Third Cinema...Yawar Mallku

In Argentina, filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino considered themselves to be “militant” artists. In 1968 they made The Hour of the Furnaces (La hora de los hornos) ground-breaking it is considered to be the film that firmly established the presence of revolutionary activist cinema.
Their film is an essential key work, one that passionately expresses the ideals and themes of the Third Cinema movement, they noted that...“For the first time we demonstrated that it was possible to produce and distribute a film in a non-liberated country with the specific aim of contributing to the political process of liberation.”

Hour of the Furnaces is an intensely lyrical socio-political essay on the liberation struggle raging throughout Latin America. Using their homeland Argentina as a historical example of past and present imperialist exploitation, they highlight the negative impacts affecting the continent. Composed with a powerful literary structure, enhanced with striking audio-visual innovations, the compelling drama is epic in scope. Presenting a comprehensive four-hour trilogy the film is divided into chapters: Neo-Colonialism and Violence a historical, geographic, and economic analysis, An Act For Liberation and Violence and Liberation focusing on the role of violence in the national liberation process, launching calls for action. United by common themes of liberation, and cultural identity the fascinating film is an unflinching scathing indictment of neo-colonialism and the suppression of rights under a military junta. Made and shown clandestinely under a dictatorship, to simply attend a screening defied threats, risking serious repercussions and was in itself, a bold statement, a brave political act of cinematic activism.

Taken from 19th-century Cuban writer, national hero, revolutionary José Marti, the phrase “hour of the furnaces”  is the original source of the title.
Che Guevara in his last public statement in 1967 said… "It’s the hour of the furnaces and only the light shall be seen”.
 Incendiary, outstanding Classic Cinema !!

                                                                         


                                                                                                                             

                                                         

Thanks so much spiderwort I greatly appreciate your thoughts and interest, you may have seen this Cuban film ?

 Memories of Underdevelopment, Memorias del Subdesarrollo (1968) Cuba written and directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.
Known for his sharp insight into post-Revolutionary Cuba, Alea wrote and directed more than twenty features, documentaries, and short films representative of the Third Cinema cinematic movement, worldwide this is his best known and most famous film, with an unblinking approach his films strike a delicate balance between dedication to the revolution, and criticisms of the social, economic, and political conditions of the country.

Memorias del Subdesarrollo is a thought-provoking work of cinematic political activism. The story is a reflection on post-revolutionary Cuba expressed through the memoir meanderings of Sergio, a bourgeois intellectual. A morally ambiguous character he has decided to stay on in Havana despite his own family's exile to the United States. Using Fidel Castro's regime as its backdrop, the film gives a complex portrayal of early 60s Cuba from the point of view of this sceptical observer. Sergio a man unwilling to take a political stance one way or another, exposes the contradictions of his loyalty to Castro’s Cuban revolution…

With an experimental format the film shifts between a stirring blend of narrative fiction, still photography, and in documentary style highlights rare archival footage of historical events shot between the Bay of Pigs invasion (1961) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (62).

Critically acclaimed at the time of its release, Memorias del Subdesarrollo was the first Cuban film to be shown in the United States after the revolution. Considered to be one of the greatest films in Cuban history, significantly it is one Third Cinema movement films with mainstream official releases. Featured in the Criterion Collection spine #943, in the UK, Mr Bongo.


                                                               

                       


                

 La muerte de un burócrata, The Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) Cuba. Dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Subversive, satirical, and black-humoured, this entertaining, very clever film looks at post-revolutionary Cuba. Focusing on the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the fledgling state, the film shows the frustration and discontent experienced among the citizens, for the expected socialist freedoms have not yet materialized.

We learn from the film's opening graveside service scene that Uncle Paco was a workaholic, an exemplary proletarian, he is praised for his attachment to work and dubbed “Michelangelo for the humble". His factory produced busts of Cuban folk hero José Martí, which are envisaged to be used to decorate a patriotic corner in everybody's home. To increase production, Uncle Paco invented a machine capable of churning out hundreds of busts per day, all was going well until a workplace accident claimed his life.
In honour of his life and work, the hero is buried with his work-card. However, this mark of respect is soon realized to be a huge mistake, for now Uncle Paco’s widow cannot process her pension application and receive funds without his identifying work-card.
Uncle Paco’s widow and nephew are confronted with an absurd, uncompromising bureaucratic dilemma, the only way forward for them is to exhume the body and retrieve the all-important document...

Opening with a unique credit roll, the type-out presents much like an official bureaucratic edict, throughout La muerte de un burócrata is crafted with an original cinematographic language. Stylish, surreal and ahead of its time, there are even hints of Monty Python but hey, they were not around yet, this is 1966 Cuba!

The "Death of a Bureaucrat" surprisingly is a also a wonderful tribute to film, to the historic collective tradition of cinematic art. Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy, Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles, Jean Vigo and even Marilyn Monroe are among the distinguished names honoured in the opening credits. Throughout the film homage is paid with many notable scenes and moments connecting to those who were mentioned, future viewings will reveal much more of these subtly interwoven details....

The satire on bureaucracy has lost none of its validity 50 plus years on, it is not only a Cuban specific issue, all varieties of bureaucracy, regardless of the historical, political or regional conditions are embodied in this brilliant satirical tale... Highly Recommended !!
                                  

                                                                          

Writer and director  Tomás Gutiérrez Alea  despite having little resources was eager to voice and work for change, for a brighter future...
                                                 
 On the film the director is quoted,  "It is, as the title suggests, a satire on bureaucracy and red tape, but also on a lot of other sad and mediocre things which we have to put up with at times. However, I have to say that I don’t have much faith in the efficacy of satire as a “driving force of history.” When making the film we thought: we are laughing at the bureaucrats, but then the bureaucrats will come and not only will the film make them laugh, but they will laugh at themselves..."