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HUMAN ZOO: THE FINAL JOURNEY OF CALAFATE

CALAFATE, ZOOLÓGICOS HUMANOS

By Hans MÜLCHI

Documentary - Completed 2011

In the XIX century, ethnic groups from Chile were exhibited as animals in several Europeans cities. The director and historian of this filme, retraced the same journey the abducted natives did and founded the skeletons of a kawésqar group in Zurich.

- Year of production
- 2011
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- CHILE
- Languages
- SPANISH
- Budget
- 0.3 - 0.6 M$
- Duration
- 96 mn
- Director(s)
- Hans MÜLCHI
- Writer(s)
- Hans MÜLCHI
- ISAN
- 0000-0002-E80C-0000-O-0000-0000-2
- Producer(s)
- Alberto GESSWEIN, Margarita ORTEGA, Eduardo MÜLCHI
- Synopsis
- During the XIX century, four ethnic groups from Chile, in the End of World, were shown as animals in different fairs and public exhibitions in several Europeans cities.
  They were photographed, their bodies measured and their limbs demanded by scientists. While some of them got sick, some died and others were victim of sexual abuse. We traveled through Rome, Paris, London, Brussels, Hamburg, Berlin and Zurich following the traces each one of them left.
  Hans Mülchi, the director and Christian Báez, historian, retraced the journey the abducted natives did, in a moving documentary.
  We discovered that their exhibitions were carried out in such significant places as the Eiffel Tower, the Westminster neighborhood and Léopold Park where actually European Parliament stands. We not only identified those responsible for their suffering that included syphilis, measles and smallpox. We also found an authorization from the Chilean government of that time for their capture and removal from the countries territory. We also found their vestige such as baskets, necklaces and earrings in the warehouses of the Ethnographic Museum of Berlin.
  The last day of our recording in Europe we came across a shocking discovery at the department of Anthropology at the University of Zurich. The skeletons of 5 Kawésqar still rested there. 125 years before, they had been exhibited dying in the city’s theater.
  The repatriation of the body remains found by our team in Zurich, reveal how racism and the lack of respect for our indigenous population carries on until today.
  But, in that process materialized an amazing and wonderful relationship between the kawésqar descendents and the Swiss anthropologists from the University of Zurich.
- Beginning of shooting
- Feb 01, 2008