Documentary by the renowned chilean photographer ‘Sergio Larraín: the eternal instant’ now available on HBO Max

After a successful run at film festivals and its commercial premiere in Chile, ’SERGIO LARRAÍN: EL INSTANTE ETERNO’ by award-winning filmmaker Sebastián Moreno arrives throughout Latin America via HBO Max. 

This is a documentary that follows the unpublished traces of one of the most important artists in the history of his country: Sergio Larraín. Who successfully worked for the most important agencies in the world, such as Magnum. For the first time, we know his exciting biography, the secrets of his iconic photos and we get closer to a fundamental artist revered in specialized circles, but unknown in the key parts of his life.

‘SERGIO LARRAÍN: EL INSTANTE ETERNO’, was produced in collaboration with the prestigious Magnum agency of Paris and delves into the mysterious figure of the photographer, who achieved worldwide fame.

THE UNKNOWN STORY OF SERGIO LARRAÍN

Sebastián Moreno, director of the documentary, tells the unknown story of Larraín, who traveled the world and was signed by the demanding and prestigious Magnum agency until, at the end of his life, he secluded himself in the foothills town of Tulahuén, where he studied oriental culture and mysticism in depth. Through his work and the testimonies of specialists and people close to him, the documentary unveils the mystery of the enigmatic photographer.

Sergio Larraín had worldwide fame, he dazzled the whole world with his talent. His photographs have been hung on the prestigious walls of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, or the MoMA in New York; and his work went around the world. Mystic, genius, an unprecedented talent who traveled like no one else through the streets, ports and bars of the deep Chile that few know.

MORENO: ’He dedicated himself to looking for the inner images’

When Sebastián Moreno met Sergio Larraín the first thing that struck him was that he saw photography as a spiritual discipline, ’He dedicated himself to searching for exterior images and then interior ones’, he emphasizes, ’When it is said that a photographer is always portraying himself, in Sergio Larraín it is a permanent search, first intuitive and audacious, then mature and detached. Because in the end it is no longer the form that matters, nor the format of the record. It is only important to be in the present’.

The director defines his work as ’a research documentary on the life and work of Sergio Larraín. To understand the work, his photographs, texts, paintings, you have to know his biography’, he remarks. ‘It is a journey through his 80 years of life, where the viewer will find unpublished materials such as the record of his first work. Photographs he took when he was 19 years old, on a trip with his family’.

One of Moreno’s motivations was to understand why Larraín had decided to abandon the world and success. ’Deciphering Larrain’s gaze was a goal,’ he confesses. ’When I understood that Sergio Larrain’s photographs were also a manifesto of life, I felt we had arrived at a place, we found something. If after watching the documentary we understand better the work of this genius of the image, we will have achieved our goal. We had a great photographer in front of us, we had a king Pelé of photography and we didn’t know it. I think this film pays homage to him and somehow brings him back to Chile and also humanizes him without losing the divine that always inhabited him’.

Sebastián Moreno, who has a consistent body of work, ’Premiering on HBO Max is great news as the film will be available throughout Latin America, and will be seen by a huge audience. In addition, this brings a huge audience closer to the life and work of Sergio Larraín, to the personal and artistic journey of this amazing artist, transformed into a myth of world photography’, comments Moreno.

About the director

Sebastián Moreno is a director and director of photography for documentaries and television series. He has made outstanding feature documentaries, among these: La Ciudad de los Fotógrafos, Habeas Corpus (2015), Guerrero (2017), Sergio Larraín, el instante eterno (2021). His films have been exhibited and awarded in prestigious national and international film festivals. He has worked as a documentary filmmaker, proposing cinema as an exploration of memory from important episodes and characters of the cultural and political history of Chile. He has won the Pedro Sienna award and has been nominated for the Altazor award, both of which recognize the quality and trajectory of artists in the Chilean audiovisual media.