In 1967, Chile founded the first Cine Arte Theater in Viña del Mar; almost twenty years later, the Cine Arte Normandie theater was funded. Well known for its prestigious scenery. Both became the center of cultural exchange in the country. To this day, they remain sources of multiculturalism and houses of movie diplomacy in the country.
The most well-known time when movies were used as a political tool can be traced back to Nazi Germany, where Minister Joseph Goebbels and the government decided to use cinema as a tool for mass indoctrination. Similarly, movies have played a continuous role in spreading culture. To this day, movies remain a source of soft power for various countries.
Nonetheless, post-COVID-19, the art of cinema has declined significantly, to the point that Cine Artes, the spaces where movie diplomacy used to occur, have decreased, and most people now attend mass cinemas such as Cinemark and Cinépolis. In Chile, the Cine Artes are slowly dying and closing. This form of art is declining, so the meeting points where movie diplomacy used to happen have been erased.
Despite Cine Arte’s slow decline, filmmakers continue to make movies that reflect reality. At La Moneda in downtown Santiago, the Cine Arte culture is being saved through the recent exhibition “Your Ghost Are Mine,” originally presented at the 20th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in Italy in 2024, which brings together film, art, and multiple perspectives from the Middle East, where the doorgate exhibitor alerts all visitors, “This is a 42-artist-produced showcase with graphic scenes, and extraction of documentary and short films of what is going on in Qatar”
For the same reason, Movie diplomacy continues to matter because films can communicate a country’s culture, values, history, and identity to international audiences in ways traditional political messaging often cannot. By engaging audiences and creating emotional connections while sharing cultural experiences, movies can encourage understanding, dialogue, and stronger relationships between countries.
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