”A David and Goliath story” (Translated from Dutch) "In the 1980s, at the time of Pinochet, the Swedish mining company Boliden has toxic industrial waste shipped to the Chilean city of Arica, where it is meant to be processed. However, that did not happen: the waste was left unprotected on a site near a poor neighborhood for years. The film Toxic Playground showed already in 2009 how this led to serious health problems for local residents, such as cancer and birth defects. Partly because of this film, a Swedish lawyer team decides to sue the company on behalf of a large

At this year’s IDFA, ARICA will be the only Scandinavian film to premiere. Naturally promoted by Scandinavian Films at the festival. Also Chiledoc is promoting the film among it’s six films and projects selected, among them San Sebastian award winning ’The Mole Agent’ (El agente topo). Chilean documentaries take IDFA 2020 RADIOGRAPH OF A FAMILY

”Will make you grab the arms of your chair out of anger.” Read the article here (in Dutch): https://www.indebioscoop.com/idfa-2020-close-up-van-het-programma-2/

There are no less than five Chilean films in the IDFA line-up 2020. Add to that the ARICA-premiere, with AricaDoc as a co-producer. - 'We are proud to be mentioned in this context. Chile stands very strong on the international scene, with ”The Agent Mole” as one of the strongest documentaries presented this year', says ARICA’s Swedish producer Andreas Rocksén.  Read the article in Variety:https://variety.com/2020/film/global/chilean-documentaries-dok-leipzig-idfa-1234830225/

Documentary maker William Johansson Kalén is upset about Bolidens complaints against the lawyers of Arica Victims. The documentary Arica recently premiered and the film deals with the lawsuit following Bolidens dumping of arsenic dust in the Chilean town Arica in the 1980’s. One of the filmmakers, William Johansson Kalén, claims Boliden has gone after the lawyers of the Arica-side and that this could have major consequences. – You don’t come across these kinds of cases very often and it’s an incredible sacrifice the lawyers make by taking them on the terms that if win, they get paid and otherwise they get nothing. It

This week, the film about the victims of the toxic waste scandal in Chilean Arica premiered in Amsterdam. At the same time, Boliden sent a letter to the Arica lawyers stating that the Swedish lawyers themselves may be sued for the legal costs of more than 40 million Swedish crowns. It is through the documentary that SVT initially received the information that Boliden had threatened to sue the Arica side's lawyers. - They report that they have not been reimbursed for legal costs, just over 40 million crowns, and that they reserve the right to make claims for damages corresponding to these

IDFA 2020: Toxic Avengers By Nick Cunningham Following on from their Toxic Playground (2009), directors William Johansson Kalén and Lars Edman return to the Chilean town of Arica to continue their investigation into the poisoning of the town people, caused by Swedish waste dumped there in 1984. But this time the town has lawyers fighting its corner. Arica world premieres in IDFA Frontlight. In the Swedish town of Skellefteå resides the Boliden company, one of the biggest mining concerns in the world, we are told. Many of the Swedish townsfolk have much to thank the company for. It brought both wealth and prosperity to the area, guaranteed

"Justice Is Very Complicated’: How the ‘Arica’ Team Fought the Good Fight on Two Continents When Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén were at film school together they had no idea how long it took to make a movie. “We didn’t have any idea,” laughs Kalén. “I remember watching a film that took three years to make, and I was thinking, ‘Oh, shit. Three years? That’s a hell of a long time. Couldn’t they have finished it a bit quicker?’” Now, as the duo make their IDFA debut with the world premiere of their second feature-length doc “Arica” in Frontlight, they

Milka in front of her daughter’s grave. "Farming, hospitals and households all create toxic waste, not to mention industry in general. But how can we safely dispose of this pollution and prevent it from ending up in the ground, water supply – or even the air we breathe?. In 1984 Swedish mining conglomerate Boliden started shipping their toxic detritus to Chile. The mammoth smelting factory of Skelleftea created arsenic, lead and mercury and all this was dumped in the northern town of Arica. Thousands of local people, particularly children, went on to suffer cancer, birth defects and neurological complaints unaware of the

"How did a Swedish mining giant destroy thousands of lives in a Chilean desert town? The answer is in Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén's new documentary. Jocelyn and Lars William, named after the filmmakers Viewers might be shocked, angry or both after watching Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén's powerful documentary Arica, which had its world premiere in the Frontlight section of this year's International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Before working on Arica, the directing duo met in a film school in Chile and already tackled the same scandal ten years ago, with their directorial debut Toxic Playground. The film,