This book brings together the voices of critics, programmers, and theorists who accompanied Eugenio throughout his creative trajectory, especially those who approached his work with warmth, intelligence, even affection. It also includes reflections from filmmakers with whom Eugenio collaborated at different stages of his working life, as a student, cinematographer, and editor. Finally, it offers the reader the possibility to encounter Eugenio’s photographic archive, which precedes his embrace of cinema. The text gathers tributes to a committed, expressive, and warm filmmaker and contributions that allow us to deepen our understanding of a body of work that continues to affirm its relevance. 

—Mara Polgovsky

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Life that Comes and Goes 

Endorsement by Patricio Guzmán

Translated by Lucy Foster

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The world, life, reality itself, are made up of hundreds of dramatic “atoms” flying past us… sometimes they follow us. They come close, get in between things, they don’t let us pass. Then suddenly they disappear… What is a dramatic atom?... I think of them as fleeting images of reality. They are pieces of life, they are fugitive images that arise suddenly. They are scattered visions of life that place themselves in our path. The films of Eugenio Polgovsky are an admirable collection of atoms in movement. He works with breath: his camera speaks without explanation, like a pencil in the air, moving from description to action. His films are a treasure trove, a package full of actions. Over minutes, moments and hours, his films are a collection of movements and phrases that advance with elegance. His words speak to us in secret, almost in silence… How long will we continue to love him? How much time will pass before we understand the enormous simplicity that he has taken with him?