popular sentiment. Mother, How beautiful to fight for liberty! There is a message of justice in each bullet I shoot, Old dreams that take wing like birds. sings Jorge Rebelo of Mozambique. How will the new culture develop? Only time will tell. One fact is certain: we have not completely lost the ancient thread of our authentic culture; the cultures of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea are not dead. We still have a heritage. In spite of the slave trade, military conquest, and administrative occupation, in spite of forced labor and detribalization, the village communities have preserved in differing states of alteration their traditional culture. Isn't it true that the new culture born in the heat of battle will be a process of confirmation of the nations of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea, and Cape Verde? Certainly, since cultural community - together with language, territory, and economic life - is the fourth aspect of nationhood. This schema defined by Stalin continues to guide our investigations and today makes us view the national community as a relative linguistic,- politico-economic, and cultural unit. We know the process by which Portuguese colonialization prevented our dif- ferent countries from attaining a national existence. The most common result of colonialization is the break in the historical con- new tinuity of the old bonds between men, from both a family and an ethnic viewpoint. . The colonial status which unites men in a market economy at e the lowest level, which depersonalizes them culturally, negates nationhood. Toward a Now, then, armed struggle allows these communities to reenter history. When this struggle unites all ethnic groups under the Octavio Getino and banner of nationalism. it becomes a factor which accelerates the process of nationhood.' Armed struggle, in order to use a concept In an alienated world, culture -obviously - is a deformed and deforming product. developed by Frantz Fanon, is the cultural fact par excellence. To overcome this it is necessary to have a culture of and for the revolution, a Returning to the role of the intellectual, it remains to say that subversive culture capable of contributing to the downfall of capitalist society. the intellectuals in our countries have been the driving force In the specific case of the cinema - art of the masses par excellence - its transformation from mere entertainment into an active means of dealienation behind the awakening of political consciousness and continue to becomes imperative. Its role in the battle for the complete liberation of man be one of the components of the revolutioniry leadership of our is of primary importance. The camera then becomes a gun, and the cinema must liberation struggles. The nature of Portuguese colonialization be a guerrilla cinema. throughout the centuries has been no stranger to ihe type of com- This is the proposition of Fernando Solanas (33-yearlold Argentine) and Octavio Getino (34-year-old Spaniard) in this article written especially for Tricontinental: promise made by the assimilated. In effect, it is the assimilated Solanas began his cinematic activity. with the short-length Seguir andando who kill the colonial culture in order to live within the values of (Keep Walking). Getino, who has lived in since he was 16 years old, the "indigenous" civilization. With some differences in detail, this won the 1964 Short Story Award of Casa de las Americas 'with Chulleca; in 1965 process of integration of the intellectuals with the revolution fol- he made the film-short~ ~-. Trasmallos.---- ~ Both recently produced La hora de 10s homos lowed an identical pattern in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea, and (The Time of the Furnaces), a vigorous film denunciation of the injustices to the archipelagos of Saint Thomas and Cape Verde. We have, which the Latin-American peoples are subjected. therefore, one common destiny: to forge rational arms for the awakening of the people's consciousness and to break the chains of cultural duality by participating in revolution. cated strata of our countries, was to i311 artist;ic activi~ty with the idei rather a late-comer: ten years of tha t such :ictivity ,must ineluctabl! -L---L-, J a... +ha the Cuban Revolution, the Vietnam- be ausw veu bllr; System, and thc ese struggle, and the development other which maintains an inne of a worldwide liberation movement duality of the intellectual: on th~ whose moving force is to be found one hand, the "work of art," "the in the Third vorld countries. The privilege of beauty," an art and a existence of masses on the world- beauty which are not necessarily wide revolutionary plane was the bound to the needs of the revolu- JUSTa short time ago it would have substantialquestions factcould without ltot whichhave thosebe tinnary political process, and, on the people to scepticism or rationaliza- ler, a political commitment which seemed like a Quixotic adventure tion: "revolutionary cannot be in the colonialized, neocolonialized, posed A new historical situatjIon gellerally consists in signing cer- made before the revolution"; "rev- and a new man born in the prociess tai:n anti-imperialist manifestoes. In or even the imperialist nations olutionary films have been pos- J- A- prt themselves to make any attempt to of the anti-imperialist struggle ( ictice, this point of view means sible only in the libersted coun- at- the create films of decoloni.zation.that tries"; "without the support of manded a new, revolutionary ! separation of politics and art. turned their back on or actively op- titude from the film-makers of 1the 7rhis polarity rests, as we see it, revolutionary political power, revo- world. The question of whether or on two omissions: first, the concep- posed the System. Until recently, lutionary films or art is impossible." film had been synonymous with The mistake was due to taking the not militant cinema was possible tion of culture, science, art, and show or amusement: in a word, it same approach to reality and films before' the revolution began to be cinema as univocal and universal was one more consumer gd. At as did the bourgeoisie. The models replaced, at least within small terms, and, second, an insufficiently groups, by the question of whether clear idea of the fact that the rev- best, films succeeded in bearing of production, distribution, and exhi- bition continued to be those of or not such a cinema was neces- olution does not begin with the tak- witness to the decay of bourgeois sary to contribute to the possibility .ing of political power from irnperial- values and testifying to social in- Hollywood precisely because, in ideology and politics, films had not of revolution. An affirmative an- ism and the bourgeoisie, but rather justice. As a rule, films only dealt swer was the starting point for the begins at the moment when tk- with effect, never with cause; it yet become the vehicle for a clearly drawn differentiation between bour- first attempts to channel the proc- masses sense the need for chang was cinema of mystification or anti- ess of seeking possibilities in nu- and their intellectual vanguarc historicism. It was surplus value geois ideology and politics. A re- formist policy, as manifested in merous countries. Examples are begin to study and carry out th cinema. Caught up in these condi- Newsreel, a US new-left film group, ch ange through r - i on di tions, films, the most valuable tool dialogue with the adversary, in ;tu- fei coexistence, and in the relegation the cinegiornali of the Italian s rent fronts. of communication of our times, were dent movement, the films made by Culture, art science, an~d cinen destined to satisfy only the ideolog- of national contradictions to those an- all . ---J?l:* between two supposedly unique the Etats G6nCraux' du CinCma Fr--- ,,ways respond to ~~11~1~ctingcla ical and economic interests of the qais, and those of the British and interests. In the neocolonial situatic owners of the film industry, the blocs - the USSR and the USA - Japanese student movements, all a two concepts of culture, art, scienc lords of the world film market, the was and is unable to produce any-- continuation and deepening of the and cinema compete: that of tl great majority of whom were from thing but a cinema within the Sys- tem itself. At best, it can be the work of a Joris Ivens or a Chris rulers and that of the nation. Arlu the United States. "progressive" wing of Establishment Marker. Let it suffice to observe the this situation will continue, as long Was it possible to overcome this cinema. When all is said and done, films of a Santiago Alvarez in Cuba, as the national concept is not iden- situation? How could the problem such cinema was doomed to wait or the cinema being developed by tified with that of the rulers, as of turning out liberation films be until the world conflict was re- different film-makers in me- lo ng as the status of colony or semi- approached when costs came to sev- land of all:' as Bolivar say, co tlony continues in force. Moreover, solved peacefully in favor of social- .tin- th le duality will be overcome and eral thousand dollars and the dis- ism in order to change qualitatively. as they seek a revolutio tribution and exhibition channels American cinema. .- ill reach a single and universal The most daring attempts of those ~nlywhen the best values were in the hands of the enemy? film-makers who strove to conquer A profound debate on the roll e of ca itegory ( How courld the continuity of work the fortress of official cinema ended, intellectuals and artists before lib- 01 i man ernerge from proscription .to be guaranteed? -Howcould the pub- eration today is enriching the 1per- ac :hieve hl egemony, when the libera- as Jean-Luc Goddard eloquently put 1. r. I _ lic be reached? How could System- it, with the film-makers themselves spectives of intellectual work an tion or man is universal. In the imposed repression and censorship "trapped inside the fortress." over the world. However, this de- meantime, there exist our culture be vanquished? These questions, But the questions that were re- bate oscillates between two poles: and their culture, our cinema and which could be multiplied in all cently raised appeared promising; one which proposes to relegate all their cinema. Because our culture directions, led and still lead many they arose from a new hi~torica~l intellectual work capacity to a spe- is ulse towards emancipation, situation to which the film-maker, cifically political or political-Inili- as is often the case with tRe edu- tary function, denying perspecl;ives

ed man that we art aLlu w.hi~hthe not due to the use of two langua- and the desire to destroy the resist- papers,. periodicals, and magazines; new man will destroy -.by start- ges but because of the conjunc- ance of the national masses, which and thousands of records, films, etc. ing to stoke the fire today. ture of two cultural patterns of were successively called the "rab- join their acculturating role of the The anti-imperialist struggle of thinking. One is national, that df ble," a "bunch of blacks," and "zoo- colonialization of taste and con- the peoples of the Third World and the people, and the other is es- logical detritus'.' in our country and sciousness to the process of neo- of their equivalents inside the im- tranging, that of the classes subor- "the unwashed hordes" in Bolivia. colonial education which begins in perialist countries constitutes today dinated to outside forces. The In this way the ideologists of the primary school and is completed in the axis of the world revolution. admiration that the upper class- the university. "Mass communica- Third cinema is, in our opinion, the semicountries, past masters in "the es express for the US or Europe play of big words, with an implac- tions are more effective for neo- cinema that recognizes in that strug- is the highest expression of their colonialism than napalm. What is gle the most gigantic cultural, scien- able, dGtailed, and rustic universal- subjection. With the colonializa- ism,'' "erved as spokesmen of those real, true, and rational is to be tific, and artistic manifestation of tion of the upper classes the found on the. margin of the Law, our time, the great possibility of followers of Disraeli who intelli- culture of imperialism indirect- gently proclaimed: "I prefer the just as are the people. Violence, constructing a 'liberated personality ly introduces among the masses crime, and destruction come to be with each people as the starting rights of the English to the rights knowledge which cannot be su-- ~ ,.f m 9,. "L ,111l.1. " Peace, Order, and N~rmalcy."~ point - in a word, the decoloniza- pervisedr2 The middle sectors were and are ruth, then, amounts to subversion. ' tion of culture. Just as they are not masters of the best recipients of cultural neb Any f0XTl of expression or corn- I The culture, including the cinema, the land upon which they walk, the mlonialism. Their ambivalent class munication that tries to show na- of a neocolonialized country is just neocolonialized people are not mas- condition, their buffer position be- tional reality is subversion. 1 the of an de~en- ters of the ideas that envelop them. tween social polarities, and their Cultural penetration, pedagogical 1 dence that generates models and A knowledge of national reality broader possibilities of access to c~~~niali~ati~n,and mass communi- born from the needs of im- presupposes going into the web of civil;,zation offer imperialism a base cations all join forces today in a I n~v'alistexpansion. lies' and confusion that arise from of social support which has attajned desperate attempt to absorb, neu- 1 order to itself,. nee- dependence. The intellectual is considerable importance in some tralize, or eliminate any expres- ~lonialismneeds to convince the obliged to refrain from spontaneous Latin-American countries. sion that responds to an attempt i "pie of a thought; if he does think, he gcn- ~f,in the colonial situa- it decolonization. 1 their own inferiority. Sooner or erally runs the risk of doing so in tion, cultural penetration is the makes a serious attempt to castrate, later, the inferior man recognizes ~~~~~h or E~~~~~~- never in the complement of a foreign army of to digest, the cultural forms that Man with a capital M; this recog- language of a culture of his om, occupation, during certain stages arise beyond the bounds of its nition means the destruction of which, like the process of national that penetration takes on greater own aims. Attempts are 1Gade to .s defenses- If you want to be and social liberation, is still hazy importance in the neocolonial coun- remove from them precisely what man, says the you and incipient. Every piece of data, tries. makes them effective and danger- Ive be like me, speak my every concept that floats around us, ~t serves to institutionalize and ous, their politici~ation.Or, to put it language, Your own being, is part of a, framework of mirages give a normal appearance to de- another way, to separate the cul- yourself intG me. As that it is difficult to take apart, pendence. The main objective of tural manifestation from the fight as the l7th century the The native bourgeoisie of the port this cultural deformation is to for national independence. Jesuit missionaries proclaimed the cities as B~~~~~ A~~~~,and keep the people from realizing Ideas such as "Beauty in itself is aptitude of the [South American] their respective intellectual elites, their neocolonialized and revolutionary" and "All new cinema native for constituted, from the very origills aspiring to change it. In this way is revolutionary" are idealistic aspi- works art. Copyist, translator, of our history, the transmission helf pedagogical colonialization is an rations that do not touch the nee- at best a spectator, of neocolonial penetration. BeJlind effective for the colo- colonial condition, since they con- the neocolonialized intellectual such watchwords as "Civiliz~tionor nial p01ice.~ tinue to conceive of cinema, art, always be encouraged to barbarism!" manufactured in Ar- Mass communications tend to and beauty as universal abstrac- refuse to assume his creative pos- gentina by Europeanizing liberal. complete the destruction of a na- tions and not as an integral part 0i gibilities. Inhibitions, uprooted- ism, was .the attempt to impose a tional awareness and of a collective the national processes of decoloniza. ness, cultural COSmo- civilization fully in keeping with subjectivity on the way to enlight- tion. politanism, artistic imitation, met- the needs of imperialist expansion enment, a destruction which begins Zaveleta Mere, vla: creci- aphysical exhaustion, betrayal of as soon as the child has access to ,,,ientoRene de la ides (Bolivia: country - 911 find fertile soil La hora de 10s hornos (The Time af these media, the education and cul- Growth of the ~ationalConc in which to grow. Forges), "Neocolonialismo y violencia" ture of the ruling classes. In Ar- 4 La hora de 10s homos* ibid. Culture becomes biIingual (Neocolonialism - and Violence"). gentina 26 television channels; one Ibid. Juan Jose Hernandez Arregui, Imperia. llsmo Y cultura (Imperialism and cul. .million television sets; more than 50 radio stations; hundreds of news- - -

from the metropolis (examples are has already been exposed suffi- Any dispute, no matter how viru- politicization - all of these "progres- Rosas' federalism in. Argentina, the ciently, not only in politics but also lent, which does not serve to mo- sive" alternatives come to form the Lopez arid Francia regimes in Para- in culture and films - and especial- bilize, agitate, and politicize sectors leftish wing of the System, the guay, and those of Bengido and ly in the latter, whose history is of the people to arm them rationally improvement of its cultural prod- Balmaceda in Chi,le) with a tra- that of imperialist domination - and perceptibly, in one way or ucts. They will be doomed to carry dition that has continued well into main1Culturey Yankee. and cinema are national another, for the struggle - is re- out the best work on the left that our century: national-bourgeois, na- ceived with indifference or even the right is able to accept today tional-popular, and democratic-bour- not because they are located within with pleasure. Virurlence, noncon- and will thus only serve the sur- geois attempts were made by Chrde- certain geographical limits, but formism, plain rebelliousness, and viva1 of the latter. "Restore words, nas, Yrigoyen, Haya de la Torre, when they respond to the particu- discontent are just so many more dramatic actions, and images to the Vargas, Aguirre Cerci'a, Perbn, and lar needs of development and lib- products on the capitalist market; places where they can carry out a Arbenz. But as far as revolutionary eration of each people. The cinema they are CO~sumer goods. This is revolutionary role, where they will prospects are concerned, the cycle which Is today dominant in our especially true in a situation where be useful, where they will become has definitely been completed. The countries, set up to accept and jus- lines allowing for the deepening tif~,dependence, the origin of all the bourgeoisie is in need of a daily weapons in the struggle." 8 Insert dose of shock and exciting elements the work as an original fact in the of the historical attempt of each underdevelopment, can be nothing of ~~ntrolledviolence - that is, process of liberation, place it first of those experiences today pass but a dependent and underdevel- I violence which absorption by the at the service of {life itself, ahead through the sectors that understand oped cinema. I System turns into pure stridency. of art; dissolve in the the continent's situation as one of While, during the early history Examples are the works of a so- life of smietjr: only in this way, war and that are preparing, under (or the prehistory) of the cinema, cialist-tinged painting and sculpture as Fanon said, can decolonization the force of circumstances, to make it was possible to speak of a Ger- which are greedily sought after by become possible and culture, cin- that region the Viet-Nam of the man, an Italian, or a Swedish cinema the new bourgeoisie to decorate ema, and beauty - at least,,what is coming decade. A war in which na- clearly differentiated and corre- their apartments and mansions; of greatest importance to us - be- tional liberation can only succeed sponding to specific national charac- plays full of anger and avant-gard- come our culture, our films, and our when it is simultaneously posh- teristics, today such differences have lated as social liberation - socialism disappeafed. The borders were as the only valid perspective of wiped out along with the expansion any national liberation process. of US imperialism and the film - At this time in America there is model that it imposed: Hollywod room for neither passivity nor movies. In our times it is hard tc innocence. The intellectual's com- find a film within the field of com mitment is measured in terms of mercial cinema, including what ir risks as well as words and ideas; known as "author's cinema," in botl what he does to further the cause the capitalist and socialist coun of liberation is what counts. The tries, that manages to avoid thc worker who goes on strike and models of Hdlywood pictures. Tht thus risks losing his job or even latter have such a fast hold tha his life, the student who jeopard- monumental works such as the izes his career, the militant who USSR's Bondarchuk's War and keeps silent under torture: each Peace are also monumental exam- by his or her action commits us ples of the submission to all the to something much more impor- propositions imposed by the US tant than a vague gesture of movie industry (structure, lan- s~lidarity.~. guage, etc.) and, consequently, tc In a situation in which the "state its concepts. of law" is replaced by the "state of The placing of the cinema withir facts," the intellectual, who is one US models, even in the formal as- more worker, functioning on a cul- pect, in language, leads to the adop- I tural front, must .become increas- tion of the ideological forms that ing to Saigon to get a close-up view of ingly radicalized to avoid denial of self and to carry out what is expect- 9 Lo hora de 10s hornos, ibld. I ed of him in our times. The im- potence of all reformist concepts 8 The organization Pl6sticos de Vanguar- dia (Vanguard Artists) of Argentina. - 7

I1 gave rise to precisely that language cinema studied by motivational Neither of these requi~ementsfits I and no other. Even the appropria- tradiction."" analysts, sociologists and psycho1- within the alternatives that are still This cutting off of the intellectual tion of models which appear to be ogists, by the endless researchers I only technical, industrial, scientific, of the dreams and frustrations of offered by the second cinema, but and artistic sectors from the process- etc. leads to a conceptual depen~ the masses, all aimed at selling they can be found in the revolution- es of national liberation - which, , dency situation, due to the fact that ary opening towards a cinema out- among other things, helps us to movie-life, reality as it is conceived understand the limitations in which the cinema is an industry, but dif- by the ruling classes. side and against the System, in a fers from other industries in that cinema of liberation: the third these processes have been unfold- The first alternative to this type ing - today tends to disappear in it has been created and organized of cinema, which we could call the cinema. in order to generate certain ide- first cinema, arose with the so- One of the most effective jobs the measure that artists and intellec- ologies. The 35 mm. camera, 24 called' "author's cinema," "expres- done by neocolonialism is its cut- tuals are beginning to discover the frames a second, arc lights, and a sion cinema," "nouvel,le vague," ting off of intellectual sectors, es- impossibility of destroying the ene- pecially artists, from national real- my without first joining in a battle 1 commercial place of exhibition for "," or, conventionally, audiences were conceived not to the second cinema. This alternative ity by lining them up behind 'Zini- for their common interests. The art- versa1 art and models." It has been ist is beginning to feel the insuf- gratuitously transmit any i'deology, signified a step forward inasmuch ficiency of his nonconformism and but to satisfy, in the first place, the very common for intellectuals and as it demanded that the film-maker artists to be found at the tail end individual rebellion. And the revo- cultural and surplus value needs of be free to express himself in non- lutionary organizations, in turn, are a specific ideology, of a specific standard language and inasmuch as of popular struggle, when they have world-view: that of US financial not actually taken up positions discovering the vacuums that the 1 it was an attempt at cultural de- against it. The social layers which struggle for power creates in the colonization. But such attempts cultural sphere. The problems of The mechanistic takeover of a have already reached, or are about have made the greatest contribution to the building of a national cul- film making, the ideological limita- , cinema conceived as a show to be to reach, the outer limits of what I ture (understood as an impulse to- tions of a film-maker in a neocolo- exhibited in large theaters with a the system permits. The second nialized country, etc. have thus far standard duration, hermetic struc- cinema film-maker has remained wards decolonization) have not been precisely the enlightened elites constituted objective factors in the tures that are born and die on the "trapped inside the fortress" as lack of attention paid to the cin- screen, satisfies. to be sure, the Goddard put it, or is on his way to but rather the most exploited and uncivilized sectors. Popular organi- ema by the people's organizations. commercial interests of the produc- becoming trapped. The search for Newspapers and other printed mat- tion gmups, but it also leads to the zations have very rightly distrusted a market of 200 000 moviegoers in the "intelalectual" and the "artist." ter, posters and wall propaganda, absorption of forms of the bour- Argentina, a figure that is supposed speeches and other verbal forms geois world-view which are the con- When they have not been openly to cover the costs of an independent . used by the bourgeoisie or imperial- of information,,enlightenment, and tinuation of 19th century art, of local production, the proposal of ism, they have certainly been their politicization are still the main bourgeois art: man is accepted only developing a mechanism of -indus- means of communication between as a passive and consuming object; indirect tools; most of them did not trial production parallel to that of go beyond spouting a policy in the organizations and the vanguard rather than having his ability to the System but which would be layers of the masses. But the new make history recognized, he is only distributed by the System accord- favor of "peace and democracy," fearful of anything that had a na- political positions of some film-mak- permitted to read history, contem- ing to its own norms, the struggle ers and the subsequent appearance plate it, listen to it, and undergo it. tional ring to it, afraid of contami- to better the laws protecting the nating art with politics and the of fllms useful for liberation have The cinema as a spectacle aimed at cinema and replacing "bad officialsn permitted certain political vanguards a digesting object is the highest by "less bad," etc. is a search lack- artists with the revolutionary mili- tant. They thus tended to obscure to discover the importance of movies. point that can be reached by bour- ing in viable prospects, unless you This importance is to be found in geois film making. The world, ex- the inner causes determining nee- consider viable the prospect of be- colonialized society and placed in the specific meaning of films as a istence, and the historic process are coming institutionalized as "the form of communication and because enclosed within the frame of a the foreground the outer causes, youthful, angry wing of society" which, while "they are the condi- of their particular characteristics, painting, the same stage of a - that is, of neocolonialized or cap- characteristics that allow them to theater, and the movie screen; man tion for change, they can never be italist society. the basis for change";1° in Argen- draw audiences of different origins, I is viewed as a consumer of ideology, Real alternatives diff&ng from many of them people who might not ' and not as the creator of ideology. tins they replaced the struggle those offered by the System are against imperialism and the native respond favorably to the announce- , This notion is the starting point for only possible if one of two require- the wonderful interplay of bour- oligarchy with the struggle of de- lo Mao Tae-Tung, On Prrotioe. ments is fulfilled: making films that mocracy against fascism, suppress- geois philosophy and the obtaining the System cannot assimilate and 11 Rodolfo Pruigross, El proletariado y 1s ' of surplus value. The result is a ing the fundamental contradjcti~n rcvoluoibn ntaoioml (The Prolekrld and which are foreign to its needs, or of a neocolonialized country and re- making films that directly and ex. placing it with "a contradiction that p1icitIy set out to fight the System was a copy of the world-wide Con- *

! merit of a political speech. Films Peronist and non-Peronist groups significance of art in our times. execution. I make the revolution; therefore, offer an effective pretext for gath- are taking an interest in doing Imperialism and capitalism, ering an audience, in addition to likewise. Moreover, OSPAAAL is whether in the consumer society or I exist. This is the starting point the ideological message they contain. participating in the production and in the neocolonialized country, veil - for the disappearance of fantasy The capacity for synthesis and distribution of films that contribute everything behind a screen of im- and phantom to make way for living the penetration of the fiJm image, to the anti-imperialist struggle. The ages and appearances. The image human beings. The cinema of the of reality is more important than , revolution is at the same time one the possibilities offered by the liv- revolutionary organizations are dis- , ing document and naked reality, covering the need for cadres who, reality itself. It is a world peopled of destruction and construction: de- and the power of enlightenment of among other things, know how to with fantasies and phantoms in struction of the image that neocolc- audiovisual means make the film handle a film camera, tape record- which what is hideous is clothed in nialism has created of itself and of far more effective than any other ers, and projectors in the most ef- beauty, while beauty is disguised as us, and construction of a throbbing, I tool of communication. It is hardly fective way possible. The struggle the hideous. On the one hand, fan- living reality which recaptures truth necessary to point out that those to seize power from the enemy is tasy, the imaginary bourgeois uni- in any of its expressions. films which achieve an intelligent the meeting ground of the political verse replete with comfort, equi- The restitution of things to their use of the possibilities of the image, and artistic vanguards engaged in a librium, sweet reason, order, ef- real place and meaning is an emi- adequate dosage of concepts, lan- common task which is enriching to ficiency, and the possibility to "be nently subversive fact both in the guage and structure that flow natu- both. someone." And, on the other, the neocolonial situation and in the con- rally from each theme, and coun- Some of the circumstances that phantoms, we the lazy, we the in- sumer societies. In the former, the terpoints of audiovisual narration delayed the use of films as a revo- dolent and underdeveloped, we who seeming ambiguity or pseudo-objec- achieve effective results in the poli- lutionary tool until a short time cause disorder. When a neocolonial- tivity in newspapers, literature, etc. ticization and mobilization of cadres ago were lack of equipment, tech- ized person accepts his situation, he md the relative freedom of the peo- and even in work with the masses, nical difficulties, the compulsory becomes a Gungha Din, a traitor ple's organizations to provide their 1 where this is possible. specialization of each phase of at the service of the colonialist, an own information cease to exist, giv- i The students who raised barri- work, and high costs. The advances Uncle Tom, a class and racial ren- ing way to overt restriction, when cades on the Avenida 18 de Julio that have taken place within each egade, or a fool, the easy-going it is a question of television and in Montevideo after the showing of specialization; the simplification of servant and bumpkin; but, when he radio, the two most important Sys- Me gustan 10s estudhntes (I Like movie cameras and tape recorders; refuses to accept his situation of tem-controlled or monopolized com- Students) (Mario Handler), those improvements in the medium itself, oppression, then he turns into a munications media. Last year's May who demonstrated and sang the such as rapid fitlm that can be resentful savage, a cannibal. Those events in are quite explicit "Internationale" in Merida and Ca- printed in a normal light; automatic who lose sleep from fear of the on this point. racas after the showing of La hora de light meters; improved audiovisual hungry, those who comprise the Sys- In a wonld where the unreal rules lm hornos (The Time of Furnaces), synchronization; and the spread of tem, see the revolutionary as a artistic expression is shoved along the growing demand for films such know-how by means of specialized bandit, robber, and rapist; the first the channels of fantasy, fiction, lan- as those made by Santiago Alvarez magazines with large circulations battle waged against them is thus guage in code, sign language, and and the Cuban and even through nonspecialized not on a political plane, but rather messages whispered between the movement, and the debates and media, have helped to demystify in the police context of law, ar- lines. Art is cut off from the con- meetings that take place after the film making and divest it of that rests, etc. The more exploited a man crete facts - which, from the neo- undergmund or semipublic show- almost magic aura that made it is, the more he is placed on a plane colonialist standpoint, are accusa- ings of third cinema films are the seem that films were only within of insignificance. The mwe he re- tory testimonies - to turn back on beginning of a twisting and difficult the reach of "artists," "geniuses," sists, the more he is viewed as a itself, strutting about in a world ~ road being traveled in the consumer and "the privileged." Film making beast. This can be seen in Africa of abstractions and phantoms, where ~ societies by the mass organizations is increasingly within the reach of addio, made by the fascist Jacopetti: it becomes "timeless" and history- (Cinegiornali liberi, in Italy, Zen- larger ,social dayers. Chris Marker the African savages, killer animals, less. Viet-Nam can be mentioned, ~ gakuren documentaries in Japan, experimented in France with groups wallow in abject anarchy once they but only far from Viet-Nam; can be mentioned, but only etc.). For the first time in Latin of workers whom he provided with escape from white protection. Tar- ' America, organizations are ready 8 mm. equipment and some basic zan died, and in his place were born far enough away from the continent and willing to employ films for instruction in its handling. The Lumumbas and Lobemgulas, Nko- to be ineffective, in places where it I political-cultural ends: the Chilean goal was to have the worker film mos, and the Madzimbamutos, and is depliticized anc it does Partido Socialists provides its ca- his way of looking at the world, this is something that neocolonialism not lead to action. dres with revolutionary film mate- just as if he were writing it. This cannot forgive. Fantasy has been The cinema known as aocumen- rial, while Argentine revolutionary has opened up unheard-of prospects replaced by phantoms, and man is tary, with all the vastness that the for the cinema; above all, a new turned into an extra who dies so conception of film making and the Jacopetti can comfortably film his concept has today, from educational tion of a fact, to the desire to re- down supposedly universal norms. him neither the culture, the tech- films to the reconstruction of a fact move reality's deep contradictions, A cinema which in the consumer \ niques, nor the most primary ele- or a historical event, is perhaps the its dialectic richness, which is pre- society does not attain the level of ments for success. The culture of main basis of revolutionary film cisely the kind of depth which can the reality in which it moves can the metropolis kept the age-old making. Every image that docu- give a film beauty and effectiveness. play a stimu-lating role in an under- secrets that had given life to its ments, bears witness to, refutes or The reality of the revolutionary developed country, just as a revolu- models; the transposition of the lat- deepens the truth of a situation is processes aL1 over the world, in spite tionary cinema- in the neocolonial ter to the neocolonial reality was something mnre than a film image of their confused and negative as- situation will not necessarily be rev- always a mechanism of alienation, or purely artistic fact; it becomes pects, possesses a dominant line, a olutionary if it is mechanically since it was not possible for the something which the System finds synthesis which is so rich and stim- taken to the metropolis country. artist of the dependent country to indigestible. ulating that it does not need to Teacfiing the handllng of gurs can absorb, in a few years, the secrets Testimony about a national reality be schematized with partial or sec- be revolutionary where there are of a culture and society elaborated is also an inestimable means of dia- tarian views. potentially or explicitly viable lay- - through the centuries in completely logue and knowledge on the world Pamphlet films, didactic films, re- ers ready to throw- themselves different historical circumstanc&. plane. No internationalist form port films, essay films, witness- into the struggle to take power, but The attempt in the sphere of film of struggle can be carried out suc- bearing films - any militant form ceases to be revolutionary where making to match the pictures of cessfully if there is not a mutua81 of expression is valid, and it would the masses still lack sufficient the ruling countries generally ends exchange of experiences among the be absurd to lay dbwn a set of aes- awareness of their situation or in failure, given the existence of people, if the people do not succeed thetic work norms. Be receptive to where they already have learned two disparate historical realities. in breaking out of the Balcaniza- all that the people have to offer, and to handle guns. Thus, a cinema And such unsuccessful attempts tlon on the international, continen- offer them the best; or, as Che put I which insists upon the denuncia- lead to feelings of frustration and tal, and national planes which im- it, respect the people by giving them tion of the effects of neocolonial inferiority. Both these feelings arise perialism is striving to maintain. quality. This is a good thing to keep policy is caught up in a reformist in the first place from the fear of There is no knowledge of a real- In mind in view of those tendencies game if the consciousness of the taking risks along completely new ity as long as that reality is not which are always latent in the rev- masses has already assimilated roads which are almost a total denial acted upon, as long as its transfor- olutionary artist to ,lower the level I such knowledge; then the revolu- of "their cinema." A fear of recog- mation is not begun on all fronts of investigation and the language I tionary thing is to examine the nizing the particularities and limi- of struggle. The well-known quote of a theme, in a kind of neopopu- causes, to investigate the ways of tations of a dependency situation in from Marx deserves constant rewe- lism, doyn to levels. - which. while I organizing and arming for the crder to discover the possibilities tition: it is not sufficient to intkr- they may well be those upoi which change. That is, imperialism can inherent in that situation by finding pret the world; it is now a question the masses move, do not help them sponsor. films that fight illiteracy, ways of overcoming it which would of transforming it. to get rid of the stumbling blocks and such pictures will only be in- of necessity be original. With such an attitude as his start- left by imperialism. The effective- scribed within the contemporary The existence of a revolutionary ing point, it remains to the film- ness of the best films of militant need of imperidist policy, but, in cinema is inconceivable without the 1 maker to discover his own language, cinema show that social layers con- contrast, the making of such films constant and methodical exercise of i a language which will arise from a sidered backward are able to capture in Cuba after the triumph of the practice, search, and experimenta- I tion. It even means committing the i militant and transforming world- the exact meaning of an asso- Revolution was clearly revolution- i view and from the theme being ciation of images, an effect of stag- ary. Although their starting point new film-maker to take chances on dealt with. Here it may well be ing, and any linguistic experimen- was just the fact of teaching read- the unknown, to leap into space at pointed out that certain political tation placed within the context ing and writing, they had a goal times, exposing himself to failure cadres still maintain old dogmatic of a given idea. Furthermore, which was radically different from as does the guerrilla who travels positions, which ask the artist or revolutionary cinema is not funda- that of imperialism: the training along paths that he himself opens film-maker to provide an apolo- mentally one which illustrates, doc- of people for liberation, not for sub- up with machete blows. The possi- getic view of reality, one which is uments, or. passively establishes a jection. bility of discovering and inventing more in line with wishful think- situation: rather, it attempts to in- The model of the perfect work film forms and structures that serve ing than with what actually is. Such tervene in the situation as an ele- of art, the fully rounded film struc- a more profound vision of our real- ; positions, which at bottom mask a ment providing thrust or rectifica- tured according to the metrics im- ity resides in the ability to place lack of confidence in the possibili- tion. To put it another way, it posed by bourgeois culture, its oneself on the outside limits of the ties of reality itself, have in certain provides discovery through trans- theoreticians and critics, has served familiar, to make one's way amid cases led to the use of film lan- formation. to inhibit the film-maker in the de- constant dan-a-- o~rc-. guage as a mere idealized illustra- The differences that exist be- pendent countries, especially when Our time i,s one of hv~othesisrath- tween one and another liberation he has attempted to erect similar process make it impossible to lay models in a reality which offered er than of thesis, a time of works ershlp that centralizes planning collaboration of militants and cadres his hands. in process - unfinished, unor- work and maintains its continuity. from the people. The success of the work depends dered, violent works made with the Experience shows that it is not The revolutionaryfilm-maker acts to a great extent on the group's camera in one hand and a rock easy to maintain the cohesion of a with a radically new vision of the ability to remain silent, on its per- in the other. Such works cannot be group when it is bombarded by the role of the producer, teamwork, manent wariness, a condition that assessed according to the tradition- System and its chain of accomplices tools, details, etc. Aboye all, he sup- is difficult to achieve in a situation I a1 theoretical and critical canons. frequently disguised as "progres- dies himself at all levels in order in which amarentlv nothing is hap The ideas for our film theory and sives," when there are no immedi- to produce his fitlms, he equips him- pening aG4 the " film-maker has criticism will come to life through ate and spectacular outer incentives self at all levels, he learns how to been accustomed to telling all and inhibition-removing practice and and the members must undergo the handle the manifold techniques of sundry about everything that he's experimentation. "Knowledge be- discomforts and tensions of work his craft. His most valuable pos- doing because the bourgeoisie has gins with practice. After acquiring that is done underground and dis- sessions are the tools of his trade, trained him precisely on such a theoretical knowledge through prac- tributed clandestinely.' Many aban-. which form part and parcel of his basis of prestige and promotion. The tice, it is necessary to return to don their responsibilities because need to communicate. The camera is watchword "constant vigilance, practice." l2 Once he has embarked they underestimate them or because the inexhaustible expropriator of constant wariness, constqnt mobil- upon this practice, the revolution- they measure them with values ap- image-weapons; the projector, a gun ity" has profound validity for guer- ary fi'lm-maker will have to over- propriate to System cinema-and not that can shoot 24 frames per second. rilla cinema. You have to give the come countless obstacles; he will underground cinema. The birth of Each member of the group should appearance of working on various experience the loneliness of those internal conflicts is a reality pres- be familiar, at least in a general projects, split up the materials for who aspire to the praise of the Sys- ent in any group, whether or not way, with the equipment being processing, use go-betweens, mix tem's promotion media only to find it possesses ideological maturity. used: he must be prepared to re- The Material with other materials, that those media are closed to him. The lack of awareness of such an place another in any of the phases put it together, take it apart, con- As Goddard would say, he will inner conflict on the psychological of production. The myth of irrepla- fuse, neutralize, and throw off the cease to be a bicyc,le champion or personality plane, etc., the lack ceable technicians must be exploded. track. All of this is necessary as long to become an anonymous bicycle of maturity in dealing with prob- The whole group must grant great as the group doesn't have its own rider, Vietnamese style, submerged lems of relationships, at times leads importance to the minor details of processing equipment, no matter in a cruel and prolonged war. But to ill feeling and rivalries that in the production and the security how rudimentary, and there remain he will also discover that there is turn cause reall clashes going beyond measures needed to project it. A certain possibilities in the tradi- a receptive audience that looks ideological or objective differences. lack of foresight which in conven- tional laboratories. upon his work as something of its All of this means that a basic con- tional film.making would go un- Group-level cooperation between own, that makes it part of its own dition is an awareness of the prob- noticed can render virtually useless different countries can serve to as- existence, and that is ready to de- lems of interpersonal relationships, weeks or months of work. And a sure the completion of a film or the fend him in a way that it would leadership and areas of competence. failure in guerrilla cinema, just as execution of certain phases of work never do with any world bicycle What is needed is to speak clearly, in the guerrilla strugg'le itself, can that may not be possible in the coun- champion. mark off work areas, assign respon- mean the loss of a work or a com- try of origin. To this should be Implementation sibilities and take on the job as a plete change of plans. "In a guer- added the need for a reception cen- In this long war, with the camera rigorous militancy. rilla struggle the concept of failure ter for file materials to be used b as our rifle, we do in fact move Guerrilla film making proletarian- is present a thousand times over, the different groups and the pel into a guerrilla activity. This is why izes the film worker and breaks and victory a myth that only a rev- spective of coordination, on a cor the work of a film-guerrilla group down the intellectual aristocracy olutionary can dream." '"very tinentwide or even worldwide scale, is governed by strict disciplinary that the bourgeoisie grants to its member of the group must have an of the continuity of work in each norms as to both work methods and followers. In a word, it democratizes. ability to take care of details; dis- country: periodic regional or inter- security. A revolutionary film group The film-maker's tie with reality cipline; speed; and, above all, the national gatherings to exchange ex- is in the same situation as a guer- makes him more a part of his people. wi!lingness to overcome the weak- periences, contributions, joint plan- rilla unit: it cannot grow strong Vanguard layers and even masses nesses of comfort, old habits, and. ning of work, et~. without military structures and com- participate collectively in the work the- whole climate of pseudonormal- At least in the earliest stages, the mand concepts. The group exists when they realize that it is the con- ity behind which the warfare of revolutionary film-maker and the as a network of complementary re- tinuity of their daily struggle. La everyday life is hidden. Each film work groups will be the sole pro- sponsibilities, as the sum and syn- hora de 10s hornos shows how a film is a different operation, a different ducers of their films. They must thesis of abilities, inasmuch as it can be made in hostile circum- job requiring variations in methods 13 Che Guevara, Guerra de guerrillas cperates- harmonically with a lead- stances when it has the support and in order to confuse or refrain from (Guerrilla Warfare). alerting the enemy, especially as the 12 Mao Tse-Tung, op. cit. processing laboratories are still in to build infrastructures connected Sweden, 30 000 in France, etc.) are bear the responsibility of finding Without revolutionary films and to political, student, worker, and not the best example for the neo- ways to obtain the economic means a public that asks for them, any at- other organizations, while in others colonialized countries, but they are to facilitate the continuity of work. tempt to open up new ways of dis- it will be more suitable to sell prints nevertheless a complement to be Guerrilla cinema still doesn't have tribution would be doomed to fail- to organizations which will take kept in mind for fund raising, es- enough experience to set down ure. But both of these already exist charge of obtaining the funds neces- pecially in a situation in which such standards in this area; what ex- in Latin America. The appearance sary to pay for each print (the circuits can play an important role perience there is has shown, above of the films opened up a road which cost of the print plus a small mar- in publicizing the struggles in the all, the ability to make use of the in some countries, such as Argentina, gin). This method, wherever pos- Third World, increasingly related concrete situation of each country. occurs through .showings in apart- sible, would appear to be the most as they are to those unfolding in the But, regardless of what these sit- ments and houses to audiences of viable, because it permits the de- metropolis countries. A film on the . uations may be, the preparation never more than 25 people; in other centralizatim of distribution; makes Venezuelan guerrillas will say more of a film cannot be undertaken with- countries, such as Chile, films are possible a more prdfound political to a European public than 20 ex- out a parallel study of its future shown in parishes, universities, or use of the film; and permits the planatory pamphlets, and the same audience and, consequently, a plan cultural centers (of which there are recovery,, through the sale of more is true for us with a film on the to recover the financial investment. fewer every day); and, in the case prints, of the funds invested in the May events in France or the Berke- Here, once again, the need arises of Uruguay, showings were given production. It is true that in many ley, USA, student struggle. of closer ties between political and in Montevideo's biggest movie the- - countries the organizations still are A Guerrilla Films International? artistic vanguards, since this also ater to an audience of 2500 people, not fully aware of the importance And why not? Isn't it true that a serves for the joint study of forms who filled the theater and made of this work or, if .they are, may kind of new International is arising of production, exhibition, and con- every showing an impassioned anti- lack the means to undertake it. In through the Third World struggles; imperialist event. l4 But the r>ros- ,..-L ---no -+ha- ma+h 3UCll CCLDCD ULILGI lllSL1llods can be through OSPAAAL and the revo- A guerrilla film can be aimed pects on the continental in- used: the delivery of p rints to en- lutionary vanguards of the consum- only at the distribution mechanisms dicate that the possibi-lity for the courage distribution an1d a box-of- er societies? provided by the revolutionary or- continuity of a revolutionary cinema fine n..+ tn +ha ncrrnni~ r.L= Luc cu bAxG vls,.~s,ers of each A guerrilla cinema, at this stage ganizations, including those. in- rests upon the strengthening of showing, etc. The ideal goal to be still within the reach of limited vented or discovered by the film- rigorously underground base strut- . .- - - - . - -- .. layers of the population, is, never- -. . achieved-. - would be A-~roducineY and- -- maker hims elf.'- -Production, - . dlstri- tures. distributing guerril-la F;l--cLllllLJ WAC11 theless, the only cinema of the mass- bution, and economic possibilities Practice implies mistakes and funds obtained from ex,propriations es possible today, since it is the )r survival must form part of a failures. l5 Some comrades will let of the bourgeoisie - 'that is, the only one involved with the inter- single strategy. The solution of the themselves be carried away by the bnxxramni~;n,,,., ,,., wrrll~a..,,. - he financing ests, aspirations, and prospects of problems faced in each of these success and impunity with which guerrilla cinema with a bit of the the vast majority of the people. areas will encourage other people they present the first showings and xrnlrxn thnt it ur?fs from the ,..,,I..,su-yaup .urur ... ur A. er Every important film produced by to join in thc work of guerrilla film wili tend to relax securitv meas-- - ,---I,yc;vp,c. n..+ aann lul15lnmrr aano the goal is a revolutionary cinema will be, ex- making, which will enlarge its ranks ures, while others will go in* the op- ' no more than a middle or long-range plicit or not, a national event of and thus make it less vulnerable. posite direction of excessive precau- aspiration, the alternatives open to the masses. The distribution of guerrilla films tions or fearfulness, to such an revolutionary cinema to recover This cinema of the masses, which in Latin America is still in swad- extent that distribution remains cir- ,,,A,.,+;,, ,,A Aietc;%Ution costs FA UUULLLV~L aAlu UADCAAU is prevented from reaching beyond dling clothes, while System repris- cumscribed. limited to a few CrouDs ....- +.. -..+an+ ";-; - L- alr Lu avlllr; r;nLcllb allllAlar to those the' sectors representing the mass- als are already a legalized ]act. of friends. only concrete experience obtained for conventional cinema: es, provokes with each showing, Suffice it to note in Argentina the in each country will demonstrate every spectator should pay the same as in a revolutionary military in- raids that have occurred during some which are the best methods there, amount as he pays to see Sys- cursion, a liberated space, a de- showings and the recent f~lmsup- which do not always lend them- 4,- ,;",-, F;n-nninn LC111 La1lcAILa. L AAAalLLaA'6, colonized territory. The shwing pression law of a clearly fascist selves to applicationVinother situa- equipping, and suppor.tine! - revolu- can be turned into a kind of politi- .iaracter, in Brazil the ever-increas- tions. tionary cinema are political respor-1- cal event, which, according to Fa- ing restrictions placed upon the In some places it will be possible cihilitiec fnr roxrnl~~tinnar~rnrasn I Y." ..a".-U *./A 1 -."*U"I"..C.. J "A bUI.I- non, could be "a liturgical ,mt, a most militant comrades of cinema . zations and militants. A film can be privileged occasion for human nova, and in venezuela the banning '4 The Uruguayan weekly Marcha organized late-night and Sunday morning exhibi- made, but if its distribution does beings to hear and be heard." and license La hora tions that are widely and well received. not allow for the recovery of the Militant cinema must be able to de 10s hornos; almost all over the costs, it will be difficult or impos- extract the infinity of new possi- continent censorship prevents any 15 The raiding of a union and the arrest of dozens of persons sible to make a second film. bilities that open up for it from pos.:ibility of public distribution. resulting from a bad choice of projection The 16 mm. film circuits in Eu- site and the large number of people rooe (20 000 exhibition centers in invited. the conditions of proscription im- the actor, who sought himself in ing energy. In this way the idea of learning. posed by the System. The attempt others. began to grow of structuring what The first step in the process of to overcome neocolonial oppression Outside this space which the films we decided to call the film act, the knowledge is the first contact calls for the invention of forms of momentarily helped to liberate, film action, one of the forms which with the things of the outside communication; it opens up the there was nothing but solitude, we believe assumes great impor- world, the stage of sensafions [in possibility. noncommunication, distrust, and tance in affirming the line of a a film, the living fresco of image Before and during the making of fear; within the freed space the sit- third cinema. A cinema whose first and sound]. The second step'is La hora de 10s hornos we tried out uation turned everyone into accom- experiment is to be found, perhaps the synthesizing of the data pro- various methods for the distribution plices of the act that was unfolding. on a rather shaky level, in the sec- vided by the sensations; their of revolutionary cinema - the lit- The debates arose spontaneously. ond and third parts of La hora de ordering and elaboration; the tle that we had made up,to then. As we gained in experience, we in- 10s hornos ("Acto para la libera- stage of concepts, judgments, Each showing for militants, middle- corporated into the showing various ci6n"; above all, starting with "La opinions, and deductions [in the level cadres, activists, workers, and elements (a stage production) to re- resistencia" and "Violencia y libe- film, the announcer, the report- university students became - with- inforce the themes of the films, the raci6nn). ings, the didactics, or the narra- out our having set ourselves this aim climate of the showing, the "disin- Comrades- [we said at the start tor who leads the projection act]. beforehand - a kind of enlarged hibiting" of the participants, and of "Acto para la liberaci6n"], this . And then comes the third stage, cell meeting of which the films the dialogue: recorded music or is not just a film showing, nor that of knowledge. The active were a part but not the most im- poems, sculpture and paintings, is it a show; rather, it is, above role of knowledge is expressed portant factor. We thus discovered posters, a program director who all, A MEETING - an act of not only in the active leap from a new facet of cinema: the partici- chaired the debate and presented anti-imperia,list unity; this is a sensory to rational knowledge, pation of people who, until then, the film and the comrades who place only for those who feel but, and what is even more im- were considered spectators. At were speaking, a glass of wine, a identified with .this struggle,' be- portant, in the leap from rational times, security reasons obliged us few mates, etc. We realized that we cause here there is no room for knowledge to revolutionary prac- to try to dissolve the group of par- had at hand three very valuable spectators or for accomplices of tice. ( . . .) The practice of the ticipants as soon as the showing factors: the enemy; here there is room transformation of the world. (...) was over, and we realized that the 1) The participant comrade, the only for the authors and protag- This, in general terms, is the distribution of that kind of film man-actor-accomplice who re- - onists of the process to which the dialectical materialist theory of had little meaning if it was not sponded to the summons; film attempts to bear witness and the unity of knowledge and ac- complemented by the participation 2) The free space where that man to deepen. The film is the pretext. tion l5 [in the projection of the of the comrades, if a debate was not expressed his concerps and ideas, for dialogue, for the seeking and film act, the participation of the opened on the themes suggested by became politicized, and started to finding of wills. It is a report that comrades, the action proposals the films. free himself; and we place before you for your that arise, and the actions them- We also discovered that every 3) The film, important only as a consideration, to be debated after selves that will take place .later]. comrade who attended such show- detonator or pretext. the showing. Moreover, each projection of a ings did so with full awareness that We concluded from these data The conclusions [we said 'at an- . film act presupposes a different h< was infringing the System's that a film could be much more other point in the second part] to setting, since the space where it laws and exposing his personal se- effective if it were fully aware of which you may arrive as the real takes place, the materials that go curity to eventual repression. This these factors and took on the task authors and protagonists of this to make it up (actors-participants) , person was no longer a spectator; of subordinating its own form, history are important. The ex- and the historic time in which it on the contrary, from the moment structure, language, and proposi- periences and conclusions that takes place are never the same. he decided to attend the showing, tions to that act and to those ac- we have assembled have a rela- This means that the result of each from the moment he lined himse!f tors - to put it another way, if tive worth; they are of use to projection act will depend on those up on this side by taking risks and it sought its own liberation in the the extent that they are useful who organize it, on those who par- contributing his living experience subordination and insertion in the to you, who are the present and ticipate in it, and on the time and lo the meeting, he became an actor, others, the principal protagonists of future of liberation.. But most place; the possibility of introducing a more important protagonist than life. With the correct utilization of important of aJ1 is the action that variations, additions, and changes those who appeared in the films. the time that that group of actor- may arise from these conclusions, is unlimited. The screening of a Such a person was seeking other personages offered us with their the unity on the basis of the film act will always express in one committed people like himself, while diverse histories, the use of the facts. This is why the film stops way,or another the historical sit- he, in turn, became commiited to space offered by certain comrades, here; it opens out to you so that them. The spectator made was for and of the films themselves, it was you can continue 'it. 16 Mao Tse-Tung, op. cit. necessary to try to transform time, The film act means an open- energy, and work into freedom-giv- - ended film; it is essentially a way uatiop in which it takes place; its lethargic capacity for indignation perspectives are not exhausted in comes to life. the for power but will in- Freeing a forbidden truth means stead continue after the taking of setting free the possibility of in- power to strengthen the revolution. dignation and subversion. Our truth, The man of the third cinema, be that. of the new man who builds it cinema or a film act, himself by getting rid of aM the with the infinite categories that defects that still weigh him down, they contain (film letter, film poem, is a bomb of inexhaustible power film essay, film pamphlet, film re- and, at the same time, the only real port, etc.), above all counters the possibility of life. Within this at-

film. industry of a cinema of char- ' tempt, the revolutionary film-maker acters with one of themes, that of ventures with his subversive obser- individuals with that of masses, vation, sensibility, imagination, and that of the author with that of the realization. The great themes - the operative group, one of neocolonial history of the country, love and misinformation with one of infor- unlove between combatants, the ef- mation, one of escape with one that forts of a people that comes recaptures the truth, that of pas- awake - all this is reborn before sivity with that of aggressions. To the lens of the decolonized cam- an institutionalized cinema, he era. The film-maker feels free for counterposes a guerrilla cinema; to the first time. He discovers that, movies as shows, he opposes a film within the System, nothing fits, act or action; to a cinema of de- while outside of and against the struction, one that is both destruc- System, everything fits, because tive and constructive; to a cinema everything remains to be done. made for the old kind of human What appeared yesterday as a pre- being, for them, he opposes a cin- posterous adventure, as we said at years, Tricontinent: been a ema fit for a new kind of human the beginning, is posed today as source of information on the Afri- being, for what each one of us has an inescapable need and possibility. " Two Years of can, Asian, and Latin-American the possibility of becoming. Thus far, we have offered ideas TRlCONTlMENTAL struggles against neocolonialism and The decolonization of the film and working propositions, which are imperialism, while serving as a maker and of films will be simul- the sketch of a hypothesis arising forum for the open debate of ideas, taneous acts to the extent that each with an emphasis on those concern- from our personal experience and TRICONTINENTALmagazine, organ of contributes to collective decoloni- . which-will have achieved something ing our essential problems, especial- zation. The battle begins without, positive even if they do no more the Executive Secretariat of ly on the question of revolution. against the enemy who attacks us, than serve to open a heated dialogue OSPAAAL,anniversary. celebrates its second From the heroic fight of the Viet- but also yithin, against the ideas on the new revolutionary film pros- namese against US aggression, to , The twelve issues that have been and models of the enemy to be pects. The vacuums existing in the the actions of the Palestinian com- published during this period have mandos, to guerrilla activity in Afri- found inside each one of us. De- artistic and scientific fronts of the included contributions from the ca and Latin America, the mags- struction and construction. Decolo- revolution are sufficiently well nizing action rescues with its known so that the adversary will most distinguished leaders of the zine has given a panorama of the practice the purest and most vital so-called Third World as well as present situation in the Third hot try to appropriate them, while revolutionary intellectuals inter- World, that vast mosaic of oppressed impulses. It opposes to the colonial- we are still unable to do so. ested in the struggles of the national nations exploited by imperialist ization of minds the revolution of Why films and .not some other liberation movements. The maga- hegemony. consciousness. The world is scruti- form of artistic communication? If zine has also published articles con- Although it is an organ of the nized, unraveled, rediscovered. Peo- we choose films as the center of taining valuable information and Executive Secretariat of OSPAAAL, ple are witness to a constant aston- our propositions and debate, it .is reports on current events on the the magazine has also included ar- ishment, a kind of second birth. because that is our work front three continents - events which ticles on especially interesting They recover their early ingenuity, and because the birth of a third are dealt with on.ly superficially, if themes. and opinions which, al- their capacity for-adventure; their cinema means, at least for .us,the at all, in the general press at the though not alwaysI representing most important revolutionary artis- service of imperialist interests. . tic event of our times. In the course of the past two