Fernando Solanas
“Liberation Cinema Group: Towards a Third Cinema”
Born in Buenos Aires in 1936, Solanas covertly co-produced and co-directed (with Octavio Getino) his first long feature film La Hora de los Hornos in 1968. La Hora is a documentary film on neo-colonialism and violence in Argentina and in Latin America. In 1969 both Solanas and Getino were part of the Third Cinema movement, with their Liberation Cinema Group. Along with the Argentinean Cinema from the Base, the Brazilian Cinema Novo, and Revolutionary Cinema from Cuba, Solanas and Getino proposed the use of cinema as a politcal tool as the Soviets in the 1920´s did , with strong ties with the social conflicts and the militancy.
Towards a Third Cinema (Link to online version) In this article, the authors mention that the examples of liberation in cinema are everywhere, from revolutionary filmmaking in Cuba, to the newsreels in the USA, to the Cine-Giornali in Italy, and the French cinema - as the Soviets wanted to produce in the whole U.S.S.R. Furthermore, Solanas/Getino in this essay develops the revolutionary cinema proposed by the Soviets in the 1920´s, writing that, “This type of cinema from the world has many categories (cinema-letter, cinema-poem, cinema-essay, cinema-pamphlet, etc.) that opposes to the industry as handmade cinema; individual cinema, to cinema of the masses; film d´author to operative film groups; etc. This article evens mentions that they are conscious about the fact that a film will not bring liberation to a country like a strike or a mobilization, but that cinema is chosen because it is our front of work that could create debate towards liberation.
Towards a Third Cinema (Link to online version) In this article, the authors mention that the examples of liberation in cinema are everywhere, from revolutionary filmmaking in Cuba, to the newsreels in the USA, to the Cine-Giornali in Italy, and the French cinema - as the Soviets wanted to produce in the whole U.S.S.R. Furthermore, Solanas/Getino in this essay develops the revolutionary cinema proposed by the Soviets in the 1920´s, writing that, “This type of cinema from the world has many categories (cinema-letter, cinema-poem, cinema-essay, cinema-pamphlet, etc.) that opposes to the industry as handmade cinema; individual cinema, to cinema of the masses; film d´author to operative film groups; etc. This article evens mentions that they are conscious about the fact that a film will not bring liberation to a country like a strike or a mobilization, but that cinema is chosen because it is our front of work that could create debate towards liberation.
________________________________________
The Hour of the Furnaces(1968 - A film about liberation)
The most important element of this film is that sets a relation between the film and the radically different public. The public should not be coming to watch the film as part of entertainment, but as a potential militant that could be inspired to take part in the debate and struggle. Just like Eisenstein or Vertov wanted with their films, Solanas/Getino see in cinema a way to provoke, educate and inspire audiences thanks to its theme. A step further from the Soviet proposal, not only the directors wanted to stop the film during its projection to held discussions, but also the other militant groups were expected to have continue the collective creative process taking parts of adding to the film. The film ended up having 10 different versions, and, when the film also incriminated its viewers saying that watching it was a risk. As a way to get the viewer to compromise with the project of liberation.
________________________________________
Argentina Latente (2007)
This interesting film is a propaganda. A propaganda that does not belong to any political party or political figure, but a propaganda of the country and its citizens. Yet, since the film´s title is Argentina Latente - a Voyage to the country´s creative and scientific capacities,as Richard Taylor writes on his article Bolshevik, Propaganda and the Cinema, “Propaganda is more of a long term activity, a preparation of the background. Agitation, on the other hand, is more immediate, and more specifically directed. It was clearly agitation rather than propaganda, to use their own terminology, that theBolsheviks required in the aftermath of the October Revolution and, indeed, for some years afterwards;” Argentina Latente is a film that provokes and tries to agitate the Argentineans about their country. Solanas in his film interviews technicians, engineers and workers to put in evidence the economic potential (natural resources) and the quality of humans that Argentina posses and that is not used.