictatorship. Four decades later, in the midst of an inhospitable and devastated landscape, the farmer wanders besieged by the impossibility of enunciating the horror.
Dead Tongue
a film by
José Jiménez
Biography
Filmmaker. His work explores hybrid narration systems, in dialogue with ethnography, archival practice, and both essayist and experimental filmmaking.
He studied communications in Chile, specializing in documentary cinema, where he made the short film « Las Niñas » (2011) which premiered at the international Festival Internacional de Cine de Valdivia. In France he obtained a Master of Arts with a specialization in Film Creation, at the Université París VIII Vincennes – Saint Denis. From this programme a short film emerged: « Lettres à l’administration » (Letters to the administration, 2017); it premiered in Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias, later touring through other festivals and showings around the globe.
He has collaborated in several film and audiovisual projects, mainly non-fiction, as an assistant director, sound recordist, director of photography, producer and editor. He has produced and created experimental films in celluloid. He has been a member of CEIS8, a collective for research and creation of experimental film formats. He has played the roles of Creative Director and Workshop Facilitator in film and new media programmes in several Chilean localities, and under different managements of arts education.
Stemming from the same research subject matter that his most recent short film is based on, « Lengua muerta » (Dead tongue) (2025), he is developing his first feature film co-directing « Exterra » (2027). Both films are supported by the national production fund.
Filmography
● Letters to the Administration / Lettres à l’administratrion / Chile / 2016 / 24 min. / Essay Film
