Season 1, Gen X — Episode 31 — No (2012)

Patreon here. [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod] This week, DP heads south. South to Chile — a nation which ended its military junta and dictatorship through an advertising-powered referendum just as the Cold War was ending. Could there be material that's more End of History in its politics? Chilean director Pablo Larraín [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Larra%C3%ADn] seemed to think not — producing his 2012 feature No [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_(2012_film)] — half as a celebration of the 1988 presidential referendum's ousting of General Pinochet, and half as a satirical send-up of the growth of political communications through advertising. What happens when politics is stripped of its substance and rendered as a performative set of vibes? Find out in today's episode.