“The Impact of ‘Third Cinema’ in the World” [1979

Abstract

“The Impact of ‘Third Cinema’ in the World” [1979] CinémAction Translated by Jonathan Buchsbaum Introductory note: The journal CinémAction, created in 1978 by Guy Hennebelle and Monique Martineau, was first hosted by friendly journals before establishing itself as an independent journal. In that way, CinémAction assembled the dossier on “The Impact of ‘Third Cinema’ in the World,” published by the journal Revue Tiers Monde in Volume 20, no. 79, “Audio-visual and Development” (Presses Universitaires de France, 1979), directed by Yvonne Mignot-Lefebvre. —Monique Martineau-Hennebelle, 2020 Editors’ note: The CinémAction survey translated here is the third part (Part C) of a dossier devoted to “L’influence du ‘troisième cinéma’ dans le monde” that includes eleven responses to precise questions about the impact of the film and the manifesto in different countries. Part A of the dossier presented a background of Third Cinema and the Cine Liberación Manifesto (“Genèse, en 1968, d’une théorie argentine du cinéma d’intervention”) and Part B contained 15 “salient” excerpts from the Manifesto (“15 points saillants d’un Manifeste de 15,000 mots”), both by CinémAction. For Part C, Hennebelle’s CinémAction group posed the following three questions: 1. Was La hora de los hornos distributed in your country? Did it spark controversies? What were they? If yes, did [the film] contribute to establishing a network of alternative distribution? 2. Was the Manifesto “Towards a Third Cinema” published, translated if needed, in your country? Did it provoke debates, arguments? Which ones? 3. What did you think at the time of the publication of the Manifesto and what do you think of it today? Does it seem still pertinent? [End Page 57] C) The Impact of Third Cinema. Results of an International Survey Certain writers respond in order to the questions; others “mix” them. Some emphasize certain points; others offer general reflections. One can see that the very concept of “third cinema” has elicited quite different interpretations. It seemed to us that the variety of approaches was in itself revealing. For us, this survey could open the possibility of a conference and a reworking of the Manifesto. In Chile: “at first unknown, the Manifesto might, updated, be of use to the cinema of exile” (Jaime Larrain, Chilean, is an architect, filmmaker, and photographer. He worked in the cinema during the Popular Unity government. Exiled in Spain, he collaborates with the journal Interviu, Que, Reporter, Cinema 2002, and Eikonos, imagen y sonido.) “In a situation openly colonial, cultural penetration appears as the complement of the action of the foreign army of occupation; in a neocolonial situation, at certain stages, it is this penetration which plays the most important role. For neocolonialism, the mass media are more effective than napalm.” “Of course it is only after the conquest of political power that a culture and a revolutionary consciousness can be anchored in the masses, but it does not prevent the use of scientific and artistic means together with the political-military means from being able to prepare the ground for revolution to become a reality. And to ensure that the problems following the taking of power are more easily resolved.” These two citations can be read in the work of Solanas and Getino, Cine, cultura y descolonización, which contains the Manifesto “Towards a Third Cinema.” In Chile, The Hour of the Furnaces and the Manifesto were known by a minority of people several months before the presidential election of 1970. This political context has somewhat obscured the experiment distributed by the group Cine Liberación, and in particular the slogans expressed in The Hour of the Furnaces. Still, this is not the only reason for the noncommunication among Chilean and Argentinian filmmakers. We must mention also the too short existence of a national Chilean cinema (two years), the absence of clandestine cinema, and the still embryonic nature of militant cinema. On the other hand, the process that, in Argentina, led the group Cine Liberación to construct the project of a “third cinema” had had its equivalent in Chile after the first meeting of Latin-American filmmakers at Viña-del-Mar (1967), but...