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OF SOUL AND CHAOS

Valparaiso has a rare soul, one we tell in dusty books and to which we give the name of legend. I passed there at the end of 2000, had learned some dance steps and felt some poetry exploding at each corner. But it often goes too fast, so we make promises to return to do something else of our time.

Valparaiso has a neighbor, Viña del Mar, and if one were to write a history of future times, no doubt that the split to come could find its perfect illustration in this remote Chilean port - on one side the poets, on the other, walls. Especially, Valparaiso has what many other cities filled with stories and poets will never have: the ability to reinvent itself today. Not easy being so beautiful and open to the world with its majestic bay, but Valparaiso got a secret - she turned toward the west and an ocean where she can cherish for some time her distinction and slowness... No need to overdo it, she lays and allows herself to bask in the sun of the Pacific, in silence almost.

A few days before this shoot, organized to gather at the same time most of the young Chilean folk scene, a friend sent a painful message - he recounted the hard fight against illness of a friend and singer from Montreal, with the snow constantly falling up there in the far north. We felt far from everything, celebrating the new year under warmer latitudes, we spoke with Pascuala and Camila, both great admirers of Lhasa, the voice in question. We felt helpless and we promised that this film, Temporary Valparaiso, would be a way for us to send her a message, to give her the energy to get better as quickly as possible.
The evening before the shooting, a January evening full of light, we learned the death of Lhasa de Sela. Our gift had to become a tribute, an infinite sadness overcame us. Never mind, the machine was launched, and all the musicians who had been called for this frenetic parade through the old chilean streets had responded to the call.

So then, imagine - from 9 am to 10 pm, running the streets, anticipating every set of every musician in different places, and from the first session, being already 2 hours late. Running around again, changing the mics, looking for the mics, looking for the musicians, until one comes to you and ask when he plays and you've even forgotten his name. Move a little band that has become a procession, direct camera in hand and always try to make a good impression, produce good humor as the host of a field trip and stay the course of a musical marathon, almost surreal. Chaos. Completed in a joyous celebration of the songs of Violeta Parra, to whom Lhasa wanted to pay homage in a disc never made. The night was closing on Valparaiso, on old dreams written in his time by Joris Ivens, whose old movie 'A Valparaiso' is here a link between past, present, future, and probably a little beyond in the city of poets. To Lhasa, Violeta, Valparaiso. To the poetry of Chile.