Third Cinema () is a Latin American film movement formed in the 1960s which critiques neocolonialism, the capitalist system, and the Hollywood model of cinema as mere entertainment to make money. The term was coined in the manifesto Hacia un tercer cine (Toward a Third Cinema), written in the late 1960s by Argentine filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, members of the Grupo Cine Liberación and published in 1969 in the journal Tricontinental by the OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America).
Definition
Solanas and Getino's manifesto considers 'First Cinema' to be the Hollywood production model that idealizes bourgeois values to a passive audience through escapist spectacle and individual characters. 'Second Cinema' is the European art film, which rejects Hollywood conventions but is centred on the individual expression of the auteur director. Third Cinema is meant to be non-commercialized, challenging Hollywood's model. Third Cinema rejects the view of cinema as a vehicle for personal expression, seeing the director instead as part of a collective; it appeals to the masses by presenting the truth and inspiring revolutionary activism. Solanas and Getino strongly argue that traditional exhibition models also should not be used: the films should be screened clandestinely, both in order to dodge censorship and commercial networks, but also so that the viewer must take a risk to see them.
Manifestos
There are four manifestos accredited to beginning the genre of Third Cinema: Glauber Rocha's "Aesthetic of Hunger" (1965), Julio García Espinosa's "For an Imperfect Cinema" (1969), "Problems of Form and Content in Revolutionary Cinema" (1976) by Jorge Sanjinés, and finally "Toward a Third Cinema" (1969) by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. Although all four define the broad and far reaching genre, Solanas and Getino's “Toward a Third Cinema” is well known for its political stance and outline of the genre.
"Toward a Third Cinema"
Explaining the neo-colonialist dilemma and the need for "a cinema of subversion" or "a revolutionary cinema", "Toward a Third Cinema" begins by explaining the dilemma that the anti-imperialist film-maker is left with a paradoxical need to survive within as well as subvert "the System".<blockquote>"Third cinema is, in our opinion, the cinema that recognizes in that struggle the most gigantic cultural, scientific, and artistic manifestation of our time, the great possibility of constructing a liberated personality with each people as the starting point – in a word, the decolonization of culture."</blockquote>Solanas and Getino define the problem with 'the System' (the political and cultural authorities in place) as being one that reduces film to a commodity that exists to fill the needs of the film industry that creates them—mainly in the United States. This "spectator cinema" continues a lack of awareness within the masses of a difference between class interests or "that of the rulers and that of the nation".
Purpose and goals of Third Cinema
Third Cinema seeks to expose the process by which oppression occurs; and to criticize those responsible for social inequality in a country or community.
Some of the goals of Third Cinema are:
- Raise political consciousness in the viewer/spectator
- Expose historical, social, political and/or economic policies that have led to exploitive conditions for the nation
- Engage spectators in reflection which will inspire them to take revolutionary action and improve their conditions
- Create films that express the experiences of the masses of a particular region
- Produce and distribute films that are uncensored by oppressive entities
Production
Due to their political nature, Third Cinema films were often censored and therefore, the production and distribution of these films were innovative. Films used documentary clips, news reels, photographs, video clips, interviews and/or statistics and in some cases, non-professional actors. These production elements are combined in an inventive manner to create a message that is specific to its local audience. The staff in production share all aspects of the production process by working collectively. In Third Cinema, for example, a Director can be the Cameraman, the Photographer or the Writer at different phases of the production. Since Third Cinema films were highly politicized, they often lacked the funding and support needed for production or distribution and instead sought funding outside government agencies or traditional financing opportunities available to commercial films. Other unique aspects of Third Cinema film production is the use of their local natural landscape for film shootings often in parts of the country not previously seen. This unique feature was augmented by highlighting the local history and culture of its nation.
Women in Third Cinema
Third Cinema's critique and resistance of Hollywood's imperialist "spectator cinema" also opened for differing representations of women in film. While feminist film movements in the United States in the 1970s critiqued the eurocentric and heteronormative sexism within the First-World, the intersection of heterosexism with racism and imperialism seemed to get little attention from mainstream film journals. Because of the reluctance of First-World feminists to acknowledge the importance of nationalism and geographic identity within differing struggles of women, the films made by the women of Third Cinema were usually seen as "burdened" from the Western feminist perspective by these identities.<blockquote>"Notions of nation and race, along with community-based work, are implicitly dismissed as both too 'specific' to qualify for the theoretical realm of 'feminist theory' and as too 'inclusive' in their concern for nation and race that they presumably 'lose sight' of feminism." </blockquote>Notable films include Sarah Maldoror's Sambizanga (Mozambique, 1972) which takes place in Angola where a woman awakens to "revolutionary consciousness" to the struggle of the ruling party the MPLA. In Heiny Srour's documentary Saat al Tahrir (The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived) (Oman, 1973) followed women fighters during the revolution in Oman. Srour's 1984 film Leila wal dhiab (Leila and the Wolves) (Lebanon) followed the role of women in the Palestine Liberation Movement. Helena Solberg Ladd's From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today (U.S. 1982) documents the role of women in the Sandinista revolution. Sara Gómez's De cierta manera (One Way or Another) epitomizes Third Cinema's involvement in the intersection of fiction and documentary as it gives a feminist critique of the Cuban revolution.