Whispering Without A Body, (De)colonization of the Indigenous Language and Cultural Codes: Jorge Sanjinés from Manifestos to Third Cinema

Abstract

Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés (1836–present) is the most influential representative of the Third Cinema (Revolutionary Bolivian cinema; Grupo Ukamau; 1960s to 1980s), whose manifestos determine the aesthetics and ideology of Sanjinés’s cinema. The article focuses on the Sanjinés's important films: Revolución (1963), Yawar Mallku (1969), El coraje del pueblo (1971) and La nación clandestina (1989). The aim of this study is to explore the political, social and aesthetic peculiarities of his manifestos to identify his revolutionary cinema. In the article, the Sanjinés's films and manifestos are analyzed by the Marxist and Apparatus Theories, as well as by Film Semiotics and Postcolonial Theory. The study shows the issue of cultural memory and history of Bolivia in totality by focusing on philosophical influences, visions and concepts (Imperialism; class and patriarchal terror; importance of indigenous culture and languages), which is also relevant for rethinking the cultural contexts of contemporary Bolivia and the Global South. The study is based on the rethinking of the works of those authors, (Jorge Sanjinés, Bertolt Brecht, Walter Mignolo, Mike Wayne, etc.) who discussed revolutionary cinema in a political and ideological context. The measurements are introduced to lead to an accurate connection between Sanjinés's manifestos and his films, which in its own turn indicates the fact that there is a direct link between his revolutionary theory and emancipatory practice. It also proves the concept that the author's visual and audio-visual codes have anti-colonial and liberating function. On the other hand, the article shows what role the indigenous language has for the artist, which has been colonized by the western culture.