Real facts and characters are shown with a personal point of view and with a narrative progression typical of a fiction movie. It is not too little to ask from a good documentary. “Chichichi, Lelele Martin Vargas de Chile” that will debut the 1st of July on Sky and waits for the next month to be programmed at the Lo Castillo cinema, completely meets with these conditions, adding the invaluable worth of the emotions that are achieved with honesty, without cheap effects.

Made by the trio of filmmakers David Bravo, Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff, this documentary approaches the person of Martin Vargas following him to his last personal deed: his going back to the ring in 1997, after a 10 year’s retirement, at age 42, and his definite retirement in 1998.

Through the narrative of small moments – with an impeccable editing - the documentary elaborates an unpublished portrait of Martin and the characters that revolved around him during that year – managers, promoters, boxers, journalists, politicians and even TV stars, the story seems to be told by itself.

A travelling country singer, with the looks of a vagabond, makes his appearance every now and then, is the narrator, and as a Greek choir that intervenes just in the right moment, to explain how the things really are. How he and other characters assume, without intention, a similar role.

The presentation of the characters is short and effective, and the passing of the facts – the enthusiasm of the coming back fight, the suspect of the press and audience to be watching arranged fights, the unmasking of the fraud. The disillusion of Martin, his illusion of wanting to demonstrate that he can win without help and his final defeat, gives the story a dramatic progression that any fiction work would envy.

The camera allows the spectator to get close to details that determine the perception of the story. And achieves the same emotional force with physical aspects as emotional: beginning with the scars on Martin’s face to his wife, Mireya’s tic. It is exactly his family, the constant counterpoint that best explains Martin Vargas’ motivations to the eyes of the spectators. We have Mireya’s testimony, the crying of his daughter Natalia over his shoulder after a fight in which he ends up bleeding

El Mercurio Journal
Santiago - June 8, 2000

Documentaries Rescue Boxing Figures.

Filmmakers of “Chi, chi, chi, le, le, le: Martín Vargas from Chile » are now working on « A Man Aside », documentary about the legendary boxing promoter, Ricardo Liaño.

Since he threw the towel, in July 1997, until he kept it again, one year later, Martín Vargas was followed by a camera and three persons. David Bravo, Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff had a mission as clear as that of the returned national pugilist: to register in a documentary the idol in search of his last quarter of an hour and the gallery of characters and stories that surrounded such a voyage. The result was “Chi, chi, chi, le, le, le: Martín Vargas from Chile », a 61 minutes duration documentary which filmmakers are currently evaluating alternatives for its screening and broadcasting. Not only the title came out of the work of the filmmakers, whose project was supported by Silvio Caiozzi, but also, among the “secondary characters” they met on Martin’s way, was Ricardo Liaño, a Catalonian box promoter living in Chile for 30 years, whose personality encouraged Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff to make a documentary about him. “A Man Aside”, as Liaño defines himself, is the name under which they are currently working.

PUNCH 1: MARTÍN PUNCHES

“When Martín announced his return, we took the cameras and went to Osorno to cover the event as the other media did. There we realized much more could be done with the subject and that’s how we started the film”, says David Bravo, Director of Photography of “Chi, chi, chi, le, le le:Martín Vargas from Chile” and Silvio Caiozzi’s contributor to the documentary “Fernando is Back” and the film feature “Coronation”.

“It didn’t take long for him to realize we were following him more than the other media. He approached us and we told him about our intentions. We earned his trust and always counted on his support”, says Bravo. “Without it, we wouldn’t have been able to make it”. Bravo notes that after a constant follow up they could have access to different sides of Martín Vargas personality.

Ricardo Liaño, in his 80’s, impressed Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff with his subjugating personality and the deep poetry in his inventiveness. But this is not only a documentary about him, he states, “through a lineal story there’s also a look to the media and to our society. Martín already saw the documentary and didn’t like everything he saw. But he understood our work and agreed.

PUNCH 2: “A MAN ASIDE”

“This is not a documentary about a boxing figure. It is the portrait of a man who holds in himself a sense of universality”, says Bettina Perut about “A Man Aside”, the documentary about the 80 year old box promoter, Ricardo Liaño and which she started to shoot one month ago with Iván Osnovikoff. “When we were making the documentary on Martín, we met Liaño and realized he was a real cinematographic character”, says Bettina. “Iván and I had the idea of making a documentary about him, but we had to finish what we were doing first”. “When we contacted him he was living in Bolivia. We spent like two months exchanging faxes”, she adds.

“What first seduced us about Ricardo Liaño was something purely human: the aging of an extraordinary man who knew success, with fear of the misery in loneliness and close to the end of life and who swings between fantasies that dominate his life and the existential anguish of a mean present”, says Bettina, stressing the human dimensions of the character in her documentary and now already her friend. Bettina Perut says she hasn’t defined yet a deadline for her work around Liaño, but what is a fact to them is that “we’ll be with him until the end”.