Third Cinema in

the Third Worl

The Aesthetics of Liberation

UMI Research Press

Studies in Cinema
 DATE DUE

PN Gabriel, Teshome.
1993.5 Third cinema in the
A35 third world.
G3
1982 #4757

DATE BORROWER'S NAME ROOM

NUMBER
DUE

#4757
PN
1993.5 Gabriel T Teshome H. ( Teshome Habte
A35 Third cinema in the third world
G3 aesthet ics of liberation / by Tesh<
1982 H. Gabr lei. — Ann Arbort Mich.
Eesearc h Press, cl982.
: 1

xii, 147 p. ; 24 cm.

c inema ; no. 21)
—
(Studies
Revis ion of thesis (Ph.D.)
Dnivers ity of California, Los Angel
1979.
Bibll ography: p [ 135]-141
Inclu des index.
#4757 Brodart $39.95 AM.
ISBN 0-8357-1359-8
Hit) tts-i*^
 Third Cinema in
the Third World
The Aesthetics of Liberation
 Studies in Cinema, No. 21
Diane M. Kirkpatrick, Series Editor
Associate Professor, History of Art
The University of Michigan

Other Titles in This Series

No. 1 1 Balkan Cinema: Evolution after the Revolution Michael J. Stoil

No. 12 The Rhetoric of Filmic Narration Nick Browne

No. 13 Bertolt Brecht, Cahiers du Cinema, and

Contemporary Film Theory George Lellis

No. 14 Casablanca and Other Major Films of

Michael Curtiz Sidney Rosenzweig

No. 15 Old HollywoodI Nev,' Hollywood: Ritual,

Art, and Industry Thomas Schatz

No. 16 Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney Studio

During World War // Richard Shale

No. 17The High Noon of American Films in

Latin America Gaizka S. de Usabel

No. 18 The Spanish Civil War in American and

European Films Marjorie A. Valleau

No. 19 Antonioni's Visual Language Ned Rifkin

No. 20 Cinema Strikes Back: Radical Filmmaking

in the United States. 1930-1942 Russell Campbell
 Third Cinema in
the Third World
The Aesthetics of Liberation

by
Teshome H. Gabriel

^
UMI RESEARCH PRESS
Ann Arbor, Michigan
"Xala: A Cinema of Wax and Gold" first appeared in
Presence Africaine, No. 116, 1980 (Paris, France). The
same was reprinted in a slightly revised form in
article
Jump Cut, Issue No. 27, 1982 (Published in Berkeley and
Chicago).

"Creddo: A Revolution Reborn through the Efforts of

Womanhood," was published in Framework combined
issue No. 15, 16, and 17, 1981. PubUshed by the Univer-
sity of East Anglia (Norwich, Great Britain).

Copyright ©1982, 1979

Teshome H. Gabriel
All rights reserved

Produced and distributed by

UMI Research Press
an imprint of
University Microfilms International
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106

Library of Congress Cataloging in Pubhcation Data

Gabriel, Teshome H. (Teshome Habte)

Third cinema in third world.

(Studies in cinema no. 21) ;

Revision of thesis (Ph.D.)-Llniversity of California,

Los Angeles, 1979.
Bibhography: p.
Includes index.
Moving-pictures-Africa-History. 2. Moving-
1.

pictures- Asia-History. 3. Moving-pictures- Latin

America- History. 4. Moving-picture plays-History and

criticism. I. Title. II. Series.

PN1993.5.A35G3 1982 791.43'096 82-8641

ISBN 0-8357-1359-8 AACR2
To all those filmmakers of the third
world who have suffered exile, incarcer-
ation, or death for their determination
to use film as a tool for social change.
 Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

1 Introduction: A Brief Overview 1

2 The Theoretical Context 5

A Conceptual Framework
What is Ideology?

3 The Major Themes in Third Cinema 15

Class
Culture
Religion
Sexism
Armed Struggle

4 Revolutionary Films 21
Toward a Definition
Approaches to Distribution and Exhibition
Approaches to Style

5 Style and Ideology 41

The Politics of Style
Bay of Pigs (USA) vs. Playa Giron (Cuba)
Journey to the Sun vs. Last Grave at Dimbaza
Three Films on the Mexican Revolution
Anatomy of Style
Los Olvidados
El Chacal de Nahueltoro
Concluding Remarks
viii Contents

6 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 57

Film and Ideology in China
Michelangelo Antonioni's China
Chinese Film Style
Developments in Chinese Films
Film and Ideology in Cuba
Alea vs. Antonioni and Fellini
Memories of Underdevelopment
Film and Ideology in Africa
Jean Rouch's Africa
Xala: A Cinema of Wax
and Gold
Ceddo: A Revolution Reborn through the Efforts of Womanhood
Harvest: 3000 Years: A Case of Oral Narrative and Film Form

7 Conclusion 95

Appendix A: Filmmakers and the Popular Government: A Political

Manifesto 99

Appendix B: Resolutions of the Third World Filmmakers Meeting in

Algiers, 1973 103

Appendix C: Interview with Ousmane Sembene 111

Filmography 117

Notes 121

Bibliography 135

Index 143
 Acknowledgments

I wish to extend my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my colleagues in the

Department of Theater Arts at UCLA Nick Browne, Richard Hawkins and
Howard Suber, for their comments and unfailing encouragement. Special
thanks to my good friends, Ifeanyi Aniebo and Antonis Ricos, for their critical
assistance.
I also owe an intellectual debt to the practitioners of Third Cinema who
inspired this study.
Above all, my deeply felt thanks to my wife, Maaza, for her sustained love
and encouragement. My daughter Mediget and my son Tsegaye also deserve a
special thank you for enabling me to relax from the pressing demands of such a
project.
 Preface

This study focuses on a new kind of Third World cinema that made its debut in
the early 1960s. This new cinematic movement, called "Third Cinema," was
built on the and propositions of traditional cinema, as
rejection of the concepts
represented by Hollywood. The main aim of Third Cinema is to immerse itself
in the lives and struggles of the peoples of the Third World. Since the Third
World should not continue to dissipate its culture and national identity. Third
Cinema attempts to check this and conserve what is left. This study of Third
Cinema, therefore, deals with films that have social and political relevance and
it embraces the twin aspects of filmic experience —
namely, style and ideology.
In the body of this work ideology and style are at times seen as inseparable, yet
at other times treated separately.
The adherents of Third Cinema argue that even when films try to
disengage from any kind of political statement, the ideology they espouse is still

implicit. Given this fact. Third Cinema cineasts advocate a political cinema
whose ideology is not only implied but adheres to the dialectic of traumatic
changes that are engulfing the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America. This
cinema, therefore, is informed not only with the cultural tastes and ideological
needs of the people it represents but also with the militant manifestations of
their struggle.Third Cinema filmmakers equate film with a weapon and view
the act of filming as more than a political act. To this end, the aim of Third
Cinema is not to re-aestheticize traditional cinematic codes but to politicize
cinema to such an extent that a new cinematic code appropriate to its needs is

established.
The first chapter of this book introduces the concepts of Third Cinema
and argues that the pioneering works done in the sixties are the historical
antecedents of whatever Third Cinema holds. Following this brief introductory
overview, chapter 2 lays the theoretical foundation for a critical study of films
with social and political orientation. Ideology, a prime concern of the
practitioners of Third Cinema, is discussed and an interpretation of its

concepts provided. Chapter 3 deals with the five major themes of Third
Cinema, and shows how each treatment is a call for action. Chapter 4 attempts
xii Preface

to conceptualize what constitutes a revolutionary film. Due to the disparities in

interpretation it became necessary to pinpoint what a revolutionary film is
through a close reading of some of the best films from the Third World.
Attention is paid both to their innovative style and ideological orientation.
In chapter 5 style is The chapter utilizes a
directly linked to ideology.
threefold approach: (a) a comparative reading of an American and a Cuban
film on the same subject matter; (b) a comparative exploration of two films
from South Africa, and three films on the Mexican revolution, and (c) a
comparative methodological distinction of two films on stylistic and ideologi-
cal grounds. Chapter 6 attempts to deal with the whole question of cultural
codes versus ideological codes. The chapter establishes the relation between
film and ideology as mediated through culture. While a direct and spontaneous
relation between style and ideology is denied here, the relationship of film to
ideology is not. Film and ideology mutate in response to shifts in style; they are
not seen as absolutes because they interact and complement each other in film
practice. The study concludes by suggesting a direction for Third World film
criticism and by offering the view that, unless presented by repressive
conditions, Third Cinema can truly come into its own by establishing a cinema
both instructive and leavened with folk humor.
 Introduction: A Brief Overview

Inasmuch as the creation of the cinema as a social and artistic institution took
place in Europe and America, the image that cinema has traditionally projected
to the world has been one that reflects these western cultures. The development
of editing, a camera movement, and, later, sound gave film a language, a
meaning and a definition. The purpose of this study is to examine some of the
ways in which this cinematic art has been adapted as a cultural means of
expression in the Third World.
It was only when Third World people themselves started
in the 1960s,
participating in cinematic exploration, that the film medium began to be used
as a serious vehicle to give voice to that —
mass of humanity the peoples of
—
Third World who had previously been cut off from experiencing this new art
form in a positive way. For the first time, the "nameless" began to receive
significant recognition. Contemporary cinema is definitively marked by the
emergence of a cinema of decolonization, a response to a new historic situation
that demands of Third World filmmakers in particular, and of progressive
cineasts at large, a new revolutionary attitude towards film practice. I believe
that significant steps have already been taken in establishing a new cinematic
language.
This study does not intend to provide an exhaustive study of Third World
films; in fact, it is limited in scope to a few specific areas of Third World films.

However, the few pioneering works that I discuss are exemplary harbingers of
future developments in Third World cinema. This study attempts to appraise
critically the achievements and direction of this new cinema.
Governments in the Third World have usually sought to appropriate the
medium of the cinema for propaganda favorable to their own needs. This effort
has met various complex obstacles, however, most significantly, the absence of
a critically sensitive audience. Despite these and other limitations, I contend
that in the past two decades an alternative cinema has emerged —
a cinema of
decolonization and for liberation, hereafter referred to as the "Third Cinema."
Inherent in this cinema of the Third World are its ties with the social life,
ideologies and conflicts of the times. Third Cinema is moved by a concern for
2 Introduction: A Brief Overview

the fate of the ThirdWorld man and woman threatened by colonial and neo-
colonial wars. In selecting the themes and styles for his or her work, the
filmmaker's choice is both ideologically determined and circumscribed. Since
the filmmaker disclaims a "non-class" or "above-class" ideology, he/she is

necessarily committed to a certain ideological mode of perception and a

codified way of interpreting not only culture but reality itself. One of the aims
of this study is, therefore, to place Third Cinema in its proper socio-aesthetic
context and to appraise its achievements in terms of its own cultural/ ideologi-
cal outlook.
Third World filmmakers argue that regardless of how "innocent" the
content of a film may seem, the film must necessarily reflect a certain class point
of view. Therefore, they advocate a cinema which corresponds to the cultural
tastes and political needs of the society it represents. The overriding concern of
these filmmakers is not in aestheticizing ideology but in politicizing cinema.
Their call is for

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 de-colonization of culture.^

An attempt at situating Third World cinematic experience in film history

has been made by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino in an article/ mani-
festo entitled "Towards a Third Cinema."" Their major concerns are twofold:
(1) a rejection of the propositions and concepts of traditional cinema, namely,
those of Hollywood; (2) the need to use film to serve an ideological and
revolutionary end:

The models of production, and exhibition continued to be r/ioi^o/ Hollywood

distribution
precisely because in ideology and politics, films had not yet become the vehicle for clearly
drawn differentiation between bourgeois ideology and politics.

Several small industries have been built in some Third World countries
and all of these parrot both the concepts and propositions of Hollywood. Thus,
they serve to perpetuate cultural confusion in their espousal of foreign values.
Films made in the Third World that show dependency on an external or alien
culture cannot, therefore, be characterized as Third Cinema. The principal
characteristic of Third Cinema is really not so much where it is made, or even
who makes it, but, rather, the ideology it espouses and the consciousness it

displays. The Third Cinema is that cinema of the Third World which stands
opposed to imperialism and class oppression in all their ramifications and
manifestations.
It is the belief of this author that Third Cinema cannot but be responsive to
the dialectics of the traumatic changes which now engulf the Third World. This
 Introduction: A Brief Overview 3

explains the marked preference in this study for films with social relevance and
innovative style and, above all, with political and ideological overtones. Third
Cinema has a direct political function in that it attacks the cultural status quo.
Just as Hollywood cinema is political and one-sided, so is Third Cinema,
except that its political ideology is opposed to the political views implicit in
Hollywood cinema.^
Third Cinema includes an infinite variety of subjects and styles, as varied
as the lives of the people it portrays. Thus, we find films as different as the
Cuban documentary reconstruction Playa Giron (directed by Manuel Herrera)
and the Bolivian dramatic film Blood of the Condor (Jorge Sanjines), or the
film opera from the Peoples' RepubHc of China The East is Red (cine-
collective) and the film poem Towers of Silence (Jamil Dehlavi, Pakistan).
Also noteworthy are the introspective film Picking on the People (Luis Ospina,
Colombia), the film epic Emitai (Ousmane Sembene, Senegal) and a synthesis
of documentary filmmaking in its best tradition. The Battle of Chile {Pairicio
Guzman, Chile). All these films identify the masses as the true hero and the only
existing force capable of defeating the class enemies in their home fronts.
Other films, without being explicitly ideological, uniquely portray the
oppression and plight of the masses and the distortion of their culture and arts
and are, therefore, integral to Third Cinema. Films such as Barren Lives and
Barravento (Cinema Novo, Brazil), ethnographic films like Imaginero (Jorge
Preloran, Argentina) and The Budouin Boy (Nabil Maleh, Syria), cultural
reaffirmation films such as Beyond the Plains (Michael Raubern, Zimbabwe),
Kwate Nee-Owoo's You Hide Me (Ghana) and Safi Faye's Fad Jal (Senegal)
are examples.
New developments cinema do not take place in a vacuum. The influence
in
of contemporary trends in cinema on Third Cinema is obvious. For instance,
Third Cinema practitioners find a common bond with progressive or Left
groups in America, Italy or France. Moreover, the Third Cinema continues to
enrich itself with the theoretical and aesthetic concerns of contemporary film
thought and scholarship. The relationship between the culture of one country
and another, however, or that of individual Third World filmmakers with one
another, is often complicated and vacillating. Although there may not be a
unified, fully coherent movement, it is nevertheless possible to find shared
experiences and objectives. Chiefly, film in a Third World context seeks to:

a. decolonize minds
b. contribute to the development of a radical consciousness
c. lead to a revolutionary transformation of society
d. develop new film language with which to accomplish these tasks'

The theoretical and commitments of Third Cinema and the need

political
to go far beyond the concepts and propositions of traditional western film
4 Introduction: A Brief Overview

forms has raised the question of "the politics of style." Is the Third Cinema to
adapt traditional structures simply with new content? Should existing beliefs
and traditions be dealt with, or should they be ignored in favor of the more
pressing economic and political concerns. Since style and ideology are tied
together, how is Third Cinema to forge a third style? It is around these central
concerns that this study will be developed.
 The Theoretical Context

A Conceptual Framework

The appearance of Third Cinema on the stage of world history represents a

significant alteration in the parameters of film form and and
in the critical
an explanation of its significance and effect.
theoretical categories necessary for
The aesthetics and ideology of Third Cinema poses a radical and singular
challenge to existing or traditional categories of film scholarship, even to the
universalistic claims of contemporary film semiotics.
The bulk of film theory and criticism in recent years has taken place under
the umbrella of structuralism and semiology.' Since most current works
published under their auspices have analyzed past traditions of dramatic
narrative fiction, the conception of the universe of film emerges as both
uniform and static. Cine-structuralism strives to find immanent meaning in
works whose deeper meaning is concealed. The films under discussion in this
study do not try to hide their true meaning. The burden of search, therefore,
will be across a different terrain.
Because film is so new, arguments like "what is cinema?"
abound. In still

fact, Christian Metz's widely read and discussed book. Film Language,

attempts to define film simply.^ Film is inherently a collective mode of

production and it is also open to an inherently interdisciplinary approach.
Furthermore, because film is a collaborative effort and of multi-disciplinary
interest, it naturally demands a socio-economic and ideological analysis of
production, exhibition and distribution.
The saw an intellectual renaissance of Marxist film criticism-
early 1960s
ideology was examined in the context of both its social and aesthetic meaning.
The complex network of ideological mediations between "base" and "super-
structure" became a central issue in film scholarship.^ When Marxist film
criticism came under attack for placing film within the sphere of
later
"economic determinism," some critics began to search for a critical approach
that would embrace a metasystem.'*
6 The Theoretical Context

In the last two decades, the Marxist theoretician who seems most to have
inspired and guided the ideological concerns within film criticism is Louis
Althusser. The specific contribution of the Althusserian model of ideological
apparatuses and effects (Althusser regards the systems of communication as
apparatuses) is its account of the citizen/ subject's place within this system. The
term "interpellation" is used to describe the position of the subject which is

manipulated by the mechanisms of ideological discourse. Within this frame-

work the film viewer is necessarily placed in a certain position with respect to
the message of the text, a position which contemporary film theory and
criticism has treated as a matter of "point of view."^
What perspectives and analytic tools are needed to define Third Cinema?
Foremost, of course, is the amplification of a method whereby the films can be
viewed an evolving aesthetic and social context. This is achieved largely
in
through the study of a model that film correlates with this reality. An account
of the semi-documentary/ semi-fiction film of Third Cinema must be developed
that will treat its structure, strategies and ideological commitment. Clearly,
more than an aesthetic of transparent reflection is needed; it is a matter of
structuring and representing the evolving social and traditional consciousness
of developing nations. Film theory and criticism at the level of complexity
required to model these relations must be a theory of mediation; represented
reality is not simply a direct translation of empirical relations but its filtering

reconstruction.^
What is suggested here any definition of film outside of the
is that
economic and social sphere has a tendency to see meaning in "form" alone. A
study which treats film strictly as a metasystem, does not take into account the
external factors influencing it or the ideological mediation in operation, is
misleading, and a gross error in any analysis of cinema.
We contend that any film or any theory and criticism of film within the
context of Third Cinema cannot be separated from the practical uses of film.

Real alternatives differing from those offered by the System are only possible if one of two
requirements is fulfilled: making films that the System cannot assimilate and which are

foreign to its needs, or making films that directly and explicitly set out to fight the System.
Neither of these requirements fits within the alternatives that are still offered by the second
cinema, but they can be found in the revolutionary opening towards a cinema outside and
against the System, in a cinema of liberation: the third cinema.

The praxis of Third Cinema, i.e., the call for action of these films, within the
context of production, leads us to view the aesthetic of Third Cinema as a form
of ideology; that is, the films point toward a confrontational cinema and an
aesthetics of liberation.
 The Theoretical Context 7

This cinema of the masses, which is prevented from reaching beyond the sectors representing
the masses, provokes with each showing, as in a revolutionary miUtary incursion, a Hberated
space, a decolonized territory. The showing can be turned into a kind of political event,

which, according to Fanon, could be "a liturgical act, a privileged occasion for human beings
to hear and be heard."*

Frantz Fanon, the inspirational guide for Third Cinema, traces three stages in
the development of ideological consciousness in the direction of cultural
decolonization in the Third World:^ (a) the unqualified assimilation phase
where the inspiration comes from without and hence results in an uncritical
imitation of the colonialist culture; (b) the return to the source or the
rememberance phase, a stage which marks the nostalgic lapse to childhood, to
the heroic past, where legends and folklore abound; and (c) the fighting or
combative phase, a stage that signifies maturation and where emancipatory
self-determination becomes an act of violence. Both (b) and (c) grow on
indigenous culture.
The three stages that Fanon traces alternatively mark and compose the
genealogy of Third World film style. The evolution of the cinema institution in
the Third World reflects (a) a dependency on the Hollywood model of
conventional cinema, submitting both to the concepts and propositions of
commercial cinema; (b) national cinemas that promote the decolonization
process but without at the same time decolonizing conventional film language;
and (c) the emergence of decolonization of culture and liberation — here the
entire spectrum of conventional production apparatuses of cinema undergoes a
radical alteration. Corresponding to Frantz Fanon's third phase, the call in this
last stage of the evolution of cinema is for a "guerrilla cinema" one in which —
the camera is likened to a rifle as the "inexhaustible expropriator of image-
weapons" and the projector likened to a gun that can shoot twenty-four bullets
a second. '° The concurrent development of ideological consciousness and the
ongoing development of the social institution of cinema in the Third World are
thus bound together.
The theory of "point of view" that bears the mark of AUhusser's
ideological criticism shifts radically when Fanon's conceptualization is ad-
hered to Third Cinema film practice. This matter of "point of view" is in
in the

fact precisely where discourse in Third Cinema finds its dynamic wholeness. In
Third Cinema, "point of view" does not function on a psychological or mythic
level per se but rather takes up an explicit position with respect to an
ideological or social topic. For instance, the "point of view" in Third Cinema is

not a reflection of the consciousness or subjectivity of a single subject (a

protagonist/ hero); rather, the central figure in Third Cinema serves to develop
an historical perspective on radical social change. The masses hold the
spectators' attention. The protagonist/ hero might cast the glance, but in
actuality it is the masses or the people who give substance to the gaze. The
8 The Theoretical Context

individual hero in Third Cinema is a trans-individual or collective subject;

he/she is not endowed with individuahty — the legitimizing function of
conventional cinema.
Inchoate as World film production has in fact broken
it is, therefore. Third
the assumed grammar of cinema. It has also
semiotic system of the ideal code or
questioned the psychoanalytic model of the "spectator" in cinema, i.e., the

narrative flow which is conditioned and governed by the oedipal complex is

rarely witnessed in Third Cinema. The psychoanalytic spectator, as the ideal
spectator, is almost non-existent. This approach to film has likened it to a
dream experience. The identification process in Third Cinema is more likened
to political and social experience.
The aesthetic of Third Cinema also moves between two poles; one, the
demand that the works engage the actual pressing social realities of the day,
and the other that the film achieve its impression of reality, not by simply
mirroring, but by transforming the given. Correspondingly, Third Cinema
semiotics move between, and live on, the ambiguity of signifiers (representa-
tion) and referent (the real).
Third Cinema, therefore, intervenes in the debate and controversy over
film theory and criticism which tends to claim particulars as universals.
Because little has been resolved in discussions about ideology, the nexus of film
discourse in Third Cinema, it would be improper to proceed any further
without dealing specifically with the question of "ideology" and the nature of
its functions.

What is Ideology?

Ideology is the prime target of Third Cinema, and it occupies the central stage
of present day film scholarship. It is, therefore, imperative that we give the
concept our special attention and accord it particular significance. Otherwise,
the decisive nature of ideology in film practice will remain hazy at best and
further cloud or complicate any definitive comprehension of its active role in
the aesthetic politicaland cultural life of a people.
A thorny problem in contemporary theoretical discourse on the problem
of interpreting cinema is confusion as to what "ideology" is and where to situate
it in the cultural experience of society. " A considerable variety of contradic-
tory interpretations of ideology has only further confused its relevance to the
study of social formations and organizations. The Norwegian Arne sociologist
Naess, in fact, has composed a typology of concepts concerning ideology which
includes more than thirty.'^ It is perhaps the multifaceted nature of the term
and its concept and the inadequacy to pin it down precisely that has given rise
to the "end of ideology" school and prompted the emergence of a Sociology of
'^
Knowledge in its place.
 The Theoretical Context 9

The rethinking of "base" (economic, mode of production of infrastruc-

ture) and "superstructure" (institutions of social ideas: culture, the judicial
process, the arts, philosophical concepts of religion, freedom, etc.) has resulted
in thedevelopment of a theory of ideology. The reinvestigation into the concept
of ideology stems from the fundamental works of Marx and Engels. The
ongoing debate on the theory of ideology, instead of leading to repudiation of
the central themes of Marxist structures, has only served to reinstate the
fundamental tenets of dialectical materialism.
The pertinent theoretical formulation according to Marx reads as follows:

Consciousness can never be anything else but conscious being, and men's being is their actual
life-process. If in all ideology people and their relationships appear, as in a camera obscura,
upside down this phenomenon arises just as much from their historical life-process as does
the inversion of objects on the retina from their direct physical life process.'''

This model which has often been cited and is continuously debated among
ideologists and aestheticians see men/ women in terms of their material
condition which is an inverted form of their real condition. It is, therefore, the
task of those adhering to materialist thinking to switch the reflection right side
up. The implication of the model is far too serious and has been the source of a
continuing debate on the concept of "false consciousness," the theory of
"ideology as deterministic" and the mechanical view of "art merely reflecting
the dominant ideology."'^ According to the model, once "the historical life-
process" has been well understood through the method of historical material-
ism then there will be no more ideology, i.e., no more camera obscura or seeing
upside-down, which means that men will then simply see social relations as they
are, in their actual life process.
To some the camera obscura model suggests an "end to ideology." This
sense of ideology still predominates among adherents of the Sociology of
Knowledge school, not only because "ideology" cannot hold its own but
because a mechanical and direct relationship between "base" and "super-
structure" is insisted upon. It is argued that because the superstructure is built
upon the economic base, ideological practice is, therefore, subservient to the
economy as the principal determinant; hence the base is seen as the ultimate
cause of social formation.
However, Marx's camera obscura model seems to have been redeemed by
Engel's interactive model of "base" and "superstructure":

The economic situation is the basis, but the various elements of the superstructure als&
exercise their influence upon the course of the historical struggles and in many cases
'*
preponderate in determining their form.
10 The Theoretical Context

Marx himself was opposed to a mechanical imerpretation of superstructure as

a mere reflection or echo of the base. In a Contribution to the Critique of
Political Economy, he joins Engels on the interactive model and at the same
time recognizes the "specificity" and "autonomy" of superstructure with regard
to its economic foundation.

With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or
transformed. In considering such transformations a distinction should always be
less rapidly

made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which
can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious,
aesthetic or phUosophicshon— ideological forms in which men become conscious of this
conflict and fight it out. [my emphasis —THG]''
In other words, the superstructure (read ideology) has its own autonomy and
Furthermore, the transformation at the level of superstructure
specificity. is

more complicated and difficult than the struggle to change the base.'*
In addition, for Marx "work" (concrete labor) involves a dimension that
surpasses the mere practical value of transforming the world. In a passage in
The Economic and Political Manuscripts, he writes:

Man produces free from physical need and only truly produces when he is thus free . . . thus
man also fashions things according to the laws of beauty."

In light of the quote, it is evident that Marx elevates "work" (concrete activity)
to the level of its aesthetic dimensions. To Marx, work humanizes nature, as it
isengaged in the production of "beauty," and this fashioning of concrete labor
into an aesthetic product helps man to be at one with himself and with nature.
This, most assuredly, can only be realized within the domain of art. In the true
materialist concept of the world, therefore, art can serve as a paradigm for non-
alienated labor. In the 1857 introduction to the Critique of Political Economy
Marx had further elucidated that

it is well known that certain periods of their Howering are out of all
In the case of the arts,
proportion to the general development of society, hence also to the material foundation.'"

Contemporary Marxist theoreticians share the same view of Marx and

Engels that the relationship of base and superstructure is one of interdepen-
dency and reciprocity. Most, like Marx and Engels, also accept the economic
situation to be the most fundamental because "... mankind must first of all eat,
drink, have shelter and clothing before it can pursue politics, science, art,
religion, etc."^' However, they prefer to interpret the economic base not as a
virtual object, and in a static way, but rather as a process. The prevailing
dogmatic interpretation that the historical process is somehow predictable and
 The Theoretical Context 11

predetermined is viewed as too deterministic, and as a grave error of

interpretation which denies the relevance of dialectical investigation an
investigation that regarded as the soul of Marxist interpretation.
is

Modern day Marxists also deny the idea that Marx or Engels ever
contemplated giving more emphasis than needed to the economic base. They
refer to the publication of some of his unknown writings which have come to
light from the 1930s as proof complement the mature
that his earlier writings
Marx.^^ In addition, since man's power over nature has increased more in the
last twenty years than it did during the last twenty centuries the need for
creative approaches to orthodox Marxism is also thought to be only pertinent.
The line of justification is stated as follows,

Marxism contains within itself, in itsvery principle, infinite possibilities of development and
renewal; and that at every moment in history these make it possible to be fully conscious of
new conditions of thought and action.'^

Any dogmatic and mechanical interpretation of Marxism and an undue

conceptual orthodoxy is thought of as denying the very essence of Marxian
dialectics.

For Marxism, neither the concept nor freedom is constituted and defined, once and for all,
outside history: that is outside men's works, outside man considered in the development of
his history.^''

It is such a line of creative Marxism that identifies Ahhusser as the

most
advanced proponent of the theory of ideology in contemporary times. His
theory of ideology, as it pertains to the sphere of cultural production and
consumption of art, is quite informative:

Ideology is a matter of the lived relation between men and their world In ideology men do
indeed express, not the relation between them and their conditions of existence, but the way
they live the relation between them and their conditions of existence; this presupposes both a
real relation and an "imaginary," "lived" relation.^'

A close reading of the text reveals various layers that constitute a theory of
ideology. In general, what Althusser proposes is a dual aspect of ideology.
Ideology which connects men to their world, and at the same time, ideology
which unites the "real" with the "imaginary/ lived" relation. Expounding on the
same issue in Lenin and Philosophy, he writes:

What is represented in ideology is therefore not the system of the real relations which govern
the existence of individuals, but the imaginary relation of those individuals to the real
relations in which they live."
12 The Theoretical Context

The nature of ideology, as non-deceptive and non-illusory but autonomous,

and as a system in its own right is quite succinctly put forth in For Marx:

It will suffice to know very schematically that an ideology is a system (with its own logic and
rigour) of representation (images, myths, ideas or concepts, depending on the case) endowed
with a historical existence and a role within a given society."'

The thesis For Marx also appears in a much clearer manner in

advanced in
Althusser's "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" where he distin-
guishes between two types of apparatuses used by the State to impose its
hegemony; i.e., the Repressive State Apparatus and the Ideological State
Apparatus. ^^ Briefly stated, the function of the first is to secure power through
direct repressive means (army, police, etc.), whereas the Ideological State
Apparatus is a "call" for the "subject" to see himself in a world seemingly
created by himself. Accordingly, to Althusser: "all ideology hails or interpel-
"^^
lates concrete individuals as concrete subjects.
Just as Althusser acknowledges, once we recognize the materiality and
autonomy of ideology as governed by its own system of representation, then we
can begin to look at its function and its relationship with other social
organizations. Most of the foregoing discussion on all aspects of ideology has
been strictly on the theoretical plane. What, we may ask, is the practical side of
ideology, since all theory(ies) must finally be tested against this requirement? It

is indeed at this level that a conjuncture must be sought between the

base/ superstructure model and the theory of ideology. And it is to this aspect
of the theory of ideology, as it pertains to the Third World, that we must now
turn.
The development of Marxist thought up to now has, to a large extent,
depended on the experience of the post-industrial development of an urban
an experience, therefore, of a very different kind than that of the
proletariat,
Third World. Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral, as theorists and practitioners
of the theory of ideology they espouse, speak to that Third World experience.
The two have developed a body of work which informs the political and
cultural practices of the Third World in a more radical way than the theories
expounded and advanced by the establishment and Western
Left of Eastern
countries. It is important, therefore, to take notice of Fanon and CabraPs
comments on all aspects of the debate thus far outlined.
According to Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral, "Europe," precisely
because its grandeur has depended on imperialist robbery, "is literally the
creation of the Third World. "^° To both Fanon and Cabral, Europe, therefore,
cannot claim to inspire and assist colonial people towards their liberation.
They call for a ratification of two principles; a just reparation that is the
colonial peoples' due, and the establishment of a national cultural force that is
 The Theoretical Context 13

able to undergird and condition the development of national consciousness,

towards liberation.

The Third World ought not to be content to define itself in the terms of values which have
preceded it. On the contrar>', the underdeveloped countries ought to do their utmost to find
their own particular values and methods and a style which shall be peculiar to them. The
concrete problem we find ourselves up against is not that of a choice, cost what it may,
between socialism and capitalism as they have been defined by men of other continents and
of other ages."

Traditional Marxist-Leninist thought has insisted upon the proletariat as

the vanguard of revolutions. This has never been denied. Fanon and Cabral
look at this issue differently. For both, the burden of revolution in the Third
World is vested not in the proletariat, who they characterize as alienated and
compromised, but rather in the peasantry which Cabral identifies as, "the
principal force behind the liberation movement."" Fanon is forthright in his
unequivocal convictions:

And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they
have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant outside the class system is

the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays."

Frantz Fanon's theory of violence (Cabral, too, has theorized the need for
violence in the cause of freedom)^^ must be understood within the context of an
armed which has become necessary as a
struggle for national liberation
reaction against colonial violence. Both Fanon and Cabral, and particularly
Fanon, have been criticized for theoretical generalities and lack of precision,
but the truth of the matter is that both speak with one principal aim in mind, to
make revolution and not to aestheticize it.^"^
To Karl Marx and Althusser's definition of non-alienated "work" as
aesthetic activity in which man fashions himself as he fashions the world,
Fanon's response is much more radical, to the point, and quite instructive: "For
the native, violence represents the absolute line of action. The militant is also a
"^^
man who For Frantz Fanon, "work" (concrete labor) is an act of
works.
anti-colonial and anti-imperialist violence. Fanon's theory is permeated with
this recurring issue. To him, the oppressed persons' "permanent dream is to

become the persecutor."^' Passage after passage, Fanon, in all his writings,
reiterates the theory of revolutionary violence as the brute answer to colonial
violence, and at the same time, as the expression and idiom of emancipatory
self-determination for the colonized:

The colonized man finds his freedom in and through violence. This rule of conduct
enlightens the agent because it indicates to him the means and the end.^*
14 The Theoretical Context

The Third World, through spokespersons Uke Frantz Fanon and Amilcar
Cabral, has developed its own conceptualization of Marxist theory and praxis.
These conceptualizations deftly cut on the apex of the ongoing theoretical
discourse on ideology and its operations. The extent of Fanon and Cabral's
influence on Third World film practice will become evident in the following

pages. Their theory of knowledge is the theoretical and critical nexus which
serves as a necessary prerequisite for our understanding of the subtle shift, not
only in the theory of ideology, but also in the manifestations of Third World
by film production.
culture, as exemplified
To Cabral and Fanon, "culture," as a fruit of history, is likened to a
"weapon" in the struggle for independence, and to the Third Cinema
filmmakers, the determinants of culture are no less:

Our time —
one of hypothesis rather than of thesis, a time of works in process unfinished,
is

unordered, violent works made with the camera in one hand and a rock in the other. Such
works cannot be assessed according to the traditional theoretical and critical canons. The
ideas of our film theory and criticism will come to life through inhibition-removing practice
and experimentation."
 The Major Themes in Third Cinema

The various forms of oppression which afflict the Third World countries form
the core of thematic elements in Third Cinema. It is a cinema that iscommitted
to a direct and aggressive opposition to oppression. Its purpose will be
validated only if it integrates its objectives with the aspirations, values,
struggles and social needs of the oppressed classes. However, the nature of
oppression is such that it penetrates all aspects of life. To differentiate among
thematic lines is not characteristic of the Third Cinema. Instead, it addresses
issues of class, culture, religion, sex and national integrity simultaneously. It is,

therefore, only for the purpose of analysis that I now arbitrarily separate these
themes for discussion.

Class

The most recurrent theme in Third Cinema is that of class antagonism. The
Brickmakers by Jorge Silva and Marta Rodriguez is a synthesis of documen-
tary filmmaking in its best tradition. The film focuses on the daily problems of a
poor family living in subhuman conditions in Colombia. Carlos Alvarez's
Colombia 70 is also strongly class oriented in its demonstration of poverty,
particularly when contrasted with lifestyles marked by excess.' The device of
contrast along class lines had been used by most Third World filmmakers.
In order that the struggle of Third World countries be successful, it is
essential that the people clearly identify the enemy(ies) and see, first, that it is

the ruUng classes of the imperialist countries who oppress the Third World,
rather than all whites or all Europeans and Americans. Secondly, they must see
that the peoples of Third World countries are also divided into classes; and
third, that the bourgeoisie will cling to its interests rather than align itself with
national anti-colonial and anti-imperialist sentiments and, therefore, that it is

inextricably tied up with the forces of oppression.

This concern with class conflict has two important consequences. First, it
draws a line of oppositions that is applicable internationally. Sambizanga, an
Angolan film by Sara Maldoror, is an example of this orientation. In coming to
16 The Major Themes in Third Cinema

revolutionary consciousness, a character comes to realize that "there are no

whites, nor blacks, nor mulattoes but rich and poor." Secondly, the issue of
racism is viewed in the context of class antagonism. In Sambizanga a black
revolutionary dies while protecting a white comrade, and films like Soleil O,
The Other Franscisco and The Last Supper portray interracial alliances against
class oppressors.
Such have also occurred outside the world of fiction in the
alliances
history of Third Cinema. In Blood of the Condor, a film denouncing the Peace
Corps, the people who played the roles of Peace Corps members were real-life
members of the Peace Corps in Bolivia. They demonstrated their sympathy for
the goals of the film by agreeing to act in it. As a result of the impact of the film
on audiences in Boliva, the Peace Corps was later expelled from that country.^

Culture^

Wherever imperialist cuhure penetrates, it attempts to destroy national culture

and substitute foreign culture; therefore, the struggle to preserve the cultural
make-up of a society also constitutes a major area of concern for Third World
filmmakers. A significant contribution by the Third Cinema in this respect is in
the area of the aesthetics of liberation. Third World filmmakers have realized

the importance of incorporating traditional art forms to retain the distinctive

flavor of popular mass cuhure. Third World countries have two distinctively
parallel cultures. The ruling classes emulate a culture co-opted by colonial and
imperialistic values, which is in direct conflict with the culture of the people.
The recognition of a distinct popular culture unadulterated by foreign
influences came to Third World films long before direct political concerns
dominated their subject matters. An example is the work of Satyajit Ray in
India and Lester James Peries in Sri Lanka. As nationalism became the
dominant concern in post-independence India and Sri Lanka, Peries and Ray
turned to the village as the setting for their films feeling that it was the only
place where national culture had survived under colonialism. Though they
both have been charged with a "lack of political commitment" in their cinema,
they can be seen as the initiators of a concern with cultural identity in the Third
Cinema. Ray started his Apu trilogy as far back as 1956 when he made an
impact on world cinema with his Father Fanchali. The trilogy depicts the harsh
realities of rural life which finally succeed in destroying a family. In the same

year Peries made Rekawa, followed in 1963 by Gamperaliya {Changes in the

Village) which brought him wide recognition. Both films are set in Sinhalese
villages and express the same preoccupations with rural life as Ray's early
films.
In the colonized or neo-colonized countries of the Third World the people
have always expressed their joy or despair in music. Musical themes and songs
 The Major Themes in Third Cinema 17

taken from the folk tradition figure in significant ways in the films of the Third
Cinema. Venceremos, a film from Chile by Pedro Chaskel, and Mahmoud
Doroudian's Blood Will Triumph Over the Sword from Iran were told
completely in song. Class oppositions are depicted by the juxtapositions
between musical themes. Lyrics often provide a commentary from the point of
view of the oppressed as they do in The Other Francisco by Sergio Giral or in
Mandabi, a film by the Senegalese Ousmane Sembene. In the Cuban film
Lucia, the traditional folk song "Guantanamera," is used to provide ironic
commentary in the third part of the film where a macho husband upsets the
community life of post-revolutionary Cuba. Antonio Das Mortes, by the late
Glauber Rocha of Brazil, is structured after a song about a rebel bandit
(cangaceiro).^ La Hora de Los Homos (The Hour of the Fwr«flc^5J juxtaposes
the Argentinean national anthem and its references to the eagle against shots of
a tiny bird in a cage inside the gloomy shanty of a prostitute.

Religion

The Chilean The Promised Land, (La Tierra Prometida), by Miguel Littin,
film
bears many analogies to Biblical paradigms. The hero, Jose Duran, leads his
people much like Moses to a beautiful valley, the promised land, where they
will begin a new life. Duran is surrounded by followers in a fashion reminiscent
of Christ and his Apostles. One of them. Pin-stripe, recruits followers from a
near-by community using methods analogous to Peter's. The Virgin Mary is
—
represented as a woman in a double role smiling Mary of the poor and ugly
Mary of the rulers. Given the socialist perspective of the film, the biblical
references can only be seen as an attempt to take the symbols with which the
peasants have been trained to interpret the world under Catholicism and use
them to initiate a conflict between that training and the requirements of
revolutionary consciousness. Thus, when pamphlets announcing the socialist
revolution drop like manna from heaven, it is not to make a point of the
analogy per se, but to show the contradictory nature of a political event that
takes place within the deeply-rooted structures of religion. If that revolution
failed, it is precisely because of the confluence of such mutually exclusive
ideologies.
The Last Supper, a recent Cuban film by Tomas Gutierrez Alea, also
makes use of biblical metaphors but in a different way. The twelve Apostles are
likened to twelve slaves chosen by a Christ/ aristocratic landowner figure, and
the Holy Week is marked by a revolt of the slaves and their subsequent
punishment. In drawing a dividing line between Christ and his Apostles, the
film examines the contradictions between the teachings of Christianity on the
one hand and the practice of Christianity on the other and questions the
possibility of identification with the teachings in view of the actual relations of
18 The Major Themes in Third Cinema

production (slavery). Both The Last Supper and The Promised Land see
Christianity as the dominant ideology from which the oppressed classes must
break away, and both examine the profound impact of that ideology and the
difficulty involved in making such a break.
Instead of discarding religion as the "opium of the masses," therefore,
Third World filmmakers attempt to give religion or spirituality a special
significance in their works. Sembene's tender treatment of the religious elders
inEmitai recognizes their democratic procedures with admiration, yet shows
them lacking the consciousness to understand their predicament. The film-
maker reveals the transformation of one of the elders by depicting his inner
feelings through apparitions, visions and folk rituals.
In One Day I Asked by Julia Alvarez, a woman praying in the church
intones, "One thing is sure, he (God) eats at the boss' table. "The delicate film /I
Thousand and One Hands, by the Moroccan Souhel Ben Baraka, uses a
pilgrimage as a device through which to make a political comment about the
condition of the Moroccan people.

Sexism

Another important recurring theme in Third Cinema is that of the struggle for
the emancipation of women. In most Third World films, from Vietnam to
Argentina, from Cuba to Angola and from Mozambique to China, we witness
the integral participation of women in all aspects of the struggle for
decolonization and liberation, including their participation in actual armed
struggle. In films such as The Long Chain (India), Double Day (Mexico), Last
Grave at Dimbaza (South Sambizanga (Angola) Ceddo and Emitai
Africa),
(Senegal), The East is /?ei/ (Peoples' Republic of China), One Way or Another

(Cuba) and Aziza (Tunisia) the issue of the role of women in bringing about
social change is one of the most essential themes and is integral to the practices
of Third Cinema.^
In dealing with sexism one is confronted with the larger issue of the
liberation of all humanity, not just women. The liberation of women from
stereotypical roles presupposes, therefore, that men must also be liberated
from their confining macho roles. Perhaps the best example of how this is
handled is the Cuban film Lucia, which is in three parts. The film illustrates the
role of women during three periods in Cuban history. It speaks of the changing
nature of women's roles, depending upon their class background and the
structure of the society in which they live. The film's tripartite structure stresses
the crucial transition periods as Cuba passes from feudalism to capitalism and
finally to socialism. Lucia in all three roles represents Cuba's growing
awareness of her problems and achievements. The first Lucia easily succumbs
to the charms of the amoral Spaniard colonizer, Raphael. The second Lucia
 The Major Themes in Third Cinema 19

shakes off her romantic naivete and faces her problem directly (as witnessed in
the final shot). The third Lucia realizes that even after the revolution machoism
has not been totally solved. Her husband represents the malcontents who speak
^
as if they accept Cuba's socialist revolution but do not accept it in their hearts.
Last Grave at Dimbaza is also an important film that illustrates the
treatment of women and the breakdown of the family unit. The South African
government realizes that in order to survive it must break the communication
and, consequently, the support afforded black South Africans by the family
unit. Women as well as men immense burden
are seen to be strong despite the
they carry. It is a tribute to them that the government deems it necessary to
separate and divide them. Last Grave at Dimbaza shows perhaps the ultimate
in the physical as well as psychological stress of women. The hardships women
suffer include not only being unable to live with their own families but being
relegated to the most menial tasks around the clock.*
Double Day, a collective film made with the assistance of an American
women's group, addresses the issue of double duty that women are forced to do
at work and at home while only getting paid for half of their work. The film was
made by a group of women attending the 1975 International Women's Year
Conference in Mexico City. Except for the cameraperson, the crew was
composed entirely of women and that became a significant factor in achieving
closeness and trust with the women being interviewed, while at the same time
providing a political perspective that was defined by women themselves.'

Armed Struggle

Finally, the theme of armed struggle against imperialism and class enemies on
the home front is repeatedly taken up, particularly in Latin American films.
The armed struggle has become the subject of
position that films adopt towards
heated debates and raging controversies. A Luta Continua from Mozambique,
Victory to Victory from the Peoples' Republic of China, and Playa Giron from
Cuba all portray armed struggle as an integral part of the National Liberation
struggle as a whole. Brazil: No Time for Tears, Tupamaros and The Traitors
portray armed intervention as a subversive activity initiated by extremist
groups outside of any mass mobilization.
In calling for immediate armed intervention, most of these films provoked
retaliation from governments that were not sympathetic to their perspective, to
the point that the screenings had to be guarded by armed militants. The
arguments for or against the armed struggle proposed in these films are by no
means homogeneous. The answers to questions such as the appropriateness of
the historical moment for armed insurrection or the leadership and the tactics
chosen vary greatly according to political perspectives and the contexts in
which the questions are raised.'"
20 The Major Themes in Third Cinema

The single theme that unites Third World films is that of oppression. In
dealing with the issues of class, culture, religion and sexism, these films are
making a call to action whether in the form of armed struggle or otherwise.
Their concern is with social change and it is in this context that all the themes
are taken up.
 Revolutionary Films

Toward a Definition

According to Jorge Sanjines, director of Blood of the Condor and The

Courage of the People: "The work of revolutionary cinema must not limit itself
to denouncing, or to the appeal for reflection; it must be a summons for
action."' not satisfied with merely presenting the misery and
Sanjines is

suffering of the Quechua Indians, but takes a larger view by examining the
mechanisms at work which are the causes for these circumstances.
in society
Sanjines's concern is to single out and expose the guilty party, as in the
denunciation of the Peace Corps in Blood of the Condor. Faithful to his theory
that "exposing the truth is the most revolutionary cultural act," he proceeds to
document the sterilization of Quechua Indians without their knowledge and
consent and to implicate the Bolivian government in its cooperation with
American agencies. The film became such an effective weapon that the
government saw a need to ban it; had it not been for popular support the film
would not have been authorized for distribution or exhibition.
Miguel Littin, the distinguished Chilean filmmaker (now exiled) argues
that, "there is no such thing as a film that is revolutionary in itself," but

it becomes such (revolutionary) through the contract that it estabHshes with its public and
principally through its influence as a mobilizing agent for revolutionary action.' [See also
Appendix A.]

To Littin, therefore, a film becomes revolutionary only when it grips the

masses. The difference between the positions of Littin and Sanjines is quite
subtle and very significant: Sanjines's theory of revolutionary film suggests an
autonomy power of the film as "summons for action," whereas Littin's
in the
suggests that a film must first be internalized by its audience before it can be
crowned "revolutionary." For Sanjines, then, the aim is direct action; for Littin
it is first a gripping contact with the masses, then action.
22 Revolutionary Films

Littin's theoretical concern was well demonstrated in his film, El Chacalde

Nahueltoro (The Jackal ofNahueltoro) where he describes the brutal slaying of
six people by an illiterate peasant from Southern Chile. As the most well-
attended film in the history of Chilean cinema. El Chacal served as a common
cultural reference among Chileans. The controversy over the confessed mass
murderer became a catalyst for discussions of, among other issues, the relation
between society and the individual. The film also raises the issue of the
ineffectiveness of prison reform. Consistent with Littin's theory of revolu-
tionary film. El Chacal was such a controversial film in 1969 that according to
various reports every Chilean was affected by the case of the unemployed and
illiterate peasant criminal. According to Littin, his film is revolutionary
because it gripped the masses and because it became a topic for national debate.
Littin's political intentions were succinctly put as follows:

First to deny a decaying official state ... a social decay. And then direct it to the middle-class
Chilean who is tied to this decay and who doesn't realize it or doesn't want to realize it.'

Ousmane Sembene, the foremost African filmmaker, defines film more in

political terms than in revolutionary manner:

It's not after having read Marx or Lenin that you go out and make a revolution All the
works are just a point of reference in history. And that's all. Before the end of an act of
creation society usually has already surpassed it."

According to Ousmane Sembene, "the role of the artist is to denounce what he

sees wrong in society . .
," but, he argues, "to give solutions escapes the artist."'
.

It is in the film's role as a denouncer that he sees its revolutionary potential.

Unlike Sanjines or Littin, Sembene does not use the term "revolutionary" in an
exclusive way. To him a film can be revolutionary without creating an actual
revolution. He denies a direct relationship between film and revolution. One of
his earlier works, Mandabi, (Money Order), concludes with this statement by
the postman Bah: "nous changerons tout cela" (we will change all this).
Although the declaration is not "a summons for action," it is, nevertheless, a
call for reflection or a forewarning of what may follow unless radical social

change takes place. The assumption is clear a time will come when out of —
despair the masses will be forced to rise up in arms. All of Sembene's films close
with a warning not necessarily stated but implied in the way he constructs his
film and in the way it leaves certain questions unanswered.
Regarding Mandabi favorable reception in Dakar, Senegal, Sembene
's

remarked:

I had no belief that after people saw it they would go out and make a revolution . . . people
liked the film and talked about it ... I participated in their awareness.*
 Revolutionary Films 23

Approaches to Distribution and Exhibition

The need way that will bring about social change has made
to address issues in a
filmmakers who adhere to the Third Cinema aware of the necessity to engage in
alternative methods of production, distritibution and exhibition. They came to
realize that it is not enough to make a film with a revolutionary perspective, or
to simply express a political opinion, but that the whole institution within
which filmmakers and audiences interact must undergo a radical change.
The Argentinian group Cinema de la Base (makers of The Traitors) argues
that when a film is produced and distributed by a politically motivated film
group or organization direct political benefits and feedback will necessarily
follow from the experience; otherwise it will become a "meaningless exercise in
artistic expression."^ In a similar vein, Solanas and Getino criticize traditional

approaches to the distribution and exhibition of films:

The models of production, and exhibition continued to be those of Hollywood

distribution,
precisely because, in ideology and had not yet become the vehicle for a clearly
politics, films

drawn differentiation between bourgeois ideology and politics. A reformist policy, as

manifested in dialogue with the adversary, in coexistence, and in the relegation of national
—
contradictions to those between two supposedly unique blocs the USSR and the USA
was and is unable to produce anything but a cinema within the System itself."

The consensus among Third World filmmakers seems to be that a single

work cannot instigate action or cause social change. However, flooding the
market with films of a similar cultural and political intent can eventually be
effective. To this end African filmmakers have founded the Pan African
Federation of Cineasts (FEPACI). Some of the objectives of the Federation
are:^

a. to generally promote the African film industry, to develop the cultural aspects of the
cinema as part of education, development and a cultural, social and economic
independence of the African peoples

b. to develop a sense of solidarity among African film-makers, in order to enable them to

join their efforts with a view to defending their moral, professional and political
interests

c. to promote distribution and commercialization of African films throughout the

African continent as well as on a worldwide scale

The need an operative organization with respect to alternative channels of

for
distribution and exhibition have prompted African filmmakers to establish, as
recently as March 1981, the Committee of African Cineasts (C.A.C.). The
stated aim of the committee is: "To develop a common strategy in the areas of
production, co-production and distribution of films." The new strategy calls
24 Revolutionary Films

According to the
for distributing African films in packages of ten or twenty.
spokesperson of the committee, the Mauritanian filmmaker Med Hondo:

Everywhere, home, distributing and producing companies appeared

in Africa, at but . . .

only on paper. From one session to another, the most militant, incredibly persistent, were
again and again putting their finger on the problem without organizing the distribution of
. . .

'"
the African films in Africa, there cannot be an African Cinema.

Littin, too, sees his work as part of Brazil's Cinema Novo, Argentina's Cine
Liberation and Colombia's Cine Nuevo," and believes that distributing twenty
new films a year will have a greater chance of effecting change.
Distribution also has been taken up in radical ways in an effort to reach
the kind of audience that would not normally go measure of to a theater. A
Sanjines's dedication to the political function of films is his method and format
of screenings. He takes to the field armed with a generator, projector and print,
presenting the film like a modern day Incan travelling storyteller:

Showing it before an audience composed of Indians, we even tried an altogether different

approach. We had a narrator who first recounted the story by showing photographs of the
various characters. This is a tradition dating all the way back to the Incas and it still exists

today —there are still storytellers who journey from village to village. Then, afterwards, we
discussed the story with the audience — and, finally, showed the film. It's a question of
educating people unused to seeing movies at the same time as attempting to create a national
'^
cinema. And there seems to be so little time . . .

Sembene also acknowledges the value of direct contact with those on

whose behalf his films are made. He, too, takes a projector and other
accessories to the countryside to screen his films. Ousmane Sembene often
takes a Polaroid camera when he goes to villages to shoot a film, and in order to
demystify cinema he invites people who marvel at the motion picture camera to
try out the Polaroid themselves. Instant reaction then allows Sembene to
explain the principles of how photographic images are made.

Approaches to Style

Third Cinema films, beside having in common the portrayal of the conflict
between progressive and reactionary forces, also try to expand the boundaries
of cinematic language and devise new stylistic approaches appropriate to their
revolutionary goals. Where a central character is used, the viewpoint goes
beyond that of the individual to develop a sense of the relationship between the
individual and the community, ofthecollective, and of history. A closer look at
these films will reveal some characteristics that are shared with many
progressive films and others that are new and unique developments.
 Revolutionary Films 25

Itmust be emphasized that the alternative film style we are examining is as

unique for the Third World viewer as it is for the Westerner. Distribution
politics and cultural saturation with traditional cinema has modeled film lovers
so that they passively accept whatever the screen shows; i.e., audiences are
supposed to be passive consumers of a finished product. The Third Cinema
however, is based on provocation and participation, and it must induce
audiences to act, rather than remain passive.
La Hora de Los Homos (The Hour of the Furnaces) goes further than most
other revolutionary films injoltingitsaudienceby the dynamism of its style and
the explicit and systematic way that it addresses political and ideological
'^
issues. The cinema" or "cinema like a gun" and,
film has been called "guerrilla
indeed, its images have the force of bullets from an automatic. Coupled with its
montage approach is its division into thirteen chapters or "cells" which makes
its tremendous amount of information easier to understand. The film also uses

written statements, quotations or slogans to highlight key moments of the

narration. Thus, while exploring powerful stylistic approaches. La Hora de
Los Homos tries primarily to communicate facts and figures that will raise the
consciousness of its audience.
In Sanjines's opinion, "given the experience, shrewdness and covetousness
of the enemy, one must conclude that there isno time, either for ideal pursuits
of estheticism or for personal realizations. There is only time to be responsible
and consistent."''*

The Indian audience, for example — still almost entirely innocent of cinema is only now
discovering films like Blood of the Condor; and thus the question of influence, of script
originality, of technical perfection, so important to moviegoers in Europe, is not very
important to them. They are interested in the story, in the images themselves. Many of them
have returned to see my films more than once."

After making Mandabi in a parable form, using a great deal of camera

intimacy with the protagonist, the use of the mass hero in Sembene's Emitai,
achieved with shots from a distance which do not linger on any one face long
enough to enable the audience to become familiar with it, represents a use of
camera style for the purpose of inciting unified action. Like Sanjines, Sembene
also feels that the development of truly African creativity, free of foreign
influence, is a revolutionary act by itself
The Emitai (The Angry God) is one of the factors underlying the
style of
psychological and political impact of the film. The language used in the film is
Dialo, a minor Senegalese dialect, and much of the film relies upon expressive
images.The film is most poetic as it weaves its story in a film language that is its
own. The deliberately slow pace is characteristic of its style, and long shots are
used almost exclusively throughout the film. Sembene never commits the
26 Revolutionary Films

mistake of extracting the characters from their environmem through close-ups;

instead he makes the environment an integral part of the story.
Emitai presents one of the best and clearest views of the raising of
consciousness. The film gives a compact portrait of the key factors leading to
revolution and how the revolution is enacted. All the interrelationships
between oppressor and oppressed are clearly delineated both in human and
economic terms. The process of how small events push consciousness another
step, closer to action, is well illustrated in the film.
Sembene an interplay of images and action which subsequently
creates
creates another image and action. The scene of women and men hoeing in the
green rice paddies of the rainy season, the scene of women carrying rice across
the field in the yellow brown dry season contrasts radically with the scene of the
women as hostages of the colonizers. '^ Several times in the film the camera runs
up and down over an inanimate object, a big village tree. This tree symbolizes

the sacred forest where the elders confer and it also signifies the village where
the women are kept as hostages in the sun.
Sembene utilizes the actual sounds of the village and surrounding
environment. The sound of a drum is used throughout the film for communica-
ting between the men in the sacred forest and the women hostages in the village.

Sembene in this way reinforces the feeling of solidarity so evident in the images
of the villagers. This perhaps a denial of "laid-in" music and sound pure
is —
silence and pure sound which in many ways is a revolutionary departure from
traditional Hollywood forms of expression, i.e. "piped-in" music or a catchy
sound-track. According to Ousmane Sembene:

[a European director] has music for everything in [his] films — music for rain, music for the
wind, music for tears, music for moments of emotion, but he doesn't know how to make these
elements speak for themselves. He doesn't feel them. But in our films we can make the
sensations of these elements felt without denaturing [them]"

The role of sound or silence in Ousmane Sembene's films is quite

by way of illustration in an interview he gave he cites a scene from

significant;
Emitai where the women were forced by the French commandant to sit in the
sun:

The only sound you can hear is the sound of the rooster and the weeping of the children;

did not look for music to ask the public to participate. I wanted
however, there was wind. I

just to prove by gestures that the women were tired, their legs were tired, their arms were
burdened. The woman who had the sun shining in her eyes, the two who were sleeping—
always in silence. But it was a silence. . . which was speaking.

I could have had a voice coming from outside, but I would have been lying. For example,
there were two children who were walking along to bring water to the women. When they
crossed the woods, you couldn't see their legs, but you could hear, very clearly, the dead
leaves. For me, the search for a cinema of silence is there.*
 Revolutionary Films 27

In stylistic terms Sembene uses Eisenstein's theory of the syntax of inner

speech as the basis for manipulating the imagery and sensual structure of his
films. His films, therefore, do not rely exclusively on the story line but upon a
whole series of poetically assembled impressions. This required Sembene not
only to pace the film slowly but also to develop a non-uttered syntax that
Africans can intuitively digest. As he said:

We have to find a language that comes from image and gesture The work for the African
film-maker is to find a way that is his own and to find his own symbols, even to create
symbols if he has to."

Sembene projects his audience into the environment in a style that is quite
different from most contemporary Latin American filmmakers. This is because
African filmmakers face especially difficult obstacles, namely, a diversity of
compared with Latin America where one language is common
languages, as
everywhere (except in Brazil). The wide variety of ethnic and cultural
backgrounds in Africa, with differences even within the boundaries of one
nation, makes it communicate with a large audience. Also,
difficult to
audiences in Africa have not been exposed to cinema as much as Latin
Americans, and local film production began only a decade or two ago. All these
factors make it impossible for most African filmmakers to be as experimental
in style as their Latin American counterparts. The common cuhural and
religious backgrounds of audiences and the longer history of film production in
Latin America enable filmmakers there to take more chances with new forms.
Most African films, therefore (Pathway to the Stars by Antonio Ole, an
excellent film tribute to the first President of Angola; Fimbo Ya Mnyonge on
the theme of Tanzanian Ujamaa; and Haile Gerima's Harvest: 3000 Years from
Ethiopia [see chapter 6]), all share the qualities of slow pacing and careful plot
development. Whereas the Latin American films tend to attack and revolu-
tionize the existing style, the African films, on the other hand, tend to engage in
building a new style from the ground up. For instance, a barrage of imagery
and a fast juxtaposition of music, words, photographs, advertisements (as in
the Latin American cinema La Hora de Los Homos) is not common in African
films. Of course, exceptions exist; for instance, Med Hondo's Soleil O and his
most recent film West Indies employ highly experimental forms. Hondo's
camera moves wherever it pleases; he almost paints with it, trying even to
penetrate man's inner consciousness.
One way to distinguish between the style of African and Latin American
films is in the use of hand-held cameras; these are often used in Latin American
films but rarely in African films, again with some exceptions. The camera style
in most African films is extremely solid; the point of view is that of a mute
observer. There is very little camera movement beyond a few simple pans which
28 Revolutionary Films

are not unlike the turning of the head. This style creates a sense of veracity
about what we see and hear (and running parallel to the camera, the sound is as
simple as possible). African films, in the main, are governed by slow, long
takes, wide shots and a repetition of scenes. When Latin American filmmakers
utilize this kind of shot, it serves to make an ideological statement. In the

African context, the slow rhythms approximate the Africans' experience of

time, and this helps viewers to appreciate context — since we experience what
they experience.^"
To keep the analysis of the remaining films in this section within
manageable proportions only Lucia and III) will be given a detailed
(parts I, II

treatment, while the others will be discussed or mentioned in passing when

appropriate. The choice of Lucia as a prime example of the muhifaceted nature
of revolutionary films is predicated upon the following: (a) it is the most seen
and internationally heralded film of its kind, as the number of awards it has
won indicates [Italian Producers Association Golden Globe award, FIPRESCI
(International Film Festival), 1969; to mention a few]; (b) it has three parts,
representing three different but consecutive eras, each part able to stand as a
film in itself; (c) it has a complex structure and offers great and rich rewards
stylistically and thematically. The insights gained from Lucia can be applied to
other films.
Lucia is a trilogy and its sections represent three crucial moments in the
development of consciousness in Cuban history. The sections of the film are
unrelated except for the presence of a woman — always named Lucia — whose
life is deeply affected by the historical circumstances that she and Cuba share.
Thirty-eight years pass between parts I and II, and another twenty-seven years
between parts II and III. Lucia, 1895, is a fragile Cuban woman, approaching
middle age, whose brother is fighting against the Spaniards in the War of
Independence. Lucia, 1933, is a girl from a bourgeois family who falls in love
with a revolutionary during the revolution against the dictator Machado.
Lucia, "196?," finds herself in a battle between her new found consciousness
and love for her "macho" or domineering husband. The first two Lucias come
from the —
upper classes classes which no longer exist in Cuba. The third Lucia
is a product of the revolution, though it should be pointed out that it is the
suffering of the first two Lucias which has raised her consciousness. (Both of
the earlier husbands die at the end: Lucia, 1895, is betrayed by her husband and
she literally crucifies him; Lucia, 1933, is left alone and pregnant by a husband
who has dragged her along in his search for ideals.) In this way the three Lucias
are united by an invisible connection— one leads to the next and each one gives
a reason for the existence of the other — so that are consciousness-raising all

films connected to the final goal of the liberation of women and the revolution
itself.
 Revolutionary Films 29

The matched by three different visual styles. For the

three segments are
1895 Lucia high-contrast and high-key lighting is accompanied by camera
movements circling around characters. These movements are either slow and
deliberate, describing the world of the upper-class, or frenetic hand-held shots
with wide-angle lens distortion, describing the world of outside (Fernandina).
The 1933 Lucia uses little camera movement and a more traditional shooting
style, along with a lower contrast. The third part deviates from both by using

normal contrast and a mixture of movements that maintains a normal pace

throughout.
Lucia creates a sense of historical development with its three stories, each
of which reflect a different stage of revolution. The consciousness of each
historical class is conveyed through the style of each segment. The main
characters in each section are not only explored in relation to those closest to
them but While love relationships are very
in relation to society as a whole.
sensitively explored, the primacy of social and political forces at work are
affirmed. The first Lucia unwittingly betrays her country and her brother by
ignoring the political situation when she immerses herself in a love affair with
Rafael, who she at least suspects is on the enemy side. The second Lucia has a
positive relationship with Aldo, but they are torn apart by the force of political
events, both having achieved an understanding of these events. The third Lucia
and her husband discover that their love for each other is not sufficient even to
preserve their relationship, unless he participates with her in the collective
effort to destroy reactionary lifestyles.
There are endless ways of interpreting and reinterpreting Lucia without
ever depleting the well of insight that the film provides. (See the following
diagram.) want to concentrate here on the problem of where to place Lucia in
I

the history of cinema and also comment on some of the film's stylistic
innovations. In Lucia, 1 895, there are several sequences recalling the silent film
in which "wild," or non-sync, sound is used, as well as the kind of
overdramatized performances that often marked the early silent cinema. For
instance, the rape of Fernandina by soldiers and the sugar-mill sequences with
Rafael are overdramatized with exaggerated gestures. The editing in Lucia I is
fairly traditional but in certain scenes special arrangements of shots are

utilized. One sequence in the very last few shots of Lucia I needs to be
recalled — the scene just before Lucia kills Rafael. As Lucia is searching in a
mad frenzy for Rafael, an old woman in front of a cathedral seems to read her
thoughts and tells her, unsolicited, that Rafael is in the square. As Lucia
proceeds to the square, the music gives way to the abrupt introduction of a
steady crescendo of congas leading into a native Afro-Cuban rhythm. At the
conclusion of part I the drumbeats are heard as Lucia stabs her lover and as she
is carried away and Fernandina Both Lucia and Fernandina
enters the frame.
at this stage represent the deceit and rape of Cuba by Spain. This parallel has
30 Revolutionary Films

A Breakdown of Lucia
 Revolutionary Films 31

reflect upon the ambiguity of the cause for which she and her husband were
fighting. The flashback device reinforces the feeUngthat although Aldo's ideals
were unselfish, he was not able to foresee the fact that Machado's death and his
overthrow were not enough to change the system. Aldo was a victim of an
uncontrollable chain of events — hence, the appropriate choice of the flashback
device.
The score of Lucia II is similar to Lucia I except that here the music never
reaches the same level of orchestration. The grandiose melodies that under-
score the aristocratic family and the love relationship in Lucia I are at odds in
Lucia At the company party the music played by the orchestra is distinctly
II.

—
Western it represents a corrupting influence which misguides the people, for
as it is played the party turns into something of an orgy with striking close-up
shots to emphasize the decadence. Toward the end of the film the music gives
way to steady drumbeats, as in Lucia I, representing, perhaps, the coming
storm.
In Lucia III Solas uses a different stylistic approach: the repression of
Victorian times (Lucia and the decadence of the thirties (Lucia II) are no
I)

longer the target. Rather the focus here is on the changing awareness of the
sixties. Again, style in this part is used to reflect the historical period being
shown. Solas views Lucia III as representing the real crisis in present-day
Socialist Cuba:

With political oppression gone, basic material needs satisfied, education and health care
provided for all, nothing seems to stand in the way of the new socialist state. Nothing
except vestiges of centuries-old oppression which cannot be erased by governmental decree.
The ideology of the old order concerning political and economic organization can be easily
replaced, but not the ideology ruling personal relationships. The hierarchic social structure is
deeply embedded in the people. It most difficult to supplant when
is it concerns the most
^'
personal of relationships, that between a man and woman.

The acting in Lucia III is more lighthearted — it is a comedy. Here the

emphasis is placed on Lucia's role as part of a collective — she is mostly shown
interacting with others. The style of humor suggests a feeling of optimism
that everything will turn out all right.The song serves as a festive voice-over,
encouraging us to think about the meaning of the process taking place. The
musical accompaniment is simple; temple blocks and conga drums are used
repeatedly to accentuate the melody carried on by the guitar. In this segment of
the trilogy, Cuba has come fully into her own and the folk song "Guantana-
mera" helps relate the political change to a popular Cuban culture.
The uses of anticipation in Lucia also represent a non-illusionistic cinema
in which the intentions of the filmmaker are not obscured. Solas seems to urge
us to be aware of how the film produces meaning, how it goes beyond a simple
narrative, and how immanent meaning is, in fact, accessible. He makes his
32 Revolutionary Films

viewers into thinkers and active receptors of ideology. Anticipation is

expressed not only in each segment of Lucia but in the continuity from one
episode to another. In Lucia I there is a brief anonymous shot of a child in a
window (i.e., Lucia II); at the end of Lucia II, the protagonist is pregnant
(Lucia III); Lucia III ends with the arrival of a mythical Lucia in the personage
of a young girl with a goat, projecting us into the future {Lucia IV).
The filmmaker's use of such anonymous shots as a device of anticipation
^^
gives a sense of the inevitablility of the historical process. Lucia I and Lucia II
derive this inevitability from our hindsight into those historical periods. But
Lucia III does not appear to us from this perspective since we have no historical
hindsight; the inevitability here comes rather from the filmmaker's ideological
position. He expresses undoubting faith in the triumph of equality between
men and women over male chauvinism. Lucia, therefore, is an excellent
example and the epitome of revolutionary style in film as well as revolution
itself
The film that seems both to attack conventional film style and utilize local

culture the most is The Promised Land from Chile. This film deals with a rural
population, the original source of religion, myth, symbolism and ballad. The
Promised Land is a folk film which depicts a historical situation in 1930 in a
style reminiscent of the legendary versions of historical events that are part of
indigenous cultural tradition. The film is also an allegory for the peaceful road
to socialism advocated by the Popular Unity government of Allende. The
filmmaker shows a magnificent "prophetic clairvoyance" in the way the film is

informed with the internal problems facing Chile from 1971 to 1973.
Stylistically, Littin uses a subjective viewpoint in The Promised Land as he

did in El Chacal. The flashback narrative of Jorge in El Chacal was also applied
in The Promised Land, except that here the entire movie is the flashback of an
oldman who survived the "revolution" of the 1930s. In the film he appears as a
young man called Chirigua. The narrative is told as if it were passed down as
legend with the inclusion of folk songs, ballads and mysticism. According to
Littin:

We observe with concern a certain tendency toward picturesqueness at certain levels of Latin
American cinema Let us not exhibit folklore with demagogic pride, with a celebrative
attitude. Rather let us exhibit it as a cruel denunciation, as a painful testimony to the level at
which the people have been forced to retain their power to artistic creation.''

According to Littin the film can also be viewed as a critique of popular culture,
hence the two Virgin Marys in the film: one for the landowning class and one
for the peasants. The political assumption is that religion can be used to
oppress as well as to strengthen. This dialectical view, which sees religious
figures essentially as symbols that can be used by any class to foster its own
 Revolutionary Films 33

interests, causes the Virgin del Carmen to be seen in an ambivalent light as the
patron saint of the nation as well as patron saint of the armed forces. The self-

conscious use of mythic motif, therefore, no longer appears manipulative or

obscure but can be seen as a consciousness-forming exploration and a critique
of the cultural codes which have gripped the popular class. This serves as a
distancing device, eliciting an intellectual and critical response instead of
appealing purely to the emotions. Robert Scott, commenting on the distancing
employed in the film, writes:

Miguel Littin has in fact created a text in crisis, a filmic statement in which parallel lines of
emotional, even illusionistic, epic narrative but, at the same time, a parallel line of formal

analysis intersects the narrative at specific crisis points and destroys it. The basic narrative
codes are "designated" only to be "deconstructed" by the formal inner workings of the film's
technique. This constant interplay of emotion and intellect forms a continuum of inner
collisions which take place both in the text and in the subject (spectator); we are pulled this
way, now that way. The result is a synthesis of extreme power and clarity ..."'*

The Promised Land as a clear ideological statement seems extremely effective

in a number of ways, (a) it is able to show the potential of peasants to govern
themselves, particularly in the lengthy sequence that shows them cultivating in
the commune; (b) it demonstrates that the people can rely on their own united
strength; (c) it portrays the tremendous will and courage of the peasants in their
defense of Pamilla.How, then, does the film criticize Allende's Chile, and what
is the context which the film serves to comment on the country? Miguel
in
Littin emphasizes that a revolution cannot be carried out from the top.

There is a distinct difference in attitude between one who speaks to the public from a balcony

and those who work with and among the people. So we think that as we cease speaking from
the balcony, and speak from within the struggles of the people, with all the richness and
dynamics that this implies, we, ourselves, are being transformed.''

The red plane that arrives in Pamilla and announces the triumph of Socialism is

symbolic of the message. The peasants had not taken part in the change being
proclaimed; they were not seriously taken into account until after the switch to
socialism was made. They were not provided with a revolutionary ideology or
viable organization. Thus the revolution was short-lived because it did not
involve the masses as active participants. Littin puts it more bluntly;

We have to find the images and words which will make the people understand how

imperialism affects their daily The words "revolution" and "Imperialism" have been
lives.

used so much that they now don't know one from the other. I'm not interested in speaking an
elitist language —
I want to reach the people. So my problem is to convey these ideas.'*
34 Revolutionary Films

The crisis point of The Promised Land comes in a confrontation between

the peasants and the bourgeoisie at Huique, a town the peasants want to
Uberate. Jose Duran emerges as the leader of the peasants. First, the acquisition
of the land, and then the acquisition of manufactured goods, points the way to
the larger issue —
the overall control of the economy and the nation. The intent
of the film is not to describe a defeat but to teach the value of constant struggle
even means taking up arms. In so doing The Promised Land becomes an
if it

agent of social revolution in which defeat can turn into victory.

The style of popular legend, where "poetic licence" is permissible, is
precariously balanced between the real and the unreal. Jose Duran's leadership
is not the root cause of the action — he does not make "history" he only serves
historical necessity — therefore, the decision to march to Huique is not a private
one. He helps to rally enough momentum to turn verbal complaint into
physical action. This being his function as a hero, he is never portrayed in
private terms. His personality is defined only in terms of his social actions. The
same principles apply to all the other characters. They are legendary figures
whose deeds are their only definition.
The appearance of the Virgin is a deviation from realism. It is accentuated
by a series of jump cuts during which the action is repeated. Tradition appears
here as a sounding board for the expression of the people's conscious will. It

was stated earlier that the metaphysical appearances have no supernatural

function in the course of events in this film. The personification of supernatural
forces has a long tradition with the people who need a concrete image to relate
to. The various scenes in which the Virgin appears become less metaphysical
precisely because she appears as a woman dressed in peasant costume.
Another example of a popular interpretative stance is the cut to a mental
image of the Huique bourgeoisie as it would have been seen through a peasant's
eyes. During an orgiastic party at Huique there is a shot of a stereotypically
dressed group of representatives of the bourgeoisie laughing at the peasants.
Finally, during the massacre, the people do not die "realistically." To the
sounds of few shots, whole families collapse. Their fall does not attempt to
convince us of their agonizing death. It is a legendary way of telling how
helpless they were and how massive was their fall. Then comes a new level of
description —a where the slaughter is overempha-
sort of thematic close-up
sized. Blood flows in grotesque abundance as the torture and death of Jose
Duran and Meche are repeated in an extreme stylization.
Out of the reverence for life comes a climax that leaves the historical facts
behind. In what may seem like a metaphysical "life after death" sequence the
peasants fight back, and out of the ruins of the old a new society emerges; the
film ends with the words of Che Guevara:

Of those who did not understand well enough, of those who fell without seeing the
dawn. .of . blind sacrifices with no retribution, the revolution was also made."
 Revolutionary Films 35

The from the reaUty of hard historical facts to the imaginative reality
transition
of revolutionary thought makes such an abstraction necessary in order to
express in film what in legend would be a prophecy.

As a model for cinema which attempts to both reach the masses and provide them with a
simultaneous critique of that reaching, it (The Promised Land) is unsurpassed. The
Promised Land not only suggests that we need a new political framework, but declares also
that we need to be new people with new perceptual capacities in order to make that
framework a reality.'*

It becomes evident that the conceptual materialist framework at the base of

The Promised Land in no way suffers as a result of the film's stylistic use of
"abstract" and "supernatural" models. As Miguel Littin has said,

The future is no doubt with folklore. But by then it will not be necessary to designate it as

such since nothing and no one will be able again to paralyze the creative spirit of the people.^'

The self-critical dimension forces a spectator to be not only a cocreator but also
a party to the expressive elements that give the film its filmic substance.
In his film Antonio das Mortes. Glauber Rocha also uses popular
religious symbols as cultural representations in order to establish a point of
view (seen through the peasant's mind).^° At first glance Rocha 's film might
—
look like The Promised Land both films embrace the popular religious
culture in order to recapture a lost chapter in the people's history; both are too
mystical and surreal. But the difference between the two films is that in Rocha's
film the religious figures become the subjects of the film. They and Antonio, the
lead character, are heroic individuals who make history.
Essentially, therefore,Antonio das Mortes is an individualistic tale. In
contrast, although Littin's The Promised Land focuses on Jose Duran, it
clearly shows the peasants as a mass fighting to maintain its power; the
peasants form a collective group of protagonists. This may be due partly to
Littin's precise and careful approach to religious themes. Another difference
between the two films is that Antonio das Mortes lacks a specific and precise
social outlook and a particular statement. The film deals with the transforma-
tion undergone by Antonio from amoral gunfighter to defender of the
peasants, but there is no political statement beyond that. In contrast, by
showing the peasants acting together to take full control of their lives. The
Promised Land explicitly provides a political lesson that the bourgeoisie and —
its middle class allies will do everything in their power to stop revolution.

Rocha's film sees national culture or heritage, which he identifies as "tropi-

calismo," apart from the question of class.
"Tropicalism" does represent a threat to the status quo, to the dominant
culture, but nevertheless it is a threat that can be absorbed by the system in
36 Revolutionary Films

Brazil. In this sense Rocha's "Cinema Novo" may be characterized as a "cinema

of the establishment left." The similarity of camera style in the two films is

perhaps due to the fact that the same cinematographer shot both films. The
primary difference between the films, however, can be attributed to the
differences between the cultural nationalism of Rocha's film and the revolu-
tionary socialism of Littin's.
Manuel Herrera's Playa Giron brings a revolutionary approach to
documentary films. Besides being interviewed, eyewitnesses and participants in
the Bay of Pigs incident are asked to reenact their role in the battle. We are
introduced to each action in the film by a personal account of the events; then
we see the person who has given us the account return to the area where he or
she was at the time of the battle and direct the reenactment as a film director
might do. The film thus acquires a dimension as it reveals the
self-reflective
process of its construction while foregrounding the problematic relation
between history (the events) and fiction (their recreation). At the same time, a
participation in the fiction of the same people who were involved in the incident
vests the reenactment with a credibility that would have been unattainable
otherwise. More importantly, perhaps, this rhetorical device both allows for an
empathetic entry into the historical events, since we get a sense of how they
"felt," and at the same time it "enlists" the audience to participate in similar
incidents in the future.
The empathy, however, is never directed towards a single protagonist,
however "real" he or she might be. Instead, identification shifts among
different "characters" to finally involve the collectivity. Even Fidel Castro
hardly figures as the hero. He is on the screen for less than one minute (in a film

that is 103 minutes long), and he is never shot in the conventional low-angle
usually reserved for leaders. Playa Giron serves as an excellent example of the
political implications that a radical departure in style is capable of producing.
The interaction between real-life participants actually directing their own
sequences and the invisible crew seems to mark a synthesis in revolutionary
film arrived at by discussion —
and criticism i.e., a cine-aesthetic involving
staged cinema verite. The open manipulation of cinematic reality, in a film-
within-a-film context is also expressed in two instances; (a) a militia man
attempts to pull a grenade pin free with his teeth, "like they do it in the movies";
and (b) a militia woman tries to swallow an overly long message, "just like I saw
"^'
in some spy movie.
The film does not try to confuse the spectator as to which parts of the film
are actual documentary footages and which parts are recreation, but rather
tries to make the distinction clear. The film tries to bring the events of the "Bay

of Pigs" to life, so that the viewer can get an idea of what the situation really was
like, rather than maintaining such a distance that the events bear no

resemblance to real life.

 Revolutionary Films 37

Rafigh Pooya's fn Defense of the People takes the Iranian revolution as its
central focus. The film concerns an Iranian poet and filmmaker who were tried
on Iranian Television during the reign of the Shah for their Marxist-Leninist
convictions. The filmmaker secured tapes of the trial and used them as his
central structural device for the entire film. Using tapes of the trial, together
with footages he shot during the revolution Rafigh Pooya resurrects the two
previously executed prisoners on film. He presents a filmic defense of their
viewpoint and ideology in the light of present knowledge (presenting witness
after witness, including but not limited to. Presidents Nixon and Carter). He
thus puts the audience in the position of jury, forcing them through the
evidence presented to decide in favor of the revolutionary change in Iran. The
film, however, does not end with the accession of the Ayatollah Khomeini. In
Defense of the People ends as still another defendant is called to the stand. We
are left with the impression that the struggle continues.
The films discussed above are examples of "revolutionary films" from the
Third World and they share a common characteristic. They advance the idea of
mobilizing for a revolutionary transformation of society. In a country where a
revolution is in process such as in Cuba, films such as Playa Giron and Lucia
accentuate the new awareness and consciousness that are intended to
transform a revolutionary situation into the attainment of greater ideals. But it

would be wrong suppose that "revolutionary films" emerge only from

to
"liberated" countries, ^m/ra/ (Senegal), Blood of the Co/7t/or (Bolivia), and La
Mora de Los Homos (Argentina) have emerged from countries where no
revolution is unfolding.
There is no contradiction between a film being "revolutionary" and being
born from "a crisis situation" rather than a "revolutionary situation" as in
Cuba, since the common approach of "revolutionary films" is to orient society
towards a more revolutionary outlook on the conditions of society. Thus, it
would be futile to argue that the crucial task in making a revolutionary film is

to, first, overthrow a repressive system or alter the mode of production and
production relations. A crude political (or economic) determinism, the
unmasking of a process of production or even of "capitalist" financing of films
is not really the central issue. Rather, the primary concern in the production of
"revolutionar>' films" is the calculated intervention of films into a "crisis
moment" in a given situation.
The crucial ingredient of such films is a revolutionary outlook in a
situation of crisis which creates and fosters inspiration and a greater awareness
of the forces that work against it. A film cannot, therefore, be revolutionary if it

does not provide a clear-cut class and national perspective or aim towards
greater consciousness.
An audience attuned to the culture which produced the films may grasp
the message and its subtle nuances in their totality, whereas one not able to
38 Revolutionary Films

decipher the cultural codes could easily miss the meaning, misinterpret it or
acquire a meaning rather different from the original. It can be argued,
therefore, that a film's validity as a "revolutionary" film resides in its cultural
intonations, historical context and ideological dimensions. The primary
sources of film critics and theorists are generally films that are universally
acceptable as artistic works. But film as a cultural and ideological artifact can
only be national, at Although Ousmane Sembene considers himself a
first.

militant and one imbued with the universal teachings of Marx and Engels, he
insists that his primary audience is his own people:

When one creates one does not think of the world; one thinks of his own country. It is, after

all, the African who will ultimately bring change to Africa."

In this statement Sembene speaks for a whole generation of Third World

filmmakers of social change.
If a film shown in its own cultural and historical context incites, sparks
and kindles a ray of hope for a better society and raises revolutionary

consciousness (even a questioning attitude) within its society, its revolutionary

validity cannot be denied. The film's universality, therefore, should not be
brought into question precisely because the main objective
film's is to stir
controversy within the passive state of its own culture and society.
So long as there exists a "cuUural curtain" falling between peoples and
nations the universal application of a film is a mute one. Given the fact that
most non-Third-World viewers of Third Cinema bring to the films their own
values and norms of perception in decoding a film, the intent of a Third World
film is likely to be misunderstood completely. The alternative is to provide
audiences with information on the cultural and historical context of the film.
The important point is that a "revolutionary film" is quite a different thing in
different cultural settings. Knowledge of the historical/ cultural background is

a prerequisite to identifying with the struggles and lives of Third World peoples
and will provide an additional dimension to the films.
Third World "revolutionary films" cannot, therefore, be viewed simply as
a collection of stream of consciousness imagery or as sets of instructions.
According to Ousmane Sembene, "The mission isn't to make the revolution but
to prepare the revolution."" And Jorge Sanjines, speaking of Blood of the
Condor (Yamar Mallku) situates "style" and "revolutionary films" as follows:

The structure of this film (Yamar Mallku). because of its fictive character, put our
denunciation at a dangerous level of probability that could hardly mobilize the masses
We must find a new cinematic language that won't betray the ideology of the film's content,

i.e., a cinematic language that rejects fiction since we are interested by historical events.
 Revolutionary Films 39

And according to Miguel Littin:

I don't make an individualist and psychological cinema. I relate a collective fight in which the
individual keeps his importance but in function of the collective fight. Everyone involved in
the film participates politically in its creation."

These quotes from three distinguished Third World filmmakers provide us

with a summation of the multifaceted yet cohesive nature of "revolutionary
films."
Furthermore, according to the conventional understanding of the Marx-
ist-Leninist category "revolutionary," the above-mentioned films would fall

under this category. I contend, however, that while this may be so, it is actually
Third World theorists like Frantz Fanon who seem to provide the primary
inspiration and guidance for the films:

So, comrades, let us not pay tribute to Europe by creating states, institutions, and societies
which draw their inspiration from her. . .

Humanity is waiting for something from us other than such an imitation, which would be
almost an obscene caricature."

The above quotes, drawn from Fanon's 77?^ Wretched of the Earth reappear in
abbreviated form, yet with the same volume of meaning in La Hora de Los
Homos. Even the tempo of the film is punctuated with such short words as the
following:

My name — an offense;
my Christian name — humiliation;
my status— a rebel;
my age— the stone age;
my race — that of the fallen.^'

This comes from the poetry of Aime Cesaire via Fanon's The Wretched of the
Earth. In La Hora de Los Homos a version of the same, accompanied by drum
beats, constitutes the preface of the film. Fanon's dictum, "every spectator is a
coward or a traitor,"^* also appears as a banner inviting viewers to reflect on the
issues the film raises and the need for subsequent revolutionary action.
The Mauritanian film, Soleil O, by Med Hondo also shows the heavy
influence of Fanonian thoughts from Black Skin, White Masks. The Algerian
films of the 1960s show convincing evidence of the intellectual influence of
Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. For instance, Ahmed Rachedi's highly
acclaimed film, The Dawn of the Damned, owes not only its title but its
revolutionary impulse to Fanon's theoretical discourse.
In fact, the overwhelming depiction of the Third World peasantry as the
moving force and the vanguard of revolutions represents the apex of Fanonian
40 Revolutionary Films

conviction. The Brickmakers and Peasants by the Colombian filmmakers

Jorge Silva and Marta Rodriguez and the Angolan film, Congeicao Tchiam-
bula, A Day in a Life, by Antonio Ole offer us a unique and intimate experience
by taking us into the peasants' lives to examine their own vision of their own
day-to-day problems. A close study of the most exploited class is thought of, as
Fanon implores us to recognize, as the antecedent of political consciousness in
the Third World.
Furthermore, such films as Jorge Sanjines's The Principal Enemy, Miguel
Littin's The Promised Land, Glauber Rocha's Barravento and Black God,
White Devil, Ousmane Sembene's Emitai and Ceddo, Haile Gerima's Harvest:
3000 Years, all share a definitive Fanonian influence in their depiction of the

Third World peasant class as the principal revolutionary force to reckon with.
Fanon had said, "In Hegel the slave turns away from the master and turns
toward the object;"" in Fanon, "the slave turns toward the master and
abandons the object." In Harvest: 3000 Years the servant of the landlord,
Kentu's, ultimate dream is to occupy his master's chair (Hegelian slave). But
the filmmaker's ultimate solution is very Fanonian, i.e., the lunatic, Kebebe,
instead of taking recourse to regain his stolen land, kills the landlord, the
master. The same happens in the Latin American film. The Principal Enemy.
Also, such films as You Hide Me, by the Ghanian Kwate Nee-Owoo, and TJie
Mask, by the Nigerian filmmaker Eddie Ugboma, painstakingly follow the
Fanonian thesis of the need for retrieving Africa's stolen cultural treasures
from European museums.
 Style and Ideology

The Politics of Style

The politics of style has for long bedeviled film and historians. Does
critics
"style" by itself bear an ideology? Does the ideology of a work transcend style?
Does change in style manifest an ideological shift? These are questions that
recur in any discussion of ideology in a creative work such as film. We need,
therefore, to analyze a concrete application of style in order to mark the
decisive character of its operation not in one ideology but in all ideologies.
A distinction between two ideologies will help us gain some insight and
perspective in determining the place of style in meaning. On one pole stands the
"capitalist mode of film style" and on the other the "socialist mode of film
Films can be placed between the two depending on the relative degree to
style."
which they embody one or the other. Let me preface this argument by repeating
what Umberto Eco has said, "In this precise moment I say this and in this
precise moment I deny having said it."' A study of style alone will not engender
meaning. It is futile for instance to argue that the closeup shot (see chapter 6 on
Chinese films) is non-socialist film style or that montage is a less bourgeois film
style. Style is only meaningful in the context of its use— in how it acts on culture
and helps illuminate the ideology within it. It is, therefore, utterly misleading to
argue, for example, that only the type of distancing device that Brecht used
makes a film "socialist," or that only Godard's non-illusionist device is "non-
bourgeois camera style,"^ or that the use of a film star of a central figure places
a film in the same class as Hollywood with its individual protagonist/ hero.
Style not reserved for a specific ideology. But style can help us "squeeze"
is

out a film's ideological undercurrents. In its proper use, style can serve as the
"key" to understanding ideology. Style does not exceed meaning, it is
—
meaning this notion refers to what structural-semioticians label as signifi-
cance. Now we hold it and now we do not — it is at once persistent and fleeting,
and elusive— but it resides within ideologies with a definite intent to subvert or
expound immanent meaning.
42 Style and Ideology

At the outset, the ongoing debate on "form" and "content" must be briefly
analyzed/ Simply stated, one argument supports the idea that "it is not what
you say that is important but how you say it," while the other view states that "it
is not how you say it that is important, but what you say " The third view holds
.

the division to be meaningless, since there is no division in the first instance

i.e., content is style and style is content.

For Raymond Durgnat only "style" is meaningful and it is all that matters.
He supplies an appropriate example from literature:

Two actors will declaim Shakespeare's words ("content") in altogether different ways
("style"). One makes Hamlet a warrior-hero who can't make up his mind. The other makes
him a neurotic intellectual who can't steel himself to action.'

In both instances, "content" is what Durgnat calls "theatrical

similar, but
content" (style, that is) is altogether different. The example clearly demon-
strates that while "the text" remains constant "style" differs. Thus, substantive
meaning resides in style, i.e., style is not only part of "content" but it is content
itself.

According to the Hungarian Marxist critic Georg Lukacs, "the true social
element in literature is the form."'^ This view focuses attention on formal
properties. Terry Eagleton, a contemporary British Marxist, identifies three
elements of "form":

a. "form" is shaped by "a relatively autonomous literary history"

b. it is shaped out of certain dominant ideological structures, and

c. it embodies a set of relations between author and audience^

The discrepancy in theories of "form" alone is quite instructive. Here I

would like to supply my own understanding of the terms discussed thus far. A
hypothetical situation: A young woman is attracted by the physique and
disposition of a young athlete but upon closer acquaintance she discovers the
young athlete to be mean and brutish. "Form" is still pretty and pleasing to
look at but has "no acceptable meaning" from the girl's point of view.
We may now turn to three examples of films dealing with the same subject
matter from different ideological perspectives. These examples, it is hoped, will
provide us with an initial understanding of the relationship between film style
and ideology.

Bay of Pigs (USA) vs. Playa Giron (Cuba/

Once becomes history the victor explains his success as stemming from
a battle
"courage" and "tenacity," while the vanquished refers to it as a tactical
 Style and Ideology 43

accident. Here we have two quite different versions of the "Bay of Pigs"
incident. We have the NBC/ USA version in which it is claimed the Cubans did
not necessarily win although the United States somehow The Cuban
"lost."
version refers to the battle as an example of the will of the Cuban people to
drive away an invading Taken together the two films provide a fairly
force.
complete view of what transpired in the "Bay of Pigs" incident. Individually,
each film concentrates on widely different aspects.
The NBC film, which is mostly newsreel footage, represents network
television documentary at its best; it is narrated by the late Chet Huntley. The
style of delivery of the film is direct and to the point. The film does not provide a
moment in which one can pause and reflect on what is being said; instead, the
viewer is fed with a barrage of information, facts and dates; this is what
happened, this was the plan, this is what went wrong. Chet Huntley's
commentary proposes formulas, isolates flaws and comments on the outcome.
The technique is similar to the evening news where essential information is
presented. In Bay of Pigs the filmmaker cuts away to documentary footages to
reinforce the authority with which information is being provided. The main
intention of the film seems to be to assure the American public that an error has
been committed, the blame placed (i.e., Kennedy was misled by the CIA and his
advisors), and a clean position achieved. It is presented as a painful retrospect.
In Bay of Pigs what is seen is not personal. The secrecy with which the entire
operation was undertaken lent itself to a treatment in which the leaders rather
than the ideologies were paramount. The main emphasis of the documentary is
to find out the person(s) or organization responsible for the failure of the
invasion.
The Cuban film is NBC film is not. Rather than seek the
everything the
reasons for the failure among and institutions, it seeks to demonstrate
leaders
that the reasons for success are to be found in the revolutionary commitment of
the Cubans who were involved in the battlefield. Instead of buttressing the
"objectivity" of its statements by intercutting documentary footage, Playa
Giron becomes objective in depicting the revolutionary romanticism of the
participants through images of heroism. In so doing, Playa Giron becomes an
inspiration for the future rather than an apology for the past.
From the start neither film seeks to understand opposing motives but
instead energetically confirms its own. The cast of characters around which
each film's action coalesces underscores basic differences. In the NBC version,
the protagonists are government officials, both Cuban and American. Fidel
Castro, the Cuban example occupies an infinitely larger part of the
leader, for
American film than the Cuban film. In the American version we repeatedly
encounter President Kennedy seated behind his desk, talking on the phone. He
wears a black suit and ivy-league tie, as do his cabinet officers. They and the
generals in uniform bear the essence of power itself; they all seem to be in
44 Style and Ideology

control of the situation. In the Cuban version, Fidel Castro, together with his
brother Raoul and Che Guevera, are seen very briefly in fatigue uniforms.
The protagonists in the Cuban version are the Cuban miUtia and peasants.
By focusing on individuals or small groups the film illustrates the very personal
sense in which the Cuban combatants are responsible for the victory, but most
important perhaps is the illustration of collective action as it is made up of
individual efforts. While many of the participants often discuss their feelings
and fears during the battle — a device that serves to stress their vulnerability and
allows us to empathize with them — they also demonstrate a commitment to
fight that is not the result of any orders from "above." By assembling numerous
individual cases together, the film ends up depicting a collectivity whose
strength surpasses that of mercenary armies and allows the Cubans to write
their own history.
In the NBC version most of the exiled Cuban combatants remain nameless
and and they are not even identified by name and activity as in the
faceless,
Cuban version. Only Kennedy and Allen Dulles, then director of the CIA,
stand out in the NBC version. In fact, the NBC film sees the entire operation as
engineered and executed by the shadowy CIA. Once they have found a culprit
and scapegoat for the failure of the operation, NBC's journalistic investigation
is over.
The commensurate with the scope, context and
differences in style are
ideological perspective of each film. The Cuban version uses a widescreen
format that lends an epic dimension to the representation as opposed to the 16
mm which NBC had to use for television. The NBC film utilizes U.S. military
newsreels of the invasion and several clips of stock footage some of which also
appear in the Cuban version. It is a kind of hindsight documentary constructed
—
mostly of documentary footages one exception being the Florida hideaway
of the exiles. Bay of Pigs was constructed on the assumption that real clips will
support and confirm what essentially is an ideological point of view. But can a
camera truly record an "objective reality?" What of Adlai Stevenson waving a
photo at the United Nations, presumably to prove the claim that the United
States Air Force did not participate in the fighting in Cuba? In the Cuban
version we learn that what Adlai Stevenson was holding as proof was a B-26
bomber painted in the colors of the Cuban military.
The Cuban film combines a narration, documentary footage and reenact-
ment, relying only occasionally on newsreel footage. Sequences give the
impression of interpretation, rather than a barrage of facts thrown at the
viewer.
Both films agree on the basic historical event and chronological succession
of events. (Each country made the films for its own culture, for its own
audience.) Yet, though similar in several ways, the different ideologies
emerging from the films reveal the extent to which the factual story of the
 Style and Ideology 45

conflict is influenced by basic attitudes to the same historic event. In neither

film is the ideology blatantly exposed, but the manner of execution, or style,
encodes a particular ideological perspective.
The American documentary was meant to be shown on television rather
than in theaters — it takes on the look of the six o'clock news, recounting events,
maintaining distance and strictly focusing on the event as a military action
undertaken by Cuban exiles. The Cuban film maintains no such distance. It is a
— —
dramatic statement personal to all Cubans and documents with a sense of
national pride one of their greatest triumphs, giving studious aetail of events
which the NBC version would only footnote. For instance, the skirmish at the
Munoz Canal, while not even acknowledged in the NBC version, is given a
heading in the Cuban film, and the sinking of the "Houston," while
acknowledged by the NBC film, is shown in several sequences by the Cubans as
a major engagement in the battle.
The two films address two quite distinct audiences. To that of NBC, the
Bay of Pigs is something to be forgotten even though the exigencies of a news-
oriented culture made it necessary to record the event. To the Cubans, the film
depicts the aggressors and gives a dramatic account of events not so much to
present the historical facts, but to allow Cuban audiences to see the part they
played in making history.
This double Bay of Pigs and Playa Giron, provides a useful example
bill.

for the study of the relationship of style and ideology to the extent that the same
event is depicted by both films. At the same time, however, it must be noted that
the contexts in which the two are produced are so different that a close
comparison of formal elements cannot be made. One is a quickly assembled
report while the other is more akin to a fiction film. We should now turn to
comparisons between films of similar format.

Journey to the Sun vs. Last Grave at Dimbaza^

Last Grave at Dimbaza reflects imprisonment, both physical (the reserves) and
non-physical (racial attitudes and lack of jobs).'° The film incorporates
footages that inform the viewer about the conditions of blacks in South Africa;
these support the voice-over narration of written words that flash on the screen.
The physical reality is thus interspersed with statistical information to intensify
the sense of injustice. The drudgery and hopelessness of South the blacks in
Africa is heightened by simple takes between shots and a matter-of-fact camera
style. Scenes of South African whites are shot soft focus to show them as if they

are in a dream world.

In Journey to the Sun the South African Tourist Bureau presents a
different South Africa —a luscious land of milk and honey where "the sun"
never sets and where "natives" are always happy. By a crafty use of cutaways.
46 Style and Ideology

dancing African "natives" are juxtaposed with dancing birds in a zoo. Little do
the unsuspecting tourists know that "the natives" of South Africa are kept in an
analogous human zoo, the Bantustans. There is "no oppression" in Journey to
the Sun —
we see nothing behind the pretense of an unaffected land. No hint of
the vicious human deprivation and exploitation of Africans is depicted as in
Last Grave at Dimbaza.

Two Portrayals of South Africa

Journey to the Sun Last Grave at Dimbaza

An expensively produced film Inexpensively produced film

Film commissioned by government Authorized by the underground
Film poses no questions, hopefully Film poses lots of questions;
tourists will not either hopefully viewers will too

Camera Style

Expert camera crew Inexperienced

Elaborate shots and visual angles Direct and simple camera style
Technical wizardry and gimmickry; Minimum obstacles between
visual smorgasbord camera and subject
Images chosen carefully; Cinema verity style;

what would be shown and how probability of seeing

same shots is high
Slick tripod operations Hand-held shots
Angle shots guided by photographic Mostly establishing shots
principles of shooting a scene with stark and uncluttered
from the most flattering perspective shots motivated by the
principles to make a statement
Nothing detracts from its relaxed Juxtaposed with words/ statistics;
pacing pacing is slow but unrelaxing

The Nonfiction Documentary

Travelogue effect Cinema verity style

Scripted, using sets and actors Structured at the editorial

stage
Interested in persuading, Interested in persuading
influencing and advertising and influencing and
educating
A carefully constructed A carefully assembled
promotional piece political message

Narration

Narrator is a lecturer Narrator is a confidant

Lighting

Glamour lighting, with a Mostly available lighting

constant interplay of lights Poorly lit. especially indoors
 Style and Ideology 47

Editing

Refined cuts Simple cuts between takes

Editing by deliberate choice Editing by deliberate
of images necessity of utmost meaning

Color

Retouched color Realistic color

Diffused with light symbolizing Dismal, grey and colorless
the film's title word. Sun. Film is dominated by monotones of

Excessive colorfulness drab color. The shacks and

of the scenes is meant to reflect children's classrooms can be
the joyful attitudes of the travelers cited as typical examples

Audience

Film addresses itself to a Film addresses itself to a

privileged audience. It draws general audience
attention to a specified
elitist audience
Call and appeal to white upper class Call directed at progressives,
the lower class, and intellectuals

If the filmmakers of both these films were to switch styles, both films
would surely fail. In other words, a tourist interested in nothing but tourism
would ignore the same things the film ignores, i.e., the existence of people on
"the receiving side of white South Africa.""
The styles chosen in both films discussed is not the result of a mere quirk
on the part of the filmmakers. It is historically and ideologically determined.
"When art reflects life," Brecht once remarked, "it uses special mirrors."'^
Jacques Ehrmann adds

the mirror is neither mechanical reproduction nor instrument of knowledge, but a revealer
by its very complexity. It does not reproduce real struggles outside itself but makes their
relationships appear. Yet it furnishes a complete and meaningful outlook on a real situation.
It "expresses" the situation precisely because it reflects certain aspects and cannot reflect

others."

The question is not, therefore, which film is aesthetically superior to the

other. A work can no longer be considered aesthetically correct and proper
because it is sublime or beautiful. A work is aesthetically apt if it is "able to
grasp and portray popular life in a more profound, authentic, human and
concretely historical fashion."''*
 48 Style and Ideology

Three Films on the Mexican Revolution

Duck, You Sucker! is a spaghetti western done in the spirit of Fistful of Dollars
or Hang'em High, with all the polish of Hollywood. Causes are more
important than effect in a revolution; m Duck, You Sucker! neither is very
important. The film is primarily a commerical action film. The sets are detailed
and carefully keyed with regard to the location, mood, time and character. We
note from the credits that three individuals were responsible for the film's visual
style and it was the technical brilliance that carried the film.
Mexico: The Frozen Revolution is an ambitious film considering that it

tries to cover sixty years in Mexican history in sixty minutes.

The film is marred by many minor faults: historical inaccuracies abound, data is often badly
presented, the translation and English subtitles are deficient and the narrator's voice
disturbing.'*

Thus the film attempts to explain the country's state of underdevelopment

within a vague historical and ideological framework. It concentrates on rural
poverty but fails to clinch the moment since it is unable to give us the real source
of poverty. According to Adrian Lajous- Vargas:

One is perplexed by the fact that Mexico's dependent relationship to the United States is

never dealt with. This problem is a central one to understanding Mexico's history and
present condition. This critical gap is specially alarming since the film seems to be directed
largely at an American audience, and it is precisely this topic which is of most relevance to
them. Mexico — the U.S.'s nearest neo-colonial dependency — offers an ideal e.xample of the
'"
nature and extent of the oppressive American economic penetration.

The filmmaker gives the viewer a socio-historical analysis of Mexico, a

society shown to be the result of a revolution that has failed to live up to its
promises; hence the title "frozen revolution." The film spends excruciatingly
overdrawn moments with poverty stricken tenant farmers; scenes of living
conditions and customs of the Indian communities in the Yucatan are
juxtaposed with the pathetic owner of a hacienda caught in her own cycle of
oppression and stagnation. The film utilizes excellent documentary footages of
social forces that have shaped modern Mexico: Madero, Huerta, Zapata, Villa,
Carranza, Cardenas. By the end of the film we not only understand why the
students were demonstrating at the Plaza de Tlatelolco in Mexico City before
the opening of the 1968 Olympic Games, we also understand why they were
shot in cold blood. As Lajous-Vargas aptly puts it:

It is an appropriate ending as it clearly exemplifies the government's readiness to employ the

most ruthless violence when the instruments of political control fail or are in any way
challenged.'
 Style and Ideology 49

Reed: Insurgent Mexico is distinct in several significant ways from the

other films with which it shares somewhat of a simlar theme. This film deals
with John Reed, the American journalist at the time of the Mexican
Revolution in the early years of the twentieth century. The question in John
Reed's mind whether he should merely continue reporting the struggle or
is

whether he should join the revolution himself True to the facts, John Reed
ends up joining the revolutionary forces.'*
The film adopts the point of view of the protagonist. Deliberately slow in
recreating John Reed's activity and involvement, the film depicts his inner
struggle. Unlike the on the Mexican Revolution discussed above,
two films
Paul Leduc's Reed: Insurgent Mexico manages to create a sense of past history
and culture; the appropriate stylistic device employed is the use of sepia color.
A shift in style marks the moment when John Reed decides to be part of
the revolution. The slow rhythm and pacing of the film's style (in the beginning
parts) gives way to a quicker rhythm signalled by a shattering of the store
window where Reed sees his own reflection. As Reed becomes a revolutionary
the ease with which a viewer witnesses the transformation is also broken.

Analysis of Three Films on the Mexican Revolution

Duck, You Sucker! Mexico: The Frozen Reed: Insurgent

(1971) Revolution (1971) Mexico (1972)

Director: Sergio Leone, Director: Raymundo Director: Paul

Italian Gleyzer, Argentinean Leduc, Mexican

35 mm, color 16 mm color/ b & w 16 mm, sepia

Fiction Documentary Semi-documentary/

semi-fiction

Audience: general Audience: American Audience: Mexican

public public public

Style: Grandiose Style: matter-of- Style: reconstruc-

fact documentary tion documentary

Target of film: money Target of film: Target of film:

information historical recreation

Ambiguous anarchist Ambiguous leftist Left rhetoric

rhetoric rhetoric

Film is about friend- Film examines the Film is about

ship & war 191 1 revolution & friendship & war
contemporary Mexico

Revolution is back- Revolution is central Individual's place

drop to film theme in revolution
50 Style and Ideology

Unusual, but neither Unusual (one hour Modest and seems

modest nor sincere covers 60 years in reasonable
Mexican history) period covered is

but modest 1913 in Mexico

Juan's non-transforma- PRI's non-transfor- Transformation of

tion from money hun- mation from dormant American journa-
gry bandido to revolu- political party to list John Reed from

tionary is central revolutionary party simple reporter to

is the central theme revolutionary is

central theme

Film inspired by Conventional and Sentiment is anti-

American western sentimental convention, anti-

cinema sentimental and
anti-heroic

In English Narration & sub- In Spanish with

titled in English English subtitles

Criticism is —
an intervention its function is not to fill the missing parts, or
ease the passage from emitter to receiver. Rather, the purpose of criticism is to
examine the significant omissions, gaps and absences as ideologically
circumscribed. A creative work cannot help but hide "silences," "gaps" and
"absences." Criticism belongs, therefore, to the aesthetic region of ideology,
and according to Terry Eagleton

It is not that the aesthetic becomes the dominant region of the ideology, it is rather that it is

"foregrounded" as a privileged bearer of the themes over which that formation broods. It is
not, naturally, as though the aesthetic is stripped at such moments of its proper trappings to
become "raw ideology:" There is no such phenomenon."

The aesthetic region of ideology assumes not only "specificity" and "autono-
my" but also it belongs to that region of ideology which shelters the political,
economic and cultural sphere of human institutions. According to
historical,
Eagleton, the alliances between the social, political, economic and cultural
maintain their own specificity and internal dynamics and are interwoven in the
life of a society. He puts the "aesthetic" domain of the alliance as follows:

Their [socio-political, economic] ideological efficacy remains an aesthetic one, and in this,

indeed, lies their power. For the aesthetic is for a number of reasons a peculiarly effective
ideological medium: it is graphic, immediate and economical, working at the instinctual and
emotional depths yet playing too on the very surfaces of perception, entwining itself with the
stuff of spontaneous experience and the roots of language and gesture.'
 Style and Ideology 51

Anatomy of Style

A discussion of "anatomy of style" is really a search for a method and,

therefore, calls for an examination and, if necessary, a whittling down of
different approaches to the interpretation of film. Two camps in the battle of
ideas — the psychological (inner) and sociological (outer) aspects of human
activity will help facilitate our search for the place of style in meaning. The
psychoanalytic perspective derives largely from Freud's thinking, while the
sociological informed by Marxist principles.''
is

The two methodological approaches can be profitably applied towards an

interpretation of Bunuel's Los Olvidados and Littin's El Chacalde Nahueltoro.
The two films are similar in many respects, particularly in their central subject
or theme, since both deal with "the culture of poverty." Each film deals with
how individuals relate to society and the problems which arise when positive
leadership — state or institutional — is lacking. They, therefore, present cultures
which lack not only education and employment but, more significantly, a
strong family network. They feature the downtrodden and the extreme
marginals in society: Littin's film centers on Jorge Del Carmen Velenzuela
Torres, an unemployed and illiterate peasant from Nahueltoro in Southern
Chile, and Bunuel's film focuses on juvenile delinquents in Mexico City.
While Los Olvidados calls for a psychoanalytic interpretation. El Chacal
can best be understood through the application of a Marxist model of analysis.
The manner in which each film resists one methodological device only to open
up to another is an intriguing and interesting reflection on the determinants of
ideology in the production of films. It must be noted, however, that no matter
how the zones of methodological resistance stick, obligatory glimpses which
cannot be hidden appear in each film and let methodologies skid. Though
Freud and Marx may seem to be theoretically distinct, their ideas acquire a
measure of peaceful coexistence in Los Olvidados and El Chacal. This
assertion will require further explanation and it is hoped that in what will
follow we can shed some light on the possibility of a Freud-Marxian co-
existence in cinema.

Los Olvidados

Buiiuers career as a filmmaker was conditioned by the great influence Freud

and the Surrealists had on him. This he himself has acknowledged.^^ Therefore,
for most of his creative works psychoanalysis is a decoding device. His interest
indreams, for instance, holds the nexus of Surrealist thought, which, in turn, is
grounded in what Freud labelled as the unconscious. Los Olvidados, therefore,
can be seen as a continuation of Bunuel's interest in psychoanalysis. Though
this particular film is not strictly in Buiiuel's typical style, it is nevertheless
52 Style and Ideology

—
dominated by his constant preoccupation dreams. The contrast between the
child "Little Eyes" and the old blind man —
who might as well be called "No
—
Eyes" operates through a poetic style. Poetic associations are abundant in
Bunuel's works and such stylistic approaches appeal to the viewer's subcon-
scious perceptions.
The theme of the "absent father" and the lack of a stable family unit
dominates Los Olvidados. The abandoned him,
father of "Little Eyes" has
Juan's father is a drunkard, Pedro's father is dead and Jaibo's father,
presumably dead, is never mentioned in the film.^^ As a result, there are no
positive father figures for the youth to emulate. Jaibo stands, therefore, as the
only model of urban survival for the boys. Treacherous and innately a coward,
he leads them into hideous exploits — like beating and robbing the blind man,
and pushing the legless beggar's trolley down the hill. Ironically, though he
plays a leadership role, Jaibo himself is destroyed like a dog at the end of the
film — i.e., the implications are obvious — it makes all the other children under
his leadership become Uke lost souls.
Pedro's mother is also a provider figure. In Pedro's dream she is the one
who provides the carcass of meat. Yet before Pedro can seize meat is it the
grasped by his negative father figure, Jaibo. In the same dream sequence Pedro
discovers the possibly positive father figure, Juan, dead beneath his bed. Such a
dream sequence is vital in understanding the psychological interrelationships
present in Los Olvidados.
In Freud's analysis of the Oedipus myth the son focuses his sexual desire
on his mother. The father becomes a rival for the mother's affections, hence a
hate conflict arises between the father and son. Pedro's mother rejects him not
only to exact vengeance for being spurned by Pedro's father, but also because
she has to a large extent assumed the father's role herself Pedro's affections are
a threat to her dominance as a father-figure, and the unhappy conflict ensues
which ultimately results in Pedro's death. The lack of moral system, therefore,
can be blamed on the inability to resolve the Oedipus complex. The lack of a
positive father image forces the boys to turn to Jaibo as an identification figure
and they acquire his mannerisms and his morals. Nothing could be worse for
the members of the gang than Jaibo's becoming an identification figure. Since
his own past has not allowed him to resolve the Oedipus complex, he has no
positive father image, and, even worse, the lack of a mother figure has placed
him in the worst predicament. We are, therefore, able to understand the
fulfillment of his incest wishes when he becomes the lover of Pedro's mother.

El Chacal de Nahueltoro

El Chacal as indicated earlier remains less open to a psychoanalytic explora-

tion. Jorge's mother is mentioned but not shown and his father is not even
 Style and Ideology 53

mentioned during the entire film. Jorge represents a rural Jaibo. Yet Jorge's
crime cannot be explained away psychologically by a lack of love. Jorge
receives attention as a child from the police officer and the priest and from
others throughout his life. As the filmmaker, Littin, put it: "All the people who
"^"^
appear in the film, and I was very attentive to this, are very good people.
Jorge's cries for his mother before his execution are pathetic, but they do not
elucidate his character psychologically. As we are not allowed to enter into
Jorge's psychological past in detail, his mysterious ritual of placing stones upon
the murdered victims becomes obscure in meaning. Jorge's reply as to why he
killed a mother and her five children "so they will not suffer," makes sense not
in relation to the remote corners of his mind (which the narrative refuses to
explore) but to the social reality which impelled him towards the crime.
It has been noted how the viewer of El Chacalis prevented from achieving

a psychological identification with Jorge. This fact shifts the conflict from the
individual to the society. The technique is reminiscent of Brecht's epic theater:
the use of "episodes" in the film — titles such as "Jorge's Childhood," "The
Taming of Jorge," "The Execution of Jorge," are significant in the film. The
Marxist approach functions well in interpreting El Chacal. We see him as a
victim of class oppression. We are made aware of the inescapable poverty of his
surroundings, the absence of any psychological motivation. The process of
"Jorge's Taming," for instance, indicates the Chilean social structure. When
Jorge accepts society's values in prison, he is executed. In Littin's words:

All who participate in the system are guilty, even if they are understanding spectators Al-
cohol, religion, smiles, law, gentleness — all are part of the system's tools to train and
subordinate man."'

The themes of society's guilt are drawn very succinctly in the film and
revealed in subtle details. For example, before the murder sequences, we see
Jorge drinking heavily from a bottle of wine wrapped in a wicker cover. In
prison, Jorge busy weaving wicker covers around empty wine bottles. The
is

implications are all to obvious; he has become part of a slave labor force for the
very industry which was responsible for his crimes. El Chacal also removes the
element of surprise, by the use of the titles before each episode so that the film
appeals to the audience's critical faculties rather than its emotional involve-
ment. The end result is to inspire politicaland ideological discourse and action
rather than identification. According to Littin, "the film gave us something
"^^
through which we could reach the people.
The hub of my critical inquiry will now focus on the obligatory glimpses in
each film. One such glimpse in Los Olividados is of the decadent bourgeoisie
who accosted Pedro in the streets — it is a minor, anonymous shot, but
nevertheless significant in its social meaning and a reference to class
54 Style and Ideology

can be argued that beyond the limits of psychological factors

identification. It
the juvenile delinquency can be seen as an intertwining of social context and
human relationships. When dealing with social context, Bunuel does present us
with the same type of social reality which Littin feels is crucial. So that we are
told in the beginning of Los Olvidados that the following could happen in any
city around the world and that the film was based, as El Chacal, on an actual
case. The film also brings out the question of reform in the reformatory
director's actiontowards Pedro. The director of the Reform School could have
been effective had he not been limited by the presence and dominance of a
negative father image in Jaibo, the gang leader. However, the reformatory
go beyond reform and individual
director's action does not suggest the need to
benevolent acts to some kind of radical action. The interrelationship between
the socio-economic reality and the human structure in Los Olvidados suggests
a claim on social reality that has been otherwise explicated by the strict
psychoanalytic methodological approach.
In respect to El Chacal, Littin succeeds in subordinating the question of
individual psychological motivation to that of class struggle. Although the
entire film is a series of flashbacks, Littin chooses to search through Jorge's
past for a reason behind the crime in very much the same way Marx
that Karl
turned to history to find the reasons behind a more universal crime. More than
a psychoanalytic search into Littin's film, therefore, another dimension enters
the film — symbolism. Jorge's execution reminds one of Christ's crucifixion, or
of a man who had died for society's guilt.
Finally, however inadequte the use of psychological terms are to explicate
El Chacal, I feel the film does not ignore it completely, because we cannot
forget Jorge Del Carmen Velenzuela Torres's final wish before his execution, to
see his mother.

Concluding Remarks

I began this chapter with a discussion on the determinants of style by applying

the comparative approach. I hope that my research into the concrete
application of style to ideology has been tentatively established. The decisive
factor is ideology. Style must be understood as ideologically determined. It is,
therefore, futile to argue that style by itself hears ideology. It does not. Ideology
is the "base" (as the mode of production constitutes the base in Marxism) and

style the superstructure, autonomous, but linked symbiotically with ideology.

The crucial factor in the relationship of style to ideology, therefore, is the
society the ideology servesand from which it proceeds. Although recurring
attempts have been made to establish an "objective" analysis of film style,
nothing so fundamental has yet been offered. This fact alone creates the burden
—
of searching beyond style into the ideological positions of film.
 Style and Ideology 55

It those positions that are both revealed and concealed by style.

is

Revealed because ideological positions are always vested in material practices

and style is an attribute of such practices. Concealed because style makes
possible a rhetoric that eludes rational investigation and substitutes fascination
for cognition. Our task will be to expose the discrepancy between what
is
revealed and what is concealed and, therefore, to expose the ideological
operation of filmic style.
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

Hitherto, culture has been superficially analyzed and studied in terms of

"ethnicity" and "environment." Sociological and anthropological researchers
have been limited to generalized surveys of Third World peoples (defined as
man-the-member-of-a-family, clan, tribe of a given race) and their society
(considered as "primitive" or "evolving"). Such generalizations have only
narrowed the scope of empirical investigations of Third World cultures.
There has recently emerged a body of work on culture articulated by Third
World thinkers which encourages viewing culture in the context of man-the-
individual and man-the-social-being interacting with nature and the exigencies
of daily routine. The resuhing cultural definition is thus being built on the
socio-political and economic foundation of a society. The cultural theorist who
presents the most advanced conceptual formulation and whose work is most
appropriate to our study is Amilcar Cabral from Guinea Bissau, West Africa.

Culture is always in the life of a society (open or closed), the more or less conscious result of
the economic and political activities of that society, the more or less dynamic expression of
the kinds of relationships which prevail in that society, on the one hand between man
(considered individually or collectively) and nature, and, on the other hand, among
individuals, groups of individuals, social strata or classes.

Cabral explains how the culture has its material base at the level of its
productive forces (the relationship between man and nature) and the mode of
production (relations between men and between classes within society).

In our opinion, the mode of production, whose contradictions are manifested with more or
less intensity through the class struggle, is the principal factor in the history of any human
group, the level of the productive forces being the true and permanent driving power of
history.^

Here culture allows for a dynamic synthesis of the socio-political and economic
conflicts which have been developed by social consciousness to resolve
imbalances (referring to class) at each stage of historical development and
58 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

progress. Cabral, therefore, interprets the Third World struggles for national
liberation not only as a product of culture, but also as a determinant of culture.
"To speak of these," he says, "is to speak of history but also to speak of
culture."^ This conceptual tool enables us to understand the organized
ideological expression of culture which serves as proof of both Third World
identity and dignity.
Third World cultures have been characterized as "repressed, humiliated,
betrayed,"'* and grossly misunderstood. As a result authentic cultures have
been forced to take refuge in villages, in slum dwellings and jungles. The role of
Third World cinema, therefore, has been to relieve the emotions of these
denials of history, to bring about the realization of a Third World cultural
renaissance.

To reduce manageable proportions, three areas of the Third

this topic to
—
World China (Asia), Cuba (Americas) and Senegal (Africa) have been —
selected for an intensive discussion. They are, in a way, case studies from which
generalizations and at the same time specifications can be drawn. In every film
the filmmaker assumes that his audience is in possession of the necessary codes
that will help them bring to life what is in his mind; otherwise, the films may
prove to be only long and tedious explications of the ethnographic base on
which they are built. Since each culture has its own codes bred into its
practitioners, it follows that a filmmaker producing films for an audience from
his own culture will rely heavily on those cultural codes that make representa-
tions intelligible. However, when a cineast from one culture makes a film for
another culture, there is bound to be a clash of codes, poor communication and
even controversy. To illustrate this phenomenon, I have selected filmmakers
from foreign cultures who have made films about certain areas of the Third
World. The three cases we shall examine involve Antonioni's film on China, a
film on Cuba by post-revolutionary filmmakers, and Jean Rouch's Africa.
A word of explication has to be said about my selection of a post-
revolutionary filmmaker for Cuba rather than a foreign filmmaker. Cuban
cinema is a good blend of ideology and style but critics insist on linking post-
revolutionary Cuban films to post Neorealist Italian filmmakers. I believe this
to be a gross error, for Cuba has not only undergone an ideological and socio-
economic change, it has also made a subtle break from the Western style of
filmmaking, including the Italian. Consequently post-revolutionary films are
as far away from pre-revolutionary films as Italian films are from the Chinese.
It is, therefore, to reemphasize this neglected point that I did not have to go
outside Cuba to filmmaker and a film that
find a will bring out the
culture/ code, ideological/ code dichotomy.
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 59

Film and Ideology in China

Michelangelo Antonioni's China

Antonioni was invited to the People's Republic of China in 1 972 to make a film
which later came to be known as Chung Kuo (meaning "China" or literally,
"Middle Kingdom"). Upon the release of this film there emerged a controversy
that had wide cultural as well as ideological implications. Antonioni was
accused of being a "fascist" and a "racist" by Chinese critics, while he insisted
that he was sympathetic to the Chinese revolution and had done his job in the
best way he knew. "I want the Chinese to know this: during the war, as a
member of the Resistance, I was condemned to death!"^ Antonioni's sincerity
and honesty in this regard can not be doubted. Then what exactly caused the
Chinese to regard this film as a "reactionary" and "revisionist" manifestation of
their cultureand ideology? The film revealed the way Antonioni saw China,
rather than how the Chinese saw their own country.
According to Umberto Eco, the renowned semiologist,

What is Antonioni's China? Those who saw it on TV remember it as a work that manifested,
from the an attitude of warm and cordial participation in the great event of the Chinese
start,

people; an act of justice on TV's part which finally revealed to millions of viewers a true
China, human and peaceful outside of the western propagandistic schema. All the same, the
Chinese have denounced this film as an inconceivable act of hostility, an insult to the Chinese
people.'

Eco, an Italian like Antonioni, is fully aware that Antonioni's film on China
was appreciated in Italy and elsewhere in the western world (the film was also
shown on educational channels in the United States). But our need to fathom
the course of the controversy demands we go beyond the reaction of western
audiences to Chung Kuo and search for the film's meaning as it was understood
from the Chinese point of view. Three aspects of the controversy are outlined:

1. A segment of Antonioni's narration:

Tien An Men Square, a dayin May. We've begun our brief trip through modern day

China by up our cameras here. The song you just heard says, "I love Tien An
setting
Men Square." For the Chinese, this is the center of the world: "The door to celestial
peace" as it is called, in the heart of Peking and Peking is the political center of China
and China is the "Chung Kuo," the ancient core of civilization— the country at the
middle of the world. This is the square of the parades, the speeches. We chose to be here
on an ordinary day when the Chinese come and line up to have their pictures taken.
These people, the Chinese people, more so than the country are the protagonists of our
film notations. We didn't try to understand China and we don't pretend to explain it.

We only want to begin to observe this vast repertory of faces, gesture, customs, and
moods probably quite foreign to us
60 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

Tien An Men is a huge space, over 93 acres. The portraits of the fathers of Marxism
overlook the square; Marx and Even though the square has an air of imperial
Engels.
solemnity, it did not exist during the time of the great dynasties, it was born later under
the pressure of political necessity. A popular republic was proclaimed here; and // was
'
here that the waves of Red Guards passed by marching for the cuhural revolution.

2. An excerpt from People's Daily commentator:

It seems quite natural that Tien An Men square is shown as the film begins. In fact, this
is designed to serve the reactionary theme of the "documentary." The narrator says:
"Peking is the poHtical and revolutionary center of China, "the Peoples's Republic was
proclaimed here," "here passed the waves of Red Guards marching for the cultural
revolution!" Then the film leads the spectators "away from the square" to "observe"
China, supposedly to see what the Chinese revolution has brought the Chinese people.
A new China beyond recognition. This
series of reactionary scenes follow, distorting
structure and composition of the film is designed solely for the purpose of
concentrating its attack on the revolution led by the Communist Party of China. And
here lies the nub of the film —
reviling the revolution, negating it and opposing it.*

3. Michelangelo Antonioni's reply:

But that is our way of looking at things, from an individualistic viewpoint. That is the
point of departure that our own social context creates. When certain aspects of reality
fascinate me, my first instinct is to record them. We, as descendants of Western
civilization, point our cameras at things that surround us, with a certain trust in the
interpretative capacities of the viewer.'

As can be seen the differences in interpretation of the film's narrative

construction seem slight when one considers Antonioni's transcript and the
criticalcommentary of the Chinese. But the depth of the ideological as well as
cultural controversy stems from what seem to be "slight" differences in
articulation. Antonioni's "existential" preoccupation with individuals and
their relationship to their environment has overlooked the socio-cultural and
ideological emphasis that Amilcar Cabral insisted upon in his definition of
culture. Antonioni's failure to use the Chinese Revolution as primary seems
central to the dispute. But we should go beyond the simple narrative in order to
establish the decisive moment that determines the ideological position of
Chung Kuo.

a. Antonioni's choice of color in the film was criticized by the Chinese as

"unbearably pale and cold."'" Chinese films, like The Red Detachment of
Women or The East is Red. tend to use extremely bright colors — to the
Chinese their choice of color has a precise symbolic value.
b. Antonioni's choice of camera style was criticized by the Chinese as
"distorted" and "unstable."" Chinese films, like From Victory to Victory
or those mentioned in (a) above use the camera as an "observer." In
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 61

Chinese films from the era of Cultural Revolution the camera is static and
is hardly used in the "participatory camera" style. According to Joris

Ivens, the famous documentarist:

Their style more contemplative, more static than ours; they do not go
is

into the action with the camera. They are not used to putting the camera
on their shoulder, like we do, and moving around. It's not just a
question of the moving camera, it's the mind that has to move, to be
'^
quicker to follow an action.

c. Antonioni was faulted for his "editing" style. According to the Chinese
critics, it was illogical to juxtapose scenes of feudal China with those of

Chinese students returning from work in the fields. As Umberto Eco

points out: "Also, cutting is a language, and this language is historical,
linked to different things and different persons."'^
d. Antonioni's choice of characters was also a point of dispute.
The Chinese
criticssaw "old" and "sad" people in Chung Kuo as non-typical Chinese
faces. The problem is one of iconography the typical Chinese face is the—
radiant, happy soldier of the revolution.

What is at stake in the above examples is the fact that in addition to the film's
ideological connotations, the cultural codes have a direct visual denotation.
For instance, one of the major criticisms of Antonioni's camera style was the
shot of Nanking Bridge. The Chinese accused Antonioni as follows:

The camera was intentionally turned on this magnificent modern bridge from very bad
'''
angles in order to make it appear crooked and tottering.

An analysis of the shot, however, reveals it to be nothing but a long travelling

shot from a boat passing under the bridge. Such a low-angle shot is a common
device in Western filmmaking — it has been used, among other things to shoot
skyscrapers or monuments, giving an air of majesty and power. But Chinese
cultural codes prize "frontal representation" and prefer symmetrical shots from
a distance. Antonioni's shot suggests "tension over balance," as indeed is the
reflection of a low-angle shot of high buildings or bridges. The Chinese
accusation that the bridge is shot as if it were on the verge of collapse, therefore,
depends on a distinct cultural code; it takes the pro-filmic as the determining
factor, not the shot — in this case, the low-angle shot — as the determinant of
"meaning" by itself

The Chinese critic also remarked that

He [Antonioni] racked his brain to get such close-ups in an attempt to distort the people's
image and uglify their spiritual outlook."
62 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

In most Chinese films the closest shot to a close-up is a long medium shot (or
sometimes called the American shot by the French,i.e., from the knee up). The
close-up is avoided in Chinese films for two distinct reasons (but no longer
"distinct" in a number of ways, that is, if we consider our initial definition of
culture according to Amilcar Cabral).
First, the Chinese did not shoot close-ups because according to the

philosophy of Confucius this would be an intrusion into a person's privacy.

Secondly, in accordance with the mass political line of Mao Tse Tung [Mao Ze-
dong], the emphasis is on the "collective," i.e., individuals matter only in the
context of the group. Here, then, is a case in which the "cultural" code is
identical to the "ideological" code.
In recent Chinese history (1976) a technical as well as ideological reversal
was inaugurated: it all began when Chinese photographers covering the death
and funeral of Chou En-Lai [Premier Zou Enlai] took a close-up view and
shots of the deceased premier. This did not occur as a contradiction to the
socialmeaning discussed above because this same period marked the anti-
Confucian campaign of 1976. At this stage of reversal too, therefore, the
cultural/ ideological codes were in unison.

One of the prime differences between contemporary Western and Chinese

art is that Chinese "revolutionary art" is guided by a theory that combines
"Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism,"'^ and is more
symbolic and less realistic than Western art. Mao Tse Tung once remarked that
the role of "Revolutionary Art" was to "make the bad extra bad and the good
extra good." Mao also wrote that:

Although man's social life is the only source of literature and art and is incomparably livelier
and richer in content, the people are not satisfied with life alone and demand hterature and
art as well. Why? Because, while both are beautiful, life as reflected in words of literature and
art can and ought to be on a higher plane, more intense, more concentrated, more typical,

and therefore, more universal than actual everyday life."

According to many observers, including Susan Sontag, the two different

cultures manifest two distinct world outlooks. The "ideal type" is most
common in Chinese art, i.e., the content of art is drawn from struggles in real
life, but its artistic manifestation is made on a much higher plane. In On
Photography Sontag writes;

We see reality as hopelessly and interestingly plural. In China, what is defined as an issue for
debate is one about which there are "two one and wrong one. Our society
lines," a right

proposes a spectrum of discontinuous choices and perceptions. Theirs is constructed around

a single, ideal observer; and photographs contribute their bit to the Great Monologue. For
us, there are dispersed, interchangeable "points of view"; photography is polylogue.
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 63

Whereas SocialistRealism treated and captured the contemporary

socialist reality, the "Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanti-
cism" of the Chinese went beyond the present reality into the future; hence, the
—
treatment of heroic epics and futuristic themes socialist man/ woman surging
ahead. This partly explains why most of the Chinese films that have been
screened in Western countries (and most until very recently, have been Cultural
Revolution films) deal with operatic themes and styles. For example, The East
isRed. The Red Detachment of Women, Song of the Dragon River, On the
Docks, The Red Lantern; Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy and The White-
Haired Girl, are either operas or ballets. The viewer of these films is clearly
made aware which characters represent evil and which represent the good.
Peter Bonerz, an American actor (he played the role of the dentist in "The
Bob Newhart Show") visited China in 1976. Upon his return he was
interviewed by the US-China Peoples Friendship Association:

Q. Are their [films] always positive stories? I mean, does the enemy
always get defeated?

A. Oh sure! But then, every dramatic device in the P.R.C. (People's

Republic of China) is positive — the hero, the victor and so on —almost
beyond our ability to believe!

Q. Yes, we're not really used to that. Did the audiences in China seem to
like this?

A. Oh — this is what they go to the movies for, hoping to experience this

a sort of reaffirmation of their own positive support of the society.

Q. Yes, and it's all the more interesting when you think of our "anti-hero"
cult.

A. Mmmmmm — well, that syndrome would be regarded as an extremely

''
decadent art form because we're sympathising with evil.

Chinese Film Style

Given the Chinese criticism of Antonioni's view of China and their cultural as
well as ideological orientation in art, it would be useful to discuss two
representative films. The East is Red and From Victory to Victory. The first
film was produced around the turn of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and the
latter was made in 1974.
In the film. The East is Red, the cast are performers in an opera-ballet
stage setting. The Peking opera is more than simply a theater, for it also
includes ballet and gymnastics. The East is Red is a glorious aggrandizement of
64 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

points of reference in the Chinese revolutionary struggle. The film serves to

sustain a feeling of nationalism, an overwhelming feeling of solidarity and
optimism for Chinese audiences. Dramatized are The Long March, the war
against Japanese imperialism, and the overthrow of Chiang Kai-shek. To the
Chinese, the film is a reminder of their hard life and their glorious victory over
all obstacles. The "heroic" style of the film is characterized by symbolic gestures
—
and a "romantic" framing of actions actions that are stylistically exaggerated
so as to render them more than life-like.
Most of the film is shot from the point of view of the audience from the —
stage front.The action, therefore, unfolds in a frontal fashion. The stage-front
shot reveals enough of the stage where the action is taking place. Close shots
—
occur within the stage-front shot the viewpoint remains the same except that
it is merely closer to the action. An important departure from the stage front is
presented from the point of view of a character (s) in the pageant. In the section
entitled "Dawn in the East," a group of dockers, carrying a load, progress
slowly across the stage — haltingly — from left to right, towards two figures
standing several steps above the stage watching over the scene. They are the
imperialistic "masters." Then a shot from the masters' point of view. Now the
dockers in a single file, looking up, dance with exaggerated moves. The
dialecticshave been established: the "good" symbolized by "left" side of frame
and the "evil" represented by the right side of frame.
The shots from the back of the theater (which include part of the
audience), of which there are several instances, are generally similar to the
stage-front shots. A continuum of camera positions is established for audience
shots, that is, taking the viewpoint of a position in the audience. Actions are not
shown segments except within a larger context, that of the entire stage. In
in
certain scenes, the center of attention fills the entire stage showing the whole
space so that the action shown is not only understandable and meaningful but
also visually impressive. There are several examples of this type of distant
theater shot. In the section entitled "Night Must End":

Voice.Jhe October Revolution brings Marxist-Leninism

[Cut to view from back of theater as huge flags with Mao's face on them are raised on
stage.'"]

There are shots that reinforce a sense of "unity" among all the elements, to
emphasize the importance of each of the elements, i.e., each forming part of the
celebration. This is specially evident at the beginning and in the last sequences
of the film. As the film opens, the viewer up the steps and into the opera
is led
house or theater in Peking where he is given a program and allowed to
familiarize himself with his surroundings inside the theater through a pan shot
of the walls, stage, ceiling, choir and fellow viewers. The use of the stage and
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 65

theater packed with 10,000 viewers and with actors informs any viewer of The
East is RedoiiYit theory that history is made principally through the power of
the mass of humanity rather than individuals. Again, as the film comes to a
close, a shot similar to the opening shot is utilized. A 180° movement circles the
conductor as he faces the audience, beginning from within the theater showing
—
rows of the audience in the foreground then a pan from the audience to the
ceiling lights. The significance of this closing shot is to clarify the unity of
"style" with "ideology," i.e., the narrative in the pageant and the theater as a
whole. The film records a celebration, a commemoration of a people's
liberation of which the performance of the opera is, of course, the center. It

records the celebration as a whole, reproducing as faithfully as possible the

narrative and the all and actors alike.
inclusive ambiance: audience, theater
The theory of "Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism"
does not make an artificial partition between art and propaganda. The
distinction is rather between what is understandable and what is not.
Therefore, Chinese films take their themes from real life but their artistic
representation is elevated above real life.^' Chinese films use highly stylized and
exaggerated forms of traditional opera and Western ballet to praise the deeds
of the soldier masses in making history. The films, therefore, employ
exemplary models in order to inspire the masses and advance the historical
process.
The East is Red as well as other model filmed theatricals have been
referred to as "poster art. " The determining factor is not really whether Chinese
films are "poster art" or not; what is crucial is the degree to which one can relate
to the poster. In this regard we must recall Peter Bonerz's answer to the
question of Chinese responses to films. (Quoted above.)

From Victory to Victory is a sweeping two-hour war epic produced to illustrate

Chinese military might as well as the ideological tactics of Mao Tse-tung. The
and subsequent victories over the forces of
film dramatizes the decisive battles
Chiang Kai-shek (the Kuomintang Army). From Victory to Victory employs
"social space" as opposed to" individual space," i.e., the mass of humanity
instead of individual heroism is depicted in the film. From Victory to Victory is

an utterly readable film — it does not employ the technique of suspense or cloud
itsmeaning, everything is ultra clear. The film is so literal that "ideology" too is

correspondingly literal. From Victory to Victory is unlike The East Rede\en

is

though the same grandiose style and exaggerated gestures and movement are
still in evidence. The lighting in this film is embellished by artificial lighting

throughout.
A study of camera movement in the film leads to these findings.
Panning the — camera movements imitate the movement of the spectator's
head as he or she looks at the stage. In From Victory to Victory, regardless of
66 Cultural Codes \s. Ideological Codes

which way the camera is used, the movement is divided into two elements;
visual and ideological. For instance, when the camera moves steadily toward
the right axis of the screen it is to capture the "reactionary forces" (the
Kuomintang Army of Chiang Kai-shek); but when it pans to the left axis of the
Red Star, a Red Army or Mao himself is sure to be depicted. The
screen, a
ideological significance is point blank
—"Right" is bad, "left" is good!
The zoom shot — the zoom simulates camera movement into or out of the
frame, while maintaining the image in focus. In traditional cinema, the zoom is

most often employed to capture detail and according to Robert Scott,

the zoom establishes the distance between the ostensible source of the observation (camera)
and the observed (object), and establishes the uniqueness of the character (he is one among
many). He is the unique individual in the teeming city, part of the whole which is not to be
questioned."

A celebrated and technically acclaimed example in this regard Michaelis

Snow's Wavelength which employs the slow zoom as it advances through a loft
practically unnoticed for forty-five minutes, finally resting on a photograph of
the sea and thus establishing a spatial continuity between the room and the sea.
In From Victory to Victory or most other Chinese films, the zoom shot is "out"
instead of "into" the frame: it implies a sense of continuity between individuals
and the mass of humanity. In Chinese films one hardly sees a zoom into the
action. Instead, pan shots on the right/ left axis are used to explore or reveal
objects or people.
The lack of close-up shots in Chinese films, as discussed earlier, is also true
for From Victory to Victory. In this film as well as others the style of the
Chinese is never to employ any aspect of camera movement that calls attention
to itself For instance, the quick or swish pan is never used, because this kind of
shot either draws too much attention to itself, or it instills shock or
disorientation, such that in the Chinese visual and ideological paradigm it will
have a distorting impact.
The travelling shot eliminates the necessity of a cut. Travelling on the
right/ left axis, connoting the ideological orientation discussed earlier, either
forwards or backwards enlarges the field of vision. It also helps an audience feel
as if it is being "carried away" by the unfolding drama, in spite of the fact that
the movement of the camera is illusory. According to Jean Debrix, the major
distinction between theater and cinema has been this camera movement in
depth. He writes, "The very essence of dynamic visual dramaturgy derives from
it."" He further distinguishes the travelling shot from the cut:

What differentiates the travelling shot from the simple cut, and transforms it into one of the
most important of all cinematic means, is its determinate action on our affective reactions, on
our feeling and emotions, on those of our thoughts that are polarized, oriented and colored
by the action, characterization, plot and milieu.'"
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 67

It is perhaps understandable why the Chinese films have abandoned the close-
up shot and embraced Debrix notes in his analysis of
the travelling shot, for as
shots and their interpretation, "Whereas the sudden appearance of a close-up
surprises and stops the breath, the travelling shot gently guides us to the core of
the drama.""
In From Victory to Victory there are blasts and explosions at the end of
sequences. We witness bullets flying by, but what is strange is that even if a Red
Army fighter falls or is hit we never see him bleed. Also we do not see the enemy
suffer and bleed —
we only see them as faceless people fleeing or falling back in
defeat, just as the soldiers in Sergio Leone's Duck, You Sucker! The political
—
goal in the Chinese film is clear a Chinese communist can surmount any
danger. No wonder, therefore, that a Red Army soldier always emerges out of
staccato bullet sounds and deafening bazooka blasts without a drop of blood or
a scratch.

Developments in Chinese Films

Chinese films have always been a political matter. Films of the first decade after
the liberation of China in 1949 were mostly imitative art forms showing signs of
They depicted artists' styles and tastes which reflected a
their colonial tutelage.
Western education and they examined Chinese realities through foreign eyes. It
was only after the 1960s that Chinese cinema began to take its authentic shape.
After the Cultural Revolution of 1966 film as a political imperative emerged
with much greater zeal. In fact, one scholar even suggests that the ideological
clash between Madame (Chiang Ching) and Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Liu
Shao-ch'i [Liu Shaogi] (the then chairman of the Peoples Republic) was
precisely on the point of the artist's role in society. Liu Shao-ch'i's reliance on
professionals in the arts was opposed to Madame Mao's and Mao Tse-tung's
preference for the artistic works of amateurs.'^ Because, of all the arts, the film
medium was the most compatible with Mao's mass political and mass cultural
style, the issue was central to the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution of 1966.

In recent Chinese political history, too, the role of art and the artist in
society seems to have been one of the major central issues in the disgrace of the
"gang of four." In fact, according to the New York Times, Chiang Ching,
Mao's widow, was just about to release a film entitled Atomic Bomb, which
was described as a symbolic attack on Chou En-lai and the present head of
state, Hua Kuo-feng." Madame Ching was the principal supervisor of

literature and the arts after the Cultural Revolution and, therefore, was
accused of suppressing films that she did not like, particularly The Gardener's
Song, and Two Blueprints. Both of these films were produced in Hunan where
the present Chairman Hua was the First Secretary. She was also accused of
suppressing The Pioneers, produced on Chou En-lai's instructions. Madame
68 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

Ching was angered was made without her knowledge and

that the last film
consent and, therefore, declared the film had a "serious error," asking "Whom
are you glorifying?"^* She denied the film's significance because it was designed
to praise Chou. Mao himself intervened in this instance and ordered the film
released: "There is no big error in this film. Suggest that it be approved for
"^^
distribution. Don't nit-pick. Mao Tse-tung, had been interested in film from
the very beginning, and he even used to write and publish some of his thoughts
on the films he had seen.^"
The tide has turned again in China and a new shift might be in the making
in the kinds of films to be produced and distributed. The past is being
condemned relentlessly so that a new era may soon emerge.^' Recent reports
from the mainland suggest that individual directors instead of a "collective
directorship" are beginning to manifest themselves. The old ideological
dispute, whether to use professionals in the arts or amateurs, is beginning to tilt

in favor of professionals. What this means for Chinese films with regard to
visual and ideological orientation is at present unclear.
representation
However, without a doubt a great debate is in process. According to Richard
Shull

It appears that this political event of about a year and a half ago has turned entertainment

around 180 degrees. The flowering of new material and revival of shows and pictures
"banned" in the recent past is immense by even our own standards, and to the ordinary
Chinese it must seem as though a culture dam has broken upstream somewhere.'^

It is obvious that since 1976 there has been a great growth in film production
with more than 100 films per year being produced. At the same time Western
films are becoming available for Chinese audiences and various kinds of
coproduction efforts with Chinese and foreign film companies are underway.
Chinese film production is not only more plentiful but there have also
been thematic and stylistic changes. Themes that were not acceptable prior to
1976 have now surfaced. The prize-winning film of 1980, Romance on Lushan
Mountain by Huang Zumo, is one of the few love stories ever to be made in the
People's Republic of China and is extremely popular among the Chinese
audience. The theme of the film is reconciliation. In the film the Americanized
daughter of a nationalist Chinese general returns to the People's Republic and
falls in love with a son of a communist general who was her father's great

enemy. The final reconciliation of the two families has political as well as
romantic overtones.
Another Troubled Laughter by Yang Yanjin and Deng Finlan,
film.
implies strong criticism of high party members and control of the media for
political purposes during the Cultural Revolution. Such criticisms, unheard of
before, proved acceptable when referring to the recent past. Other films,
however, implying a more general criticism of conditions have not been able to
obtain release. For instance, the film originally titled, "Unrequited Love" (after
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 69

a screenplay by the same director) but later released for a limited showing as
The Sun and the Man (1981) by Bai Hua [a pen name for Chen Youhua, a 51-
year-old poet, writer, and film director] is a case in point. The film focuses on a
Chinese intellectual, an artist, who returns to his country rejoicing in the
victories of the Revolution of 1949. The intellectual is persecuted as bourgeois
and accused of being a spy and finally dies at the end of the Cultural
Revolution. Stressing the central theme of the film the persecuted intellectual is
asked by his daughter, "You love the motherland, but does the motherland love
you?" Through heavy symbolism, analogies, and metaphors the film points an
accusing finger at the Communist Party leadership. The film has been singled
out, therefore, for promoting "bourgeois liberalism" and was a target for
strong criticism during September 1981 by both Hu Yaobang, the Party's new
Chairman, and by the Party's powerful Vice-Chairman, Deng Xiaoping.
According to Michael Parks, an authority on recent Chinese trends:

Unlike other films on the Cultural Revolution, some of which have won prizes this year, "The
Sun and the Man" ended pessimistically, with the dying hero leaving his final footprints in
the form of a question mark that the author acknowledged was meant to question the
country's future under socialism.

Recent films, such as The In- Laws, winner of the Chinese Oscar, the
Golden Cockerel Award for 1981, by Zhao Huanzhang, show a tendency
toward a psychological realism and the portrayal of the inner workings of
individual minds, e.g., dreams, fantasies and memories, often through the use
of special effects. The emphasis on individual psychology as opposed to social
collectivity has led to negative individual portrayals, particularly in the case of
women. A case in point and trouble-making daughter-in-law,
is the selfish
Qiangying, in The In-Laws. [In Chinese "Qiangying" reads "Chiang Ching".]
After a long quiescent period films are becoming a major force in Chinese
society. It is now estimated that 40,000 theaters and 80,000 mobile units as well
as television are now being used to show motion pictures to the remotest parts
of China.

Film and Ideology in Cuba

Alea vs. Antonioni and Fellini

The film is a study of the human condition at the higher social and economic levels, a study of
adjusted, compromising man.'"*

The film is the private and confidential confession of a man who speaks of himself and his

aberration."

The director is a Socialist, but films evince no striking belief in man's social capacities. In this

hermetic world relationships are always deeply unsatisfactory, sex is humiliating.'*

70 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

The above quotations illustrate the vagaries of film critics when they
review certain kinds of films. Each of the above quotes could have been used to
define and interpret Memories of Underdevelopment, but the director referred
to in the last quote is not Tomas Guitierrez Alea (director oi Memories) but the
Italian Antonioni; and the film referred to in the first quote is Antonioni's
L'Avventura. The second quote refers to La Dolce Vita by Fellini. In the
Western reviews of Memories, however, any of these quotes could have
applied. In fact reviews oi Memories in Western journals and newspapers have
tried to link the film to the style and works of Antonioni and FeUini. For
instance, according to Peter Schjeldahl of The New York Times

Thematically, "Memories" reminds one in a strange, up-side-down way of "La Dolce Vita,"
an impression heightened by certain resemblances between Sergio Corrieri, who plays
Sergio, and the young Mastroianni.'

And Stanley Kauffmann, in The New Republic, writes;

To put the matter in shorthand, what the film gives us is an Antonioni character in the middle
38
of a political revolution.

While the "establishment" film critics have praised Memories by linking it with
the film of either Antonioni or Fellini, the opinion of the "left" has been
ambivalent. The recurrent "left" criticism has been that the film's focus on the
displaced bourgeoisie is a waste of time. They hold that socialist films should
focus attention on the pressing issues of class struggle instead of on the
imagined problems of a anomaly.
self-styled social

The fact that established critics should praise and the "left" condemn
Memories of Underdevelopment calls for an examination. When the film is
examined, the two positions cited above can be seen as subjective reactions
governed by arbitrary criteria of aesthetic taste and political doctrine. The
critical inquiry into Memories has always zeroed in not on the film as a totality
but on the central character, Sergio. The "left" has often focused on the film's
"anti-hero," Sergio, a criticism reminiscent of that of the Chinese of central
characters as "anti-heroes" — the fear being that such an approach to charac-
terization will make the villain more interesting than positive heroes. But we
need to go further, beyond the literal level of the film and towards a textual
reading, because any film, particularly such a film as Memories, intimates very
clearly how it is to be consumed and by whom.^'

Memories of Underdevelopment

At the end of the Second World War the theme of the loner in society, the
individual who feels apart from his surroundings, emerged in films. The Italian
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 71

film directors Fellini and Antonioni best illustrate the preoccupation with the
plight and alienation of the individual. And although each filmmaker
approached the theme differently, there were certain common elements that
each had; that is, the central characters have difficulty finding meaning in their
lives. Their personal relationships are either stilted or non-existent. And,

principally, there is an underlying discomfort and disharmony between the

character and his/her environment.
All the elements mentioned above are also common to Sergio, the lead
character in Memories. It is extremely important to note that Memories parts
company with the works of Antonioni or Fellini in a very significant way. In the
films of the Italians, the social environment is a given, and it is a constant and
ostensibly unchangeable arena in which the characters play out their "meaning-
less" lives. For Fellini's La Dolce Vita it is the opulent decadence of Rome's Via
Veneto. For Antonioni's L'Avventura it takes the form of jagged rocks that are
lifeless. John Howard Lawson in Film the Creative Process puts it this way:

Antonioni is less preoccupied with dreams and illusions, and more concerned with the failure
of feeling as a human move in a real world, but they can never
tragedy. His people therefore
make effective contact with their environment or with each other. They move against
carefully composed backgrounds of glass and concrete; there are wavering reflections in
water or glass; men and women appear intermittently as if searching for a reality that eludes
them.^"

In Memories of Underdevelopment, the environment has undergone a radical

transformation. The oppressive regime under which an alienated personality
could develop has been replaced by a revolutionary government. Sergio,
therefore, an anachronism, and his intellectual conundrum is at odds with the
is

contemporary revolutionary context. There is an entire underdeveloped

country to develop, and millions of fellow Cubans to do it with. But instead,
Sergio is locked into the past (not into the present as in the films of Fellini or
Antonioni), a stranger to the present who stares blankly into oblivion.
Sergio is a representative of a class — the petite bourgeoisie of Batista's
Cuba. This class in Marxist theory is defined as a marginal and vacillating class
and may ally either with the oppressed or the oppressor. The ambivalent
position of Sergio is thus epitomized in his internal conflict in which he sees the
reasons for revolutionary change, yet chooses to cling to the old reactionary
values of his class. Between his class consciousness on the one hand and his
desire to cling to the values of the past, Sergio is immobilized and is unable to
act.

The dialectic is established very early in Memories of Underdevelopment.

The first time we see Sergio's apartment, through his point of view, he is

walking through the various rooms whistling "Adelita" the national anthem —
—
of the Mexican revolution but what we see in the apartment of an upper-class
72 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

home renders the revolutionary anthem and out of context.

totally irrelevant
The entire film in fact can be viewed from a dialectical perspective. For
instance, in the beginning of the film there is a scene in which Sergio tries to
evoke memories of his wife by putting on her coat and going through her
things. The implications are many. The idea is suggested that things have been
equated with people; his wife's jewelry and cosmetics, have in fact become her.
Sergio's actions reflect a process of reification. Even his wife's voice has been
reduced to a tape recording played over a machine. That the very objects that
represent his wife are themselves symbols of middle- or upper-class affluence is
significant. As Julianne Burton puts it:

Though intellectually grasping the point, Sergio fails to make any connection with his own
life. He fails to realize that he too is an accomplice of reactionary forces precisely because he

won't desert his position of critical superiority to participate, to act, to engage himself in the
world around. His only field of action is the women whom he objectifies and tries to

transform according to borrowed criteria."'

The people with whom Sergio interacts also reveal the complexity of his
ambivalent character. The nature of his relationships are emphasized by the
titles — —
Pablo, Noemi and Elena of each section of the film. Pablo, a
representative of the middle class opts to go to Miami. He is no millionaire but
lives comfortably enough not to want to change it. He tells Sergio, "This thing
is between the Russians and the Americans."''^ Noemi, whom Sergio sees as
"young, shining, innocent," is "underdeveloped" in his eyes; hers is a kind of
underdevelopment that is beautiful and exciting in itself and in its possibilities.
That possibility turns sour when she loses her innocence in the baptism. There
is also Elena, who wants to be an actress. Sergio tells her that "all those

actresses do is repeat the same movements over and over and over again" this —
concept is beautifully illustrated cinematically when short bits of cliched
American and French exploitation films are repeated over and over again.
Sergio is annoyed with the fact that "Elena proved to be totally
inconsistent." Yet, he himself is "inconsistent" when he brings her to his friends
for an audition despite his negative feelings about actresses. It is a petit-
bourgeois ideological ambivalence and vacillation which defines Sergio's
moral duality. He tells his wife it "always excites me, when I see you struggle
between elegance and vulgarity," — it is actually the struggles within Sergio
himself His wife tells him, "I never know when you're telling the truth or when
you're kidding," to which Sergio replies, in his typical non-committal manner,
"a little of both, darling."
Elena asks him, "Are you a revolutionary?" and he replies with a "what do
you think?" She then says with insight, "That you're neither revolutionary nor
counterrevolutionary." "Then what am 1?" Sergio throws at her and she once
again speaks the truth, "You are nothing." Sergio, of course, knows this. For
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 73

him the revolution has been "revenge against the stupid Cuban bourgeoisie,
against idiots Hke Pablo." Yet, in the same breath he goes on to say, "I realize
Pablo isn't Pablo, it's my own life." It is as if Sergio's progressive half is

castigating his reactionary half. Though he rejects bourgeois values as

superficial, he still Hemingway's house in order to show her
brings Elena to
"culture." His perception of "development" is entirely from a foreign perspec-

tive. He greatly admires the Europeans and cannot imagine that Cuba can

develop on her own terms. Even Hanna, the woman in his life who was "the
best thing that ever happened to me," was of European stock, a German, whom
he characterizes as "more of a woman than the under-developed girls here."
Just as Sergio tries to define himself in others, he seeks Cuba's identity in
European values rather than Cuban values.
Sergio's quest for identity is a dead end. In one striking shot, this idea is

succinctly summed up. We see Sergio walking down the street in long shot. The
camera zooms in we actually move in on the frame
slowly on Sergio's face, then
itself so that by the end of the shot Sergio's face has been magnified to a random

undulation of out-of-focus grain. The closer Sergio looks at himself, therefore,

the less he sees. His search has become larger and larger until the weight of it

crushes his skull, figuratively speaking.

The Memories of Underdevelopment is its revelation
great importance of
that Sergio's impotence stems from his inability to participate actively in a
collective socialist struggle. Class consciousness demands more than the
intellectual grasp of theoretical concepts which Sergio has attained. The crucial
fact is that he does not see himself as being part of a greater whole where the
interest of the group and that of the individual are essentially inseparable.
Sergio, in Memories, is not identical to Marcello in La Dolce Vita, neither
is Tomas Guitierrez Alea Cuba's Fellini. The films, as well as the directors,

represent two distinct world outlooks, be it in their cultural orientation or

ideological disposition. They represent two systems. Whereas Fellini shows the
end of bourgeois civilization, Guitierrez Alea depicts the beginning of the new
socialist order. Where La Dolce Vita depicts universal decadence, the rift
between man and nature or environment. Memories of Underdevelopment
analyzes the origin of human folly. The main point is not the outlook of the
main characters, but rather the manner in which ideological culture is
manifested. To Fellini the ultimate separation of man and nature is an
existential one; to Alea the separation is strictly ideological. L'Avventura
—
speaks of life and the human condition it denotes the state of affairs of the
society that nurtured it —
whereas Memories of Underdevelopment is self-
referential and denotes itself. In Antonioni's film we are presented with a text in
its material reality:
74 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

The climax of Antonioni's films bring the characters to recognition of an intolerable

situation, a recognition projected into the future, not as a promise of change, but as
something that will continue indefinitely/'

Memories of Underdevelopment, on the other hand, refers us to certain modes

of ideological signification. If the text is not at one with itself, how can it

signify? It will have nothing to say. But, when suggested that Memories of
it is

Underdevelopment is self-referential and denotes itself, what is being argued is

that it reflects a process of "becoming" at one with itself.

According to film historian and critic Gerald Mast,

Antonioni accepts the fact that today's men live with the stock exchange, with factories, with
ambiguities — What he is interested in is how do they live with them, how does it feel to do

so, what are the problems doing so.*"

To Alea, however, the theme of the loner in films must not be looked at merely
as the neurosis of a single individual but rather as the sickness of an entire
nation. In La Dolce Vita the environment is a given where existential
characters play out their lives as alien to They do not propose to change the
it.

alienating environment, oi^t, rather, they seem to want to fit into it.
In juxtaposing the in 'vidual to the emergent socialist society, Tomas
Guitierrez Alea does no', become an apologist for inescapable alienation, as
Antonioni or Fellini may have been; he rather allows us to see the new social
order and new environment as the answer to Sergio's impasse.

Film and Ideology in Africa

Jean Rouch's Africa

Jacques Rivette, the last of the New Wave and Cahiers group to come to
prominence, remarked 968 that "Rouch has been the moving force for all of
in 1

French cinema for ten years even though few people know it.'"*^ Jean-Luc
Godard too has acknowledged the decisive influence of Rouch on him as a
filmmaker.
was when Jean Rouch produced Chronicle ofa Summer in 1961 that his
It

place in the history of cinema seems to have been settled. In Cinema Verite in
America, Stephen Mamber also gives Rouch credit for helping to launch
cinema verite: "The term (Cinema Verite) first gained popular currency in the
early sixties as a description of Jean Rouch's Chronique d'un Ete'."*^ Jean
Rouch has also helped in the development of the portable synchronous sound
system and the early Eclair camera (according to one critic, "he helped de-bug
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 75

Jean Rouch will indeed be remembered for development techniques and

new methods of shooting film and for helping to raise interesting cinematic
questions. But history is bound to judge him on the social import and virtue of
most of his films. Out of sixty or so films that Rouch has done (a dozen shorts,
some medium length and others features), the majority take Africa as an issue.
And it is on this issue that Rouch has been controversial. Except for one film,
Moi, un noir, he has been accused of abetting anti-African reactions in his
films. According to Rene Vautier, Rouch's films have objectively served the
colonizer by perpetuating an image of Africa of the past. Ousmane Sembene,
the leading cineast in present-day Africa, also accuses Rouch of "treating
Africans like insects."'**

Rouch was once invited to Accra to document the possession cult of the
—
Hauka sect the result was Les Maitres fous. Instead of registering the
"spirituality" or "the essence" of the ritual, Rouch presented the Hauka sect as
"possessed by spirits of generals, doctors, and truck drivers from the British
power structure, as they slaughter a dog, cook and eat it, march back and forth,
dance violently and foam at the mouth."'*^ According to Jean Claude Muller,
by juxtaposing the Hauka sect going about their daily routine with the cult
scenes, the film implied that the possession cult was a means of coping with the
exigencies of everyday colonial life."^° The film is so blatantly racist that both
Europeans and Africans have requested that Rouch destroy the film, but he has
refused to do so. The film nevertheless won a prize at Venice Film Festival.
Rouch's obsession with "penetrating" the African mind reached its climax
with Les Maitres fous, but most of his films in Africa, outside of Moi, un noir,
have studied Africans by employing "psychological essays" into the human
interior. This approach has given us films that combine "fiction" with "reality,"
otherwise known as "psychodramas." It is precisely here, too, that Rouch has
been reproached, i.e., why should
European engage in a search for a
a
psychological reality while the whole of Africa was in a fervor for political
independence during the same period?
In a recent interview Jean Rouch was asked:

Q. It struck us that the film about France emphasizes how the European
thinks while your films on Africa emphasize how the African behaves.
A. This an interesting point, and I must say it is the first time the
is

question has been put to me. Normally, I would not see so many films
one after the other. As I have said, other films I have done in France do
not have so many close-ups. Another thing, at the beginning we shot
people at 100 meters and they did not know we were shooting them.
They thought we were a group of people who had a camera. I disliked
that very much. We wanted to do something that was spontaneous,
but that was more like candid cameras, something sneaky. Our
76 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

caution goes back to the fact that Angelo and his friends had so many
enemies that we had to be protective of our subjects. Perhaps the close-
ups were a kind of backlash.

Q. That still doesn't explain the African films where nobody ever talks
directly to you. How accurate is that, given the strong oral traditions
of African culture? — Aren't Africans as articulate as Europeans? . .

A. You are asking good questions. The explanations come on several

levels. One immediate response I have is that I have decided not to
make about post-independence Africa. After all, these
political films
are not my countries. I think it is imperialistic to project your political
^'
values onto Africa

This interview shows dramatically Rouch's own ambivalence, his attempts to

duck questions over and over again. Rouch has given the world an Africa that
is content with understanding nature and coping with the strains of everyday

life; but in none of his works is there an Africa that wants to change its

predicament. This issue is extremely important when we consider that Rouch's

Africa was the same Africa waging a colonial war. After the second World War
and up to the 1960s Africa saw the most unprecedented anti-colonial struggle.
It was a struggle that culminated in the early 1960s with most African nations

becoming independent from British and French colonial rule. It must be

recalled that most of Rouch's "ethnographic" films were produced in the 1950s,
i.e., in the heat of the war. As the interview indicates, Rouch could have

allowed Africans to have speaking parts instead of presenting a psychological

study of their reality.

Q. It's still not clear whether you think narration is good or bad.

A. My dream is to show in a film what can be understood directly without

the aid of narration, to explain everything that needs explanation by
filmic devices

Q. In The Mad Masters, near the end, you comment that the ritual helps
the people to be good workers and to endure colonialism with dignity,
that it some psychological accommodation. Clearly, one of
provides
your aims was to deal with the viewer who would be appalled at seeing
people drinking dog's blood. You wanted to show the positive psychic
benefits to the individuals involved. Our reaction, though, was that
people would not be accommodated to endure colonialism. Is it not
far better for anger to explode on the job than to be let off in some
harmless religious rite? Is it not better if they were "bad" workers who
"accidentally" broke their tools and were "lazy '7
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 77

A. Quite right. no longer care for that ending. Originally that

I

commentary was impromptu. I wanted to explain that the ritual was a

method which allowed them to function in normal society with less
pain. An important point that got lost was that therapy for the
Africans is not a one-to-one private consultation like you have in
psychoanalysis and most Western therapies. The therapy we filmed
was a public ritual done in the sun. That aspect is one of the most
important things we Westerners need to learn. But I can't very well
jiggle with the commentary now. The film has existed as is for more
^^
than 20 years.

The "about-face" implied in Rouch's own statement does not seem to alter the
impact of the film which won a grand prize in Venice. What he considers
important in the above is nowhere in the film.
ritual discussed
Rouch's place in history must be viewed against his own admission that he
erred in the way he portrayed Africans for an uncritical and ill-informed
European and Western audience. His films tend to reinforce existing prejudices
that had been cemented by literature and the "adventure stories" of the colonial
era. Rouch was perhaps the unconscious tool and agent of French Imperialism
in Africa. The values, myths and symbols of Africa that Rouch transmitted to
his countrymen tell us, therefore, more about Rouch and European colonial
ideology than about Africa.
For Rouch, an anthropologist by training, the African people, particular-
ly in his earlier films, are scientific specimens — they are laboratory subjects.
And when one looks at his body of work, particularly the later films, one is

struck with Rouch's growing tendency to personalize and fictionalize.

As an outsider Rouch was not in a position to understand nor to prescribe
a future course for African society. His films never pointed the way toward an
African future. That work has been taken up, as it should be, by African
filmmakers themselves.

Xala: A Cinema of Wax and Gold

Ousmane Sembene possesses the vision of a committed cineast of social

change. All his films, which are essentially self-critical, offer constructs to
interpret the cultural jumble that covers Africa. In the Sembenian universe,
film does not simply depict individuals bereft of context, caught between the
traditional and the modern or the foreign and domestic, but it shows the
collision of two mutually exclusive symbolic systems which serve their own set
of icons and are equally arbitrary and mutually worthless to the other.
Whereas in Emitai and Ceddo (described below), two historical films set in
rural Africa, Sembene deals with Africa's isolation in a colonial environment.
78 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

in Barom Tauw, Black Girl and Mandabi he treats the alienation of

Sarret,
individuals who live between two cultures in contemporary Africa." In Xala
(pronounced 'hallaO Sembene portrays a man seemingly successful in both
worlds and both systems. Here, unlike the other films, the African has at last
gained access to and mastered both value systems, but his very stance leaves
him vulnerable.^"
The film centers on El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye (El Hadji is a title
meaning 'pilgrim' and in Islam it refers to one who has been to Mecca and has
come back holy) as the prototype of the emerging African bourgeoisie who
destroy the continent politically in the name of "African Socialism" and
"Progress." To Sembene this new class of nouveau riche in Africa presents a
much more than the openly exploitative European colonialists.
sinister force
Whereas the colonialists could be readily identified by race, language, dress,
custom, manner of worship, etc., the new enemy insiduously shares all the
African's outward aspects and cultural attributes and has assumed his inimical
role through a conscious political choice.
As the we note the transfer of power taking place in an
film opens,
unnamed African country. To "spice-up" the independence celebration El
Hadji Abdou Kader Beye, a board member in a "Chamber of Commerce,"
announces marriage to the nineteen-year-old N'Gone, the same age as
his third
his daughter Rama. Unfortunately, the weight of El Hadji's fifty years and his
psychological makeup prevent him from consummating the marriage. El Hadji
believes himself hexed — someone,
an enemy, has put the spell of "xala,"
impotence, upon him. He suspects his two wives and even a colleague. His
increasing anxiety and desperation as he seeks to break the spell of xala sets the
film's pace, as El Hadji goes from one marabout to another, from wife to wife,
searching for the cause and cure of his lost virility. His wallet grows lighter as he
must pay for each visitation. He becomes so obsessed with regaining his
potency that he neglects his work as a member of the "Chamber of Commerce"
and quite literally becomes impotent not only in the bedroom but also in the
boardroom.
Xala is on one level a comedy. El Hadji's desire to regain his "manhood"
(as he defines it) is presented in an extremely humorous way. The film
illustrates a simple moral tale of a man who loses everything as a result of living
beyond his age and means. On another level, however, the film offers a
poignant satire about Africa's neo-colonial leaders.

Wax and gold as a method. The film language of Xala, I believe, can be
constructed on the model of an African poetic form called "sem-enna-worq"
which means, "wax and gold."" The term refers to the "lost wax"
literally

process in which a goldsmith creates a wax form, casts a clay mold around it,
then drains out the wax, and pours in molten gold to form the valued object.
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 79

Applied to poetics, the concept acknowledges two levels of interpretation,

distinct in theory and representation. Such a poetic form aims to attain a
maximum of ideas with a minimum of words. "Wax" refers to the most obvious
and superficial meaning, whereas the "gold" embedded in the art work offers
the "true" meaning, which may be inaccessible unless one understands the finer
nuances of folk culture.
In the novel Xala, the structural key that explains the story's surface
political meaning metaphor with a sociological message. ^^ In the
links a sexual
film Xala, to unearth the "gold" we must go beyond the manifest content and
beyond the sexual metaphor. To restore the "gold" in its purity in Xala means,
therefore, to perform an autopsy and remove the "wax," the comedy format, in
order to gain access to the text's ideology.
How does Sembene, the filmmaker, help us discover the ideological
underpinnings which lie mute within the comedic form? What cultural codes

and filmic modes does he employ to mark the film's immanent meaning? His
search for African cinema, I believe, comes in his use of these two modes of
discourse. What follows, therefore, is a two-pronged study and investigation of
Xala. The first part deals with the cultural fabric of the film and the second
section with the film style.

Cultural codes. Many symbols expose the manipulators of the new

in the film
social order —
the Westernized Africans who like chameleons are ready to
change their appearance to protect their selfish interests. At the film's
beginning the board members in the "Chamber of Commerce" (euphemism for
government) wear native dress as they acknowledge their assumption of
political/ economic power. They then change into well-cut, European three-
piece suits once they reach the boardroom's sanctity. Similarly, the secretary of
El Hadji's warehouse wears a traditional African dress while outside in the
streets, but once in the office she takes off this outer layer to reveal a European
dress underneath.
two wives represent the duality that has become Africa. The first
El Hadji's
wife, Adja Awa Astou (Adja refers to a female pilgrim), is a woman with
dignity and wears the traditional African dress. She understands the institution
of polygamy which in her wisdom and womanhood she knows she cannot
change. She accepts the traditional role of service to her husband without
undue concern for money and success. The second wife, Oumi N'Doye, never
talks to El Hadji except about sex and money. She, unlike Awa who always
speaks Wolof, almost always addresses El Hadji and her children in French.
She likes Western dress and likes to appear sexy. She stands as a symbolic
figure of neo-colonial destruction.
One is the ban on
of the customs of Senegal's Islamized cultural heritage
nudity. Sembene's use of a nude portrait of the bride on the wall of her
80 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

bedroom, with her back to the viewer, defines the new modernity while at the
same time it defies a cultural heritage. The bride, in white bridal gown, also
refers visually to the Western wedding. As if these were not enough, Sembene
includes white plastic figures as the decorations on the large wedding cake.
The choice of language spoken throughout the film is also symbolic in the
way it is used. The use of French in Xala clearly sets those acculturated to
European ways apart from the masses who speak Wolof and are seen as the
preservers of indigenous culture. El Hadji speaks French throughout to the
disgust of his progressive daughter Rama:

El Hadji [angrily] Rama, why do you answer in Wolof when I speak to you in French?
Rama [in WoloJ] Father, have a good day."

Not only is Rama associated with the language issue in the film but she also acts
and behavior, and is not
as her father's conscience, questioning his motives
intimidated by him. Rama also represents the omnipresent and omniscient
"voice" behind the film. As the hope of liberated Africa, all progressive
statements in the film are associated with her.

El Hadji [angrily] Who are "dirty dogs," Rama?

Rama Men!
El Hadji Why are they "dirty dogs'?
Rama Every polygamous man is a liar.

El Hadji [astounded but firmly] Say that again?

Rama Every polygamous man is a liar.

In another instance, he offers her a drink, Evian, an imported mineral

water from France:

El Hadji Ok, ok, let us have a drink. Here, drink, my child.

Rama I don't drink imported water.
El Hadji It's the drink I prefer. I drink two litres a day.

During the meeting of the board called to determine the

special
advisability of retaining El Hadji in the administration. El Hadji is summoned
to answer for misuse of funds and for writing bad checks. Here, however, he
uses the same words of his daughter Rama against his adversaries. Further-
more, his request to speak in Wolof rather than French indicates a reversal in
his moral character.

Board-member El Hadji, the colonial period is finished. We govern the country. You
collaborate with the government. Big Mouth.
El Hadji President, 1 will speak in Wolof.
Board-member President, point of order. In French, old boy. The official language is

French.
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 81

President Calm down, act civilized. El Hadji, you may speak but in French. Even the
insults in the purest tradition of Francophonia.
El Hadji Each one of us is a "dirty dog." 1 repeat "dirty dogs," probably worse than I.

We are crabs in a single basket. We have all given bad cheques [ . . .

]

The entire spectrum of symbols used in the film reminds us of Africa-in-

its-otherness flirting with Africa-rooted-in-its-own. All the cited cultural codes
serve asopen symbols whose meaning is quite literal, i.e., Africa stripped of her
cultural identity and dignity. The film also explicitly criticizes those who
command political and economic power for their myopic vision of indepen-
dence and for their confused mixing of their own class interests with those of
African liberation.

The class code. Throughout the film there is a game of opposition between the
—
nouveau riche and the people those who speak French and those who do not,
those assimilated by the system and those who are its rejects. These two groups
share a common heritage and a form of interdependency. Their paths,
however, differ in one crucial area wealth. —
Sembene wastes no time in making dialectical logic out of the two classes'
interaction. A band of crippled beggars makes us uneasy, but since we follow
the lives of the affluent, it is the bourgeoisie's class nature that dominates. The
beggars are often seen but, except through the theme music that comments on
their situation, they are not heard, so they mutely remind us of the harsh
^^
realities in urban Africa.
The film's use offers a real picture of urban Africa.
of mass beggars
Sembene depicts the less fortunate as victims of the bourgeoisie who deprive
them of basic needs and view them with utter contempt. The beggars do not
have a way to redress wrongs done to them. In their despair, therefore, after El
Hadji has been stripped of his wealth and his second and his third wife have
deserted him, they confront him in Awa's villa. [Since Awa (meaning, 'the first
woman on earth') represents traditional Africa, El Hadji's return to her
symbolizes the exile's complete return to his roots.] Seated like a "tribal" jury,
this band tells El Hadji that they alone can cure his impotence.

El Hadji [as he emerges from his bedroom in pajamas'] What is this,

"Robbery"?
Gogul, the blind man Robbery? No, "Vengeance"!! Our story goes back a long time
ago, before your first marriage with this lady. What I have
become is your fault. You appropriated our inheritance. You
falsified our names and we were expropriated. 1 was thrown in

prison. 1 am of the Beye family. Now 1 will get my revenge. I

arranged your xala.

If you want to be a man, undress nude in front of everyone. We
will spit on you.
82 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

Again, it is the concern for self which motivates El Hadji to subject himself
to this debasement and revenge by the beggars, whom he had once called
"human rubbish." The symbolic class implications are enormous.
Sembene does not use stereotypes such as depicting the exploiter as
ridiculously evil and the exploited as simply heroic, as is the case with the
Chinese films we examined. In Xala we feel empathy for both El Hadji and the
beggars. Sembene clearly sides with African unity against the corrupting
influence of imposed systems and cultures that divide Africans into exploiters
and the exploited. Rather, seems evident that since Sembene warns the
it

emerging bourgeoisie not to lose sight of its own traumas and inevitable fall
from power, he clearly shows a difference between human nature and the
corrupting influence of foreign systems and cultures on Africa.
"Xala," in fact, indicates a "temporary sexual impotence,"
—"temporary"
suggests that the bourgeois era will end one day. It also implies that the new
when reeducated and having undergone proletarianization will
bourgeoisie
become an active and valuable cadre when the dominated class seizes and
assumes power. Just as the oppressed offer a cure for El Hadji's xala, therefore,
so too do they for Africa.
What has given most viewers of Xala an uncertain feeling about the film's
ending is on El Hadji. The scene challenges spectators to
the ritual of spitting
forget their viewing habits, to fight conventional codes and attend to a new
—
experience a new code. The spitting seems like a vomiting of bile a symbolic —
social act. Its treatment in film language makes it a powerful "trope" or
cinematic rhetoric to connote the bourgeoisie's spiritual and material deca-
dence and the common people's expression of anger and outrage against that
class. Furthermore, the spitting on El Hadji helps reincorporate him into the

people's fold. In other words, the ritual becomes a folk method of purgation
which makes El Hadji a literal incarnation of all members of the class or group
that spit on him and consequently reintegrates him into folk society.

Filmic codes. we accept the notion that artistic choice also connotes
If

ideological choice we must begin to investigate the ideological weight carried

by a film's formal elements. The spectators' involvement in Xala does not
come, I contend, from the plot and story structure alone but also from the
execution of some basic cinematic elements such as editing, composition,
camera positioning and movement.
Sembene acts effectively in Xala in his editing strategy and composition
within the frame. An excellent instance of his editing comes in the sequence of
the wedding reception, an event documenting the foibles of the emerging
bourgeoisie. Two men, a minister and a deputy, meet at a doorway:
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 83

Deputy Mr. Minister, after you.

Minister No, Mr. Deputy, after you.
Deputy No, Minister, you are the government representative.
Minister But you represent the people.
Deputy 1 will wait.

Minister and Deputy Let us wait.

They remain by the door. In the next shot we see the bride's mother and
erect
aunt cutting up the meat, followed by a shot of the wedding cake where
everyone is waiting for a share. Here are two government officials splitting the
nation into halves by claiming that they represent either "the people" or "the
government." They cut Africa as if it were a piece of meat which people
assemble to get a share of.
In terms of composition there are two examples in the film that are indeed
remarkable. One is at the wedding reception. We see the bride's mother and
aunt, Ya Binta, coming towards the camera to greet El Hadji's first and second
wife who enter the frame from the right side. The camera lingers on this shot
while we listen to them exchange greetings. We notice their dress all have —
African dresses except El Hadji's second wife, Oumi. But the dress worn by the
bride's aunt reveals the film's whole nature and complexity she wears a most —
colorful dress that appears, at first sight, authentically African; however, it is
spotted with figures of a white European model.
Another instance in which the composition of the film takes on great
meaning takes place in El Hadji's warehouse office where Rama, seated in front
of a map of Africa, talks to her father. [Note the double entendre in the
dialogue. According to folk tradition, xala is usually attributed to the first

wife's jealousy so that in private and public quarters Awa would be blamed for
it.]

El Hadji Rama, my child, sit down. How is school?

Rama I do my best. And the activities?

El Hadji Ok, ok. Everything allright at home?

Rama Yes.
El Hadji Did your mother send you?
Rama No, I came on my own. I am old enough to understand certain things.
El Hadji [suspecting that she might be referring to his xala] Understand what?
Rama Mother is suffering.
El Hadji Is she sick?
Rama Physically, no.I remind you, father, that mother is your first wife.

El Hadji Iknow, my daughter. I will come by, tell her so.

Rama No. She doesn't know I have come.

Before Rama stands up to walk out of the frame Sembene makes us take note
of the map of Africa behind her once again. We notice too that the color of the
map reflects the exact same colors of Rama's traditional boubou (native
84 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

costume) — blue, purple, green and yellow — and it is not divided into bound-
aries and states. It denotes pan-Africanism.

El Hadji My child, you don't need anything? [he searches his wallet]
Rama Just mother's happiness [she then walks out of theframe as the camera lingers on
the map]

What Sembene is saying to us isand no longer inaccessible. On

quite direct
one level, Rama —
shows concern for her mother this occupies a place of
meaning in the dialogue. On another level, when we consider the African map
which occupies the same screen space as Rama, her concern becomes not only
her maternal mother but "Mother Africa." This notion carries an extended
meaning when we observe the shot of El Hadji to his side we see a large —
colonial map of Africa. The "wax" and "gold" are posited jointly by a simple
instance of composition. Here then is an excellent case where two realities fight
to command the frame, but finally it is the "gold" meaning which leaps out and
breaks the boundaries of the screen.
Low and high angle shots, common connotative devices in filmmaking,
abound in Xala. Their use in the film has visual and ideological meaning. I will
cite three examples to illustrate how shots acquire ideological signification.
As introduced to us through a quick visual montage and a voice-
the film is

over narration on "African Socialism," we see the colonial representative leave,

taking their miniature statues and busts of white figures with them. Immediate-
ly following, the new government of Africans enter a huge building — they are
shot from a low angle, a shot which connotes power. The next time we see
them, they are shot from a high angle, a shot which diminishes the people
depicted. They are opening briefcases full of money handed to them by the
whites whom we saw leaving just a short while back.
In the high angle shot of the boardroom we see the members of the
Chamber seated around what appears to be a pool table. The color is green, the
color of money which their business meeting will generate. The six men seated
around the table seem to represent the six pool-table pockets. In the meeting
room, a white advisor stands in the background, like an overseer as in the
colonial era, still visible and still calling the shots. The composition makes us
realize that any change in power is merely illusory and only cosmetic.
Gorgul, the blind man, the leader of the beggars, does not have many lines
to speak (he does not speak until a few minutes before the film ends), but he has
visual importance. All through the film when the beggars are shown, we see the
blind man singled out, shot mostly from a low angle, giving him an appearance
of some kind of power and a sense of majesty. When the film's point of view
coincides with that of the other beggars, however, we see him shot at eye-level.
So long as a "cultural curtain" exists between peoples and nations, an
understanding of how films articulate space and time becomes crucial to
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 85

understanding films coming from a geographical and cultural distance. African

films (or other Third World films) when shown outside of their cultural context
tend to lose their message. Therefore, the degree to which films transcend the
cultural curtainbecomes critical to any discussion of film's effectiveness. These
matters often depend on the issue of film's spatial-temporal significations.*'
In Xala there is one continuous scene which calls attention to itself It is a
scene where Modu, El Hadji's chauffeur, opens a bottle of imported mineral
water (El Hadji's favorite drink), empties it into the Mercedes' radiator,
discards the empty bottle, and closes the hood. Screen time here is identical to
the actual time it would take in real life. Any American or European film
student might be tempted to shorten the scene without any loss in "meaning."
But the issue is not what the film lacks but what it possesses. We must interpret
the scene as it is coded. We need to remember that of all the characters in Xala,
Modu is the only person engaged in any kind of concrete labor. Sembene, a
man understanding Marx and Lenin, does not want the scene's implication to
go unnoticed. The scene, therefore, forces time to become space and space to
become time to emphasize these elements as well as the comedy inherent in the
character's labor.
Another instance of Sembene's use of time and space occurs in the last few
scenes, when El Hadji submits to the beggars who spit on him. First, the camera
pans (a shot that maintains the integrity of the space) around the proud figure
of El Hadji standing half-naked, the spittle covering his shoulders and chest.
The camera then registers a medium shot of his son and daughter standing by
watching their father's humiliation; it lingers on an intimate image of Awa in
tears. Next, time is stuck, frozen —
the image of El Hadji is caught as in a freeze
frame. And we too must stop for a moment to ponder the meaning of this man
and his suffering. Since we cannot rely on El Hadji to "stay put" in the predicted
space offered by the changing world of the screen, we are denied any easy
identification with his fate. We skip to a different period — the joyous time of
the Independence Celebration and the festive mood at his wedding. Time has
played a cruel trick on El Hadji and the class he represents. We watch and
reconstruct a picture of Africa which allows us to be analytical and objective
and demands of us that we take sides.
Xala is not simply another film made by an African which treats themes
and elements. It does not rely on the concepts and propositions of conventional
cinema, be it American, Russian or European. Xala uniquely takes African
folk-narrative tradition and translates it fully into filmic form.
Cinema does not have to tell a story only one way. It does not have to
perpetuate the status quo. The meaningful road to African cinema lies in a
cinema that draws from the wealth of its cultural and aesthetic traditions. Xala
marks and signals a turning point in the development of African cinema in that
the folk-narrative tradition and cinema acquire a measure of peaceful
86 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

coexistence. This requires the establishment of a new cinematic code, one

which will evolve its own system governed by its own set of rules and criteria of
excellence. This brief study has attempted to appraise critically the code-in-
formation and the direction of a new cinema — a cinema of wax and gold.
Ceddo: A Revolution Reborn through the Efforts of Womanhood

Ceddo is a film of reflections. The and events from an epoch stretching

film presents facts
over hundreds of years and which is still with us today. Reflections on the appropriation of
power. Anticipations of the coups de'etat of the Africa of today. Reflections on theguih of
the former feudal classes and the bourgeoisie of today. Reflections over the responsibility
direct or indirect — of religion for the alienation of the African —even today. Reflections over
the slave trade where the toys and trinkets of today were objects of exchange. Reflections on
the spirituality of the African.*"

With his latest film Ousmane Sembene

come to loggerheads with the
has
Censorship Board of Sengal for the third time. Ceddo (1977), like Emitai and
Xala, has been delayed in getting onto Senegalese screens. The controversy
centers around the word and the linguistic origin of the term
spelling of the
"ceddo." Senegal's Commission for Cinematograph Control refused to release
the film unless the title of the film was changed from "Ceddo" to "Cedo."
Sembene refused on the grounds that the government's preferred spelling is a
violation of African identity and that it represents the continuation of
colonialist influence in Senegal.
After a heated debate Senegalese officials agreed to release the film as
spelled if Sembene would agree to precede the film with a commentary and
explanation that the film was "a fictitious reconstruction of a historical
nature." Sembene stood his ground.
What is central to the controversy surrounding Ceddo, beyond the
linguistic dispute and the film's historical reference, is its ideological implica-
tions. What Ceddo about?
then is

"Ceddo," meaning "outsider," is about the history of Africa compressed

into the short span of time of the life of a traditional African village. The film
seems to be set during the period when North African Arabs were creating
Islamic empires all over Africa. In an African village the king and some of his
subjects are converted to Islam. The majority of his people hold on to their
traditional gods and The village has
are, therefore, considered "outsiders."
three symbolic foreigners who
on African spirituality: a European
intrude
trader, a Catholic priest and an Arab Moslem. The film traces the former
colonial period during which these three elements which came from the outside
coalesced to rob Africa of its culture and identity. Where religion could not
penetrate, the intruders resorted to arms. But to acquire arms, one needed to
have slaves. Thus, the African people became objects of trade in the struggle for
power.
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 87

The Ceddo, therefore, represents Africans who resisted wholesale conver-

sion to Islam and, to a lesser extent, Christianity. To be Ceddo is to be a warrior
of just causes. According to Sembene:

The Ceddo is group nor a religion, it is rather a manner of being with rules
neither an ethnic
and regulations. The Ceddo a lively mind or spirit, rich in the double meaning of words and
is

knows the forbidden meanings. The Ceddo is innocent of sin and transgression. The Ceddo is
jealous of his/her absolute liberty.*'

Thefilm opens with the daughter of the king, the princess Dior, being
kidnapped by one of the "outsiders," the Ceddo. Several of the princess's
suitors, including the king's nephew, try to rescue her but are slain by her
captor. The King's loss of his daughter and his inability to determine what
necessary course of action to take in order to rescue her causes a rift in the
system between him and the Muslims.
The Muslim Imam, who has gained religious as well as political power in
the village, kills the king (his death by snakebite is apparently an assassination)
and declares himself king. To reinforce his power the Imam wants to marry the
princess. Therefore, he sends out some of his followers to rescue the princess
Dior and kill her captor. This done, the film ends with the princess killing the
Imam. This is the bare skeleton of the film.
The kidnapping of Princess Dior is not simply an act of rebellion by the
Ceddo. The established order in the village had lost control— it had become
impotent— and Dior is claimed by Ceddo as a demand for a renewal of the
society. The princess personifies the figurehead, the Samp, the most sacred
object in the village's culture. The head of the Samp bears the image of Dior.
Dior is thus the goddess, the Samp. The base of the Samp when planted in the
ground designates sacred and sanctified earthwhere the men gather to
determine the future of their village. In kidnapping Dior, therefore, the
Ceddo's plan is to impregnate her figuratively with the spirit of revolution.
Ceddo is about opposing groups and cuhures. The opposing cultures are
realized in terms of icons. The princess represents indigenous culture she —
symbolizes tradition. Furthermore, she represents the future, since she is not
yet called "Queen." Islamic influence is represented by sheiks and the Imam,
and Christianity and Western beliefs by the white trader and the Catholic
priest. Dior is proud, graceful and silent. The camera follows her slowly,
respects her privacy. The white trader is seen only briefly, perhaps to
foreshadow the future bondage of the village. There is a distant shot of him at
the beginning of the film as he trades firearms for humans. At a royal ceremony
we see the trader and the Catholic priest sitting close by, and isolated by the
camera from the surroundings.
Sembene's camera style is often governed by the ideological meaning it
imparts. In one instance, the Imam is shot from medium to close-up— this is in
88 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

the scene where one of the king's entourage tells Muslim Sheik that he is
the
assuming equal authority with the king. Then we see the Muslim leader rise
(low angle, showing dominance) and say there is no king besides Allah. From
the shooting angle we have a transition from being equal (eye-level) to the royal
elders to actually being above them (high-angle) in power. After the death of
the king, when the village is taken over by the Muslims, the villagers are shaved
to signal their conversion to Islam. The camera registers a high-angle shot of
the seated crowd, the Ceddo, and the shot implies that they are belittled in the
eyes of the MusUms. Subsequently each individual is called to the new Muslim
leader for renaming." Here, the frame is deep-focus to show the crowd as
dominated and humiliated by being forced to acquire another name — another
culture, another identity.
At a point, after the Ceddo has two warriors who were sent to rescue
killed

her, Princess Dior cleanses herself in a river and transforms herself into a
seductress. Then calmly and enticingly she offers water to her captor, an act
which he interprets as a ritual offering of surrender. He soon abandons this
—
notion when she tries to seize the weapons a bow and poisonous arrows
which he had carelessly cast aside to accept the jug of water from her. Her
failure and his success in stopping her from getting his weapons shows that she
is not simply an empty-headed sex object. He is too vigilant to be taken in by

the wiles of a seductress, however. When he is finally killed by the Imam's men,
therefore, it is appropriate that Sembene shows the first meeting of the Princess
and the Ceddo in a flashback (shot from Dior's point of view), a true
sacramental offer of drinking water to a thirsty noble stranger, a potent symbol
of welcome in those areas of Africa where water is worth its weight in gold. It is
after this flashback that the Princess becomes imbued with the spirit of Ceddo.
As Princess Dior enters the village, dignified and haughty, her appearance
galvanizes the subdued shaven crowd into swift, silent and coordinated action
during which they render the guards powerless by putting the muzzles of guns
into their mouths. This enables the princess to overtake the guards and shoot
the Muslim leader seated on her father's throne. The Princess, being the
"Ceddo" now, imbues her people with the desire for freedom. So the Ceddo is
actually reborn through the efforts of womanhood. Ceddo brings up and in an
active manner condemns the vestiges of the oppression of women inherent in
the Islamic cultures which overlay most traditional African cultures. That the
heroine, Dior, should be the chosen instrument of destruction of the alien
culture shows unequivocally that the earth of Africa must be energized into
revolution through womanhood or otherwise remain emasculated in slavery.
Some critics felt that Sembene had abandoned in Ceddo the earlier
approach of a "cinema of silence" which he had developed so well in Emitai.
But although "silence" in Ceddo might appear minimal, it is very significant in
the film. The absence of sound distinguishes two of the central characters in the
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 89

film, from whom verbal responses are most anticipated. The king's silence, for
instance, connotes impotence and indecision. In the face of danger — he has
nothing to say. Also the Ceddo who
kidnaps Dior seldom speaks, except to
define his disposition at the beginning of the kidnapping. In person, his silence
throughout ispregnant with meaning since he occupies the focal point of the
entire film. Dior, too, at first speaks of her abduction and threatens her captor,
but in the context of the entire film she hardly says much and when she does act,
as in the last scenewhere she executes the Muslim leader, it is performed in
absolute silence. The silence signifies two levels of meaning: first, Sembene
seems to say tradition is instinctual and articulation is not necessary for active
opposition to the Muslim religion, now symbolic of foreign religions. Second,
the silence seems to mean reverence for traditional cuhure which in spite of
external influences and internal strife remains true to its African identity.
The extent of the verbiage in Ceddo as well as Emitai (two of Sembene 's
films shot in social space) is in reverse proportion to the characters' ability to
act or for their action to be successful. The best examples are the king in Ceddo
and the chief of the elders who dies in a battle in Emitai. By way of contrast
consider the women Emitai and the crowd in Ceddo they hardly say much
in —
in the film but when it becomes time to act, they are swift and deadly. That is
what is meant by a "cinema of silence."
Sembene 's use of music in Ceddo is perhaps the major departure from his
At one juncture,
earlier films. when Africans are being branded by the white
trader,Afro-American spiritual music is introduced. This musical accom-
paniment comes as a surprise since it does not readily correspond to the
physical action. In other words, instead of heightening the emotional content
or reinforcing the theme, it adds yet another dimension to the film. The
spiritual/ gospel music denotes distancing of the slaves and establishes a
historical perspective. It also further enhances the view that African culture has
survived despite the dilution of the language and the religion of Western
"civilization." The spiritual music, therefore, pushes events forward in time
towards a later chronological/ historical period.
Sembene's growth and development as a filmmaker has taken phenome-
nal strides with Ceddo. All of Sembene's films search into the wealth of African
culture to select appropriate codes to create a new twist in meaning to give —
voice to an ideology contrary to the prevailing status quo. In Ceddo Sembene
again acts as a modern day griot, a cultural spokesman, by showing how
reprehensible women's repression is and what is being lost by it. According to
Sembene:

When the princess kills the Imam, it has great symbolic significance for modern Senegal.
This action is contrary to present ideas and the role that women now hold. And this is the
only reason, in my opinion, that the film has been banned in Senegal. Women have no value
in our Moslem-dominated society and this representation of women is something Islam
cannot accept.*^
90 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

Harvest: 3000 Years: A Case of Oral Narrative and Film Form

Haile Gerima in Harvest: 3000 Years has created a personal style of "text in
motion" where oral narrative art, with its symbols, references, and double
meanings, appears to coexist with filmic modes. Like oral performers the
filmmaker has used commonly known symbols and images of the cycle of
poverty in a feudal society. As in oral art, the film relies on repetitions of cryptic
proverbs and poems, symbols and metaphors. The storyteller's device of
repetition to heighten, emphasize and deepen meaning is used throughout,
giving the film a trance-like rhythmic quality. Images of plowing, planting,
hoeing, digging, harvesting and other field work appear as a repeated theme.
The pace of the film, as in oral narration, is the pace of a leisurely narrator.
Harvest: 3000 Years best exemplifies the aesthetic of liberation of the
Third Cinema in the way it blends imaginatively oral narrative art with
revolutionary film form.^"* The film treats the story of an honest peasant family
working on a plot of land. A layer is added to this the greedy landlord. —
Another layer is added still, the life of an insane man (whose land was taken
from him by the landlord). Layer after layer is piled on this simple story. On a
deeper level, the film is truly about Ethiopia and about systems of oppression
that enslave individuals and thereby create a repressive ideology of total
submission. The film's examination of societal ills and the need for revolution-
ary action calls for an analysis of its thematic as well as stylistic strategy.
Harvest: 3000 Years is long and repetitive. The film, like the storyteller's
art, allows us to share the quality of the peasants' life —
their patience and their
endurance. On another level the repeated lyrics, "Your 3000-year-old dress is

not yet torn," warns us not to be complacent with the continuation of that
existence. The opening sequences in the film establish the central code of the
culture of poverty, where a family unit consisting of a grandmother, father,
mother, daughter (who dies in the film) and son (who subsequently leaves the
family unit) form a family of exploited peasants. Once these opening scenes are
established they serve as the code to which all subsequent shots and sequences
of shots refer. The number three which seems to be universally important in
storytelling and folklore recurs constantly in the film and becomes a basic
structural device and a thematic strategy. Each shot and sequence in the film is
marked by three images (or characters) forming triangular patterns. No image
in Harvest: 3000 Years exists without its correlations. Just as an oral form,
images come and go, appear, vanish and reappear, endlessly recalling other
images and associations. Triangular patterns of images and characters interact
unceasingly, in theme and style, to form other, greater triangular patterns
which mark the development of the film's structure. The basic antagonism of
the principals is established in a series of three stages:
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 91

a. The first main contradiction between the

part of the film establishes the
two principal characters, the landlord and the lunatic shown separately.
b. Toward the middle of the film the two antagonists are linked by a swish
pan/ reverse pan as they hurl accusations at each other.
c. Toward the end of the film the lunatic and the landlord are shown finally
occupying the same frame. Because we have been prepared throughout
the film for this confrontation, we know the two cannot coexist; one
must, therefore, be eliminated from the frame. The lunatic beats the
landlord to death.

There are also three distinct facial close-ups in the film:

a. The first image of the film is an extreme close-up shot of the son of the
landlord.
b. Shortly after, therean extreme close-up shot of the peasant father as he
is

walks downhill to work on the land.

c. The last image of the entire film is an extreme close-up shot of the
peasant's son.

The close-up image of the landord's son at the opening of the film and the
close image of the peasant's son end of the film serve as brackets for
at the
patterned triangles with dissolves and stop-frame opticals through which a new
consciousness is released in the audience just as it rises in the peasant boy.

Three characters die in the film, the landlord, the lunatic and the peasant
girl. There are three dream sequences in the film, the servant's dream, that of
the landlord and the peasant girl's. In each instance, the dream of the characters
reveals actual or/ and potential consciousness:

a. Peasant girl —actual: to be liberated and free

potential (via her dreams/ represented three times): to fight
back
b. The landlord —actual: master of his laborers
potential (via his daydream): fear of persecution
c. the servant — actual: to serve the landlord's son
potential (via his fantasy/ three kinds): to sit in his master's
chair

Harvest: 3000 Years, like oral narrative art, therefore, rests on atemporal logic.
The filmmaker thus subverts linear time and space in order to call attention to
ideas on an intellectual level. Dream sequences are used to reveal fears and
desires; they symbolize exploitation or liberation. Dream sequences in the film
firmly anchor the trance-like quality of the film. Endless delineations of
92 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes

triangular visual patterns ensue throughout the film. Visual patterns within a
triangle combine back to previous triangular patterns always referring
to revert
to the initial code of the opening sequence. For instance, in the scene before the
act of the landlord'smurder we see him seated in the foreground while peasants
bring him their harvest. The scene mirrors two triangles, (a) itself, and (b) the
triangle of the landscape and the hill in the background. Previous triangular
visual patterns refer to it and subsequent patterns enhance the last triangular
synthesis.
The character of the lunatic is drawn from a wealth of oral and cultural
traditions. He
speaks throughout of the exploitation and repression of the
feudal system —
he speaks the truth of the film. Although he is consistently
portrayed as "mad," we can see the sanity of his observations. The "lunatic"
uses the license given to "madmen" by feudal Ethiopian society to speak freely
and to the point. The filmmaker, working in the final days of Emperor Haile
Selassie's rule, appropriated this same "license" in order to comment and
ideologize freely in the film. The filmmaker makes it clear that although his
character is portrayed as "mad" throughout the story, it is in fact only the
repressive ideology of the society which has branded him as such.
The film is, therefore, not about individuals and their interaction but
rather it is primarily about the pattern of relationships in a feudal society.
Individual emotions are seldom emphasized and there is little passion except in
the form of sadness and resignation in the film. Thus, we are detached viewers
as the pattern of the film unfolds. For instance, we are not emotionally drawn
into the emotions of the madman, although we can see intellectually the justice
of his position. Again, the hanging scene invites little vicarious remorse. The
dramatic impact of the scene is purposely diminished because we are aware of
the fact of the hanging before it is discovered by the police. The editing strategy
thus brings out, and in an active way, the film's underlying theme, its political
meaning. In this manner we are left not with an emotional feeling of sadness but
with an intellectual awareness of political injustice.
Direct communication devices, the bulwark of traditional narrative
practice, also emerge in Harvest: 3000 Years. Haile Gerima uses this direct
communicative device in the scene involving the peasant girl whose frustration
and desire for freedom is strongly portrayed. From a sitting position in the field
where she is looking after the landlord's cattle she looks over her shoulder and
thereupon is engrossed in her earlier dream, in which she sees the landlord
dressed in white seated above on a hilltop gazing out across his vast land. She
then turns to the audience. The camera tilts upward and registers a close-up
shot of her face as she addresses the viewer directly, "even if I am a woman, I

won't submit — I am not afraid." The direct involvement of the film with the
audience achieves two purposes: it highlights the meaning of her speech while
substituting an older folk tradition for the narrative conventions of film.
 Cultural Codes vs. Ideological Codes 93

Immediately after she speaks the Hnes she is abruptly awakened from her
reverie and thrust back into the reality of her repression. She is called
ironically
to rescue the landlord's stray calf from the river and drowns in the attempt.
Returning to the theme of triangular devices, the dialectical summation of
the film is most intriguing. The peasant boy seems to escape the confines of the
triangular structure and emerges finally as the single most important force.
Until now there has been no hint of potential change. The slightest intimation
of the possibility of social change is suddenly manifest in the peasant boy. This
implication is achieved by the last scenes of the film, where fast-moving close
action shots stand out as significant acts particularly when contrasted to the
measured and pace of the entire film up to that point. The tight shot of
leisurely
the boy's grasp of the back of the thundering truck lends urgency to his action.
He looks back to the land he is fleeing from, he looks at us looking at him. The
act is dramatically grand. But has the boy indeed broken away from the
confines of the triangular pattern? If he is the synthesis of the film there still

appears a counter-synthesis at large, the son of the landlord, who with the
peasant's son establishes a new and inescapable dialectic. There is an
implication that the struggle between these two will continue.
The more subtly encoded meaning of the film, however, may rest with an
almost forgotten third figure, Kentu, the servant, the most exploited character
of all, who again completes the triangle. Throughout the film he has been the
only "neutral" contact between all of the other characters. Unlike the other two

he remains environment to become the repository of the memory of

tied to his
the events that have occurred. Kentu thus becomes the potential narrator and
oral interpreter to his community. This suggests, both in terms of oral tradition
and of film, that Kentu would emerge as a pivotal figure in any sequel that
might be made of Harvest: 3000 Years.
 7

Conclusion

The infant study of Third Cinema has already set as its point of departure the
—
examination of the unique context cultural and ideological in which these —
films have been produced. The critical inquiry that has evolved must address
jointly the areas of text and context and it is to that end that the following
should be taken into account.
Third Cinema must, above be recognized as a cinema of subversion. It
all,

is a cinema that emerges from the peoples who have suffered under the spells of
mystified cinema and who seek the demystification of representational
practices as part of the process of liberation. Third Cinema aims at a
destruction and construction at the same time; a destruction of the images of
colonial or neo-colonial cinema, and a construction of another cinema that
captures the revolutionary impulse of the peoples of the Third World. It is a
progressive cinema founded on folk culture whose role it is to intervene on
behalf of the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America who must fight equally
for political as well as cultural liberation.
A examination of Third Cinema cannot take place outside of a
critical
comprehensive knowledge of the lives and struggles of Third World people, in
both their past and their present histories. Lacking this historical perspective,
the film critic or theorist can only reflect on the ways in which this cinema
undermines and innovates traditional practices of representation, but he/she
will loose sight of the context in which the cinema operates. An equally
significant component of the critical perspective that must be adopted is the
recognition of the TEXT that pre-exists each new text and that binds the
filmmaker to a set of values, mores, traditions and behaviors in a word, —
"culture"— which is at all moments the obligatory point of departure. Without
the necessary understanding of this pre-existent TEXT, critical inquiry would
fall into the trap of auteurist fallacies and "aesthetic" evaluative stances.

One of the characteristics that most films of the Third Cinema share in
common is the adjustments they had to make in response to the extremely
repressive environments from which they originate. The narration and titles of
La Mora de Los Homos represent a radical intervention over footage that in its
96 Conclusion

uncut version would hardly attract the attention of Argentinian censors. The
hand-held camera allowed Lasi Grave at Dimbaza, Cry of the People or Blood
Will Triumph over the Sword to be made quickly and cheaply all to the —
detriment of technical quality and aesthetic control. Similarly, a shoot-and-run
technique enabled The Battle of Chile to escape the tightest security when it was
filmed in Chile.
These technical or aesthetic compromises are compensated for in the
"educational" potential that the films strive for. While they inscribe the
repressive conditions under which the filmmakers are forced to operate, these
qualities provided the "index of urgency" by which such efforts must be
measured. The more urgent the need to educate, the more didactic the format
becomes and the less important it is to achieve complete control of the
production conditions. This is mostly the case with documentaries, and the five
films cited above are prime examples of instances where delivering an urgent
message had to take precedence over formal concerns.
On the other end of the spectrum are films whose "entertainment"
potential is not compromised by their radical perspectives. Most Cuban films,
for example, were made under conditions that allowed them to develop and
control a film vocabulary which could engage an audience in an entertaining
way while addressing various political as well as ideological issues. Solas's
Lucia, Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment and The Last Supper or Vega's
Portrait of Teresa, all evince a style of realism that allows for an empathetic
entry into the world of fiction while at the same time raising questions of
revolutionary tactics and ideological confrontations.
The "entertainment" format also allows a filmmaker to deal with
questions of culture directly. Because culture in its mass character moves
unevenly in relation to the political and economic factors that shape history, an
examination of the cultural fabric of society becomes crucial. Ousmane
Sembene stands out as an example of a filmmaker who raises political issues
through an examination of cultural practices. Through the use of satire, for
example, a mode that is the bulwark of African oral narratives. Sembene
entertains the audience with the antics of his characters while, at the same time,
he invites the audience to reflect on the conditions of oppression. Mandabi and
Xala are characteristic examples of his style, while Ceddo, his latest film, has an
added dimension since it brings up. and in an active way condemns, the vestiges
of the oppression of women inherent in the Islamic cultures that have
historically overlaidmost traditional African cultures. He makes his point by
portraying a confrontation between the two cultures that is resolved when the
heroine, Dior, restores the sovereignty of the African heritage and overthrows
Muslim oppression.
The issue of women in relation to culturally defined practices is also taken
up in a number of films that deal with machismo within the context of
 Conclusion 97

revolutionary struggles. Such is the case, for example, with the third episode of
Lucia, Sara Gomez's One Way or Another and Pastor Vega's Portrait of
Teresa or the third and fourth episodes of Antonio Equino's Chuquiago. On
the other hand, the Mozambiquan films A Luta Continua (filmed during the
armed struggle) and O Povo Organizado (a post-independence film) seem to
suggest that struggle with culture is going to be harder for the women than was
their political struggle against Portuguese colonialism.
Similarity, the recurrent character of the lunatic as a stand-up comic in
Third World films has also been used to educate and at the same time entertain.
The Algerian film. Chronicle of the Years of Embers, and the Ethiopian film,
Harvest: 3000 Years, both feature a lunatic as the central character. In each
case, the lunatic is dressed like a zen monk and recites keans, criptic
sayings/ poems. The lunatic in his madness appears licensed to shelter
revolutionary ideas whereas, in fact, it is the filmmaker who harbors and uses
the license to hurl political revolutionary messages across to the audience.
Interestingly enough, in the Chronicle of the Years of Embers, it is, in fact, the

film director himself who plays this role of the crazy poet.
Finally, it is the elaboration of cultural elements — both as a reference and
as a topic — that gives each film in the Third Cinema its unique character
despite the fact that they all address issues of political struggle which are
relevant on an international level. These cultural elements constitute the
empathetic point of entry that will allow the spectators to recognize themselves
at the same time open up an identificatory mechanism in
as the film tries to
order to point out the agents and causes of historical development that have
shaped that culture. Regardless of the particular style that a film adopts, the
ultimate goal of Third Cinema is to present their audiences with a rational
interpretation of a historically defined reality so that a line of causation can be
established which they can use in order to understand and change their
condition. It is in this double movement of cultural identification and radical
historicization that Third Cinema is a cinema of intervention in the service of
revolutionary social change.
 Appendix A

Filmmakers and the Popular Government:

A Political Manifesto*

Chilean filmmakers, it is time for us all to undertake, together with our people, the great task of
national liberation and the construction of socialism.

It is time for us to begin to redeem our own values in order to affirm our cultural and political
identity.

Let us no longer allow the dominant classes to uproot the symbols which the people have
produced in the course of their long struggle for liberation.

Let us no longer permit national values to be used to uphold the capitalist regime.

Let us start from the class instinct of the people and with this contribute to the making of a class
consciousness.

Let us not limit ourselves from going beyond our contradictions; let us develop them and open
for ourselves the way which leads to the construction of a lucid and liberating culture.

The long struggle of our people for their emancipation has laid down for us the way to be
followed. Let us recover the traces of those great popular struggles falsified by official history, and
give back to the people the true version of these struggles as a legitimate and necessary heritage for
confronting the present and envisaging the future.

Let us recover the tremendous figure of Balmaceda, anti-oligarchist and anti-imperialist.

Let us reaffirm that Recabarreu belongs to the people, that Carrera, O'Higgins, Manuel
Rodriguez, Bilbao, as well as the anonymous miner who fell one morning, or the peasant who died
without ever having understood the meaning of his life or of his death, constitute the essential
foundations from which we emerge.

Published, together with an interview with Miguel Littin, in Cahiers du Cinema, no. 251-52 (July-
August 1974). pp. 59-69. Special thanks to Sylvia Harvey for translating the French into English,
January 1975.
100 Appendix A

That the Chilean flag is a flag of struggle and liberation, it is the patrimony of the people and
their heritage.

Against an anemic and neo-colonized culture, a pasture for the consumption of an elite,
decadent and sterile petite-bourgeoisie, let us devote our collective will, immersed within the

people, to the construction of an authentically NATIONAL and therefore REVOLUTIONARY

culture.

Consequently we declare:

1 That before being filmmakers we are men engaged within the political and social phenomenon
of our people, and in their great task; the construction of socialism.

2. That the cinema is an art.

3. That the Chilean cinema, because of an historical imperative, must be a revolutionary art.

4. That we mean by revolutionary that which is realized in conjunction between the artist and his

people, united in a common objective: liberation. The people are the generators of action and
finally the true creators; the filmmaker is their instrument of communication.

5. That the revolutionary cinema will not assert itself through decrees. Consequently we will not
grant privilege to one particular way of making film; it must be that the course of the struggle
determines this.

6. That, meanwhile, we cinema removed from the great masses [will] become
shall regard a
consumption of an elite petit-bourgeoisie which is incapable of
inevitably a product for the
constituting the motor of history. In this case the filmmaker will see his work politically
nullified.

7. That we refuse all sectarianism aimed at the mechanical application of the principles stated
above, in the same way that we oppose the imposition of official criteria on the practice of
filmmaking.

8. That we maintain that traditional forms of production are a veritable rampart enclosing
young filmmakers. They imply, finally, a clear cultural dependency, for these techniques are
derived from aesthetic conceptions foreign to the culture of our peoples.
Against this technique we contrast research into an original language born from the
participation of the filmmaker in class struggle; this struggle will give rise to its own cultural

forms.

9. That we maintain that a filmmaker with these objectives necessarily implies a different kind of
critical evaluation; we assert that the best critic of a revolutionary film is the people to whom it

is addressed, who have no need of "mediators who defend and interpret it."*

10. That there exists no such thing as a film that is revolutionary in itself. That it becomes such
through the contact that it establishes with its public and principally through its influence as a
mobilizing agent for revolutionary action.

Julio Garcia Espinosa, Cuban director.

 Appendix A 101

1 1 That the cinema is a right of the people, and that it is necessary to research those forms which
are most appropriate for reaching all Chileans.

12. That the means of production must be available to all workers in the cinema and that, in this
sense, there exist no acquired rights; on the contrary, under the Popular Government,
expression will not be the privilege of some, but the inalienable right of a people marching
towards their final independence.

13. That a people with a culture are a people who struggle, who resist and who free themselves.

CHILEAN FILMMAKERS, WE SHALL OVERCOME!

 Appendix B

Resolutions of the Third World Filmmakers

Meeting in Algiers, 1973

Committee 1: People's Cinema

The Committee on Peoples Cinema —

the role of cinema and film-makers in the Third World
against imperialism and neo-colonialism —
consisted of the following film-makers and observers:
Fernando Birri (Argentina); Humberto Rios (Bolivia); Manuel Perez (Cuba); Jorge Silva
(Colombia); Jorge Cedron (Argentina); Moussa Diakite (Republic of Guinea); Flora Gomez
(Guinea-Bissau); Mohamed Abdelwahad (Morocco); El Hachmi Cherif (Algeria); Lamine
Merbah (Algeria); Mache Khaled (Algeria); Fettar Sid Ali (Algeria); Bensalah Mohamed
(Algeria); Meziani Abdelhakim (Algeria). Observers: Jan Lindquist (Sweden); Josephine (Guinea-
Bissau)and Salvatore Piscicelli (Italy).
The Committee met on December 11,12 and 13, 1973, in Algiers, under the chairmanship of
Lamine Merbah. At the close of its deliberations, the Committee adopted the following analysis.

So-called 'underdevelopment' is first of all an economic phenomenon which has direct

repercussions on the social and cultural sectors. To analyze such a phenomenon we must refer to
the dialectics of the development of capitalism on a world scale.
At a historically itself beyond the
determined moment in its development, capitalism extended
framework of the national European boundaries and spread a necessary condition for its —
growth— to other regions of the world in which the forces of production, being only slightly
developed, provided favorable ground for the expansion of capitalism through the existence of
immense and virgin material resources, and available and cheap manpower reserves which
constituted a new, potential market for the products of capitalist industry.
This expansion manifested itself in different regions, given the power relationships, and in
different ways:
a. Through direct and total colonization implying violent invasion and the setting up of an
economic and social infrastructure which does not correspond to the real needs of the people but
serves more, or exclusively, the interests of the metropolitan countries;
b. In a more or less disguised manner leaving to the countries in question a pretence of
autonomy;
c. Finally, through a system of domination of a new type neo-colonialism. —
The result has been that these countries undergo, on the one hand, varying degrees of
development and, on the other hand, extremely varied levels of dependency with respect to
imperialism: domination, influence and pressures.
104 Appendix B

The different forms of exploitation and systematic plundering of the natural resources have had
grave consequences on the economic, social and cultural levels for the so-called 'underdeveloped'
countries, resulting in the fact that even though these countries are undergoing extremely
diversified degrees of development, they face independence and social progress
in their struggle for

a common enemy: imperialism which stands in their way as the principal obstacle to their
development.
Its consequences can be seen in:

a. The articulation of the economic sectors: imbalance of development on the national level
with the creation of poles of economic attraction incompatible with the development of a
proportionally planned national economy and with the interests of the popular masses, thereby
giving rise to zones of artificial prosperity.
b. The imbalance on the regional and continental levels, thereby revealing the determination of
imperialism to create zones of attraction favorable for its own expansion and w hich are presented
as models of development in order to retard the people's struggle for real political and economic
independence.
The repercussions on the social plane are as serious as they are numerous: they lead to
characteristic impoverishment of the majority for the benefit in the first instance of the dominating
forces and the national bourgeoisie of which one sector is objectively interested in independent
national development, while another sector is parasitic and comprador, the interests of which are
bound to those of the dominating forces.
The differentiations and social inequities have seriously affected the living standard of the
people, mainly in the rural areas where the expropriated or impoverished peasants find it

impossible to reinvest on the spot in order to subsist. Reduced in their majority to self-

consumption, unemployment and rural exodus, these factors lead to an intensification of

unemployment and increase under-employment in the urban centers.
In order to legitimize and strengthen its hold over the economies of the colonized and neo-
colonized countries, imperialism has recourse to a systematic enterprise of deculturation and
acculturation of the people of the Third World.
That deculturation consists of depersonalizing their peoples, of discrediting their culture by
presenting and inoperative, of blocking their specific development, and of disfiguring
it as inferior
their history In other words, creating an actual cultural vacuum favorable to a simultaneous
process of acculturation through which the dominator endeavors to make his domination
legitimate by introducing his own moral values, his life and thought patterns, his explantion of
history: in a word, his culture.

Imperialism, being obliged to take into account the fact that colonized or dominated peoples
have own culture and defend it, infihrates the culture of the colonized, entertains relationships
their
with and takes over those elements which it believes can turn it to its favor. This is done by using
it

the social forces which they make their own, the retrograde elements of this culture. In this way, the
language of the colonized, which is the carrier of culture, becomes inferior or foreign: it is used only
in the family circle or in restricted social circles. It is no longer, therefore, a vehicle for education,
culture and science, because in the schools the language of the colonizer is taught, it being
indispensable to know it in order to work, to subsist and to assert oneself Gradually, it infiltrates
the social and even the family relationships of the colonized. Language itself becomes a means of
alienation, in that the colonized has a tendency to practice the language of the colonizer, while his
own language, as well as his personality, his culture and his moral values, become foreign to him.
In the same line of thought, the social sciences, such as sociology, archaeology and ethnology,
are for the most part in the service of the colonizer and the dominant class so as to perfect the work
of alienation of the people through a pseudo-scientific process which has in fact simply consisted of
a retrospective justification for the presence of the colonizer and therefore of the new established
order.
 Appendix B 105

This is how sociological studies have attempted to explain social phenomena by fatalistic

determinism, foreign to the conscience and the will of man. In the ethnological field, the enterprise
has consisted of rooting in the minds of the colonized prejudices of racial and original inferiority
and complexes of inadequacy for the masteringof the various acquisitions of knowledge and man's
production. Among the colonized people, imperialism has endeavored to play on the pseudo-racial
and community differences, giving privilege to one or another ethnic grouping.
As for archaeology, its role in cultural alienation has contributed to distorting history by putting
emphasis on the interests and and the excavations of historical vestiges which
efforts of research
European civilization sublimated and presented as being eternally
justify the definite paternity of
superior to other civilizations whose slightest traces have been buried.
Whereas, in certain countries, the national culture has continued to develop while at the same
time being retarded by the dominant forces, in other countries, given the long period of direct
domination, it has been marked by discontinuity which has blocked it in its specific development,
so that all that remains are traces of it which are scarcely capable of serving as a basis for a real

cultural renaissance, unless it is raised to the present level of development of national and
international productive forces.
It should be stated, however, that the culture of the colonizer, while alienating the colonized
peoples, does the same to the peoples of the colonizing countries who are themselves exploited by
the capitalist system. Cultural alienation presents, therefore, a dual character — national against the
totality of the colonized peoples, and social against the working classes in the colonizing countries

as well as in the colonized countries.

Imperialist economic, political and social domination, in order to subsist and to reinforce itself,

takes root in an ideological system articulated through various channels and mainly through
cinema which is in a position to influence the majority of the popular masses because its essential

importance is at one and the same time economic and sociological, affecting to a
artistic, esthetic,

major degree the training of the mind. Cinema, also being an industry, is subjected to the same
development as material production within the capitalist system and through the very fact that the
North American economy is preponderant with respect to world capitalist production, its cinema
becomes preponderant as well and succeeds in invading the screens of the capitalist world and
consequently those of the Third World where it contributes to hiding inequalities, referring them to
that ideology which governs the world imperialist system dominated by the United States of
America.
With the birth of the national liberation movement, the struggle for independence takes on a
certain depth implying, on one hand, the revalorization of national cultural heritage in marking it
with a dynamism made necessary by the development of contradictions. On the other hand, the
contribution of progressive cultural factors borrowed from the field of universal culture.

The Role of Cinema

The role of cinema in this process consists of manufacturing films reflecting the objective
conditions in which the struggling peoples are developing, i.e., films which bring about
disalienation of the colonized peoples at the same time as they contribute sound and objective
information for the peoples of the entire world, including the oppressed classes of the colonizing
countries,and place the struggle of their peoples back in the general context of the struggle of the
countries and peoples of the Third World. This requires from the militant film-maker a dialectical
analysis of the socio-historic phenomenon of colonization.
Reciprocally, cinema in the already liberated countries and in the progressive countries must
accomplish, as their own national tasks, active solidarity with the peoples and film-makers of
countries still under colonial and neo-colonial domination and which are struggling for their

genuine national sovereignty. The countries enjoying political independence and struggling for
106 Appendix B

varied development are aware of the fact that the struggle against imperialism on the political,
economic and social levels is inseparable from its ideological content and that, consequently,
action must be taken to seize from imperialism the means to influence ideologically, and forge new
methods adapted in content and form to the interests of the struggle of their peoples. This implies
control by the people's state of all cultural activities and, in respect to cinema, nationalization in the
interest of the masses of people: production, distribution and commercialization. So as to make
such a policy operative, it has been seen that the best path requires quantitative and qualitative
development of national production capable, with the acquisition of films from the Third World
countries and the progressive countries, of swinging the balance of the power relationship in favor
of using cinema in the interest of the masses. While influencing the general environment, conditions
must be created for a greater awareness on the part of the masses, for the development of their
and varied participation in the cultural life of their countries.
critical senses

A firm policy based on principle must be introduced in this field so as to eliminate once and for
all the films which the foreign monopolies continue to impose upon us either directly or indirectly
and which generate reactionary culture and, as a result, thought patterns in contradiction with the
basic choices of our people.
The question, however, is not one of separating cinema from the overall cultural context which
prevails in our countries, for we must consider
on the one hand, the action of cinema is
that,
accompanied by that of other information and cultural media, and, on the other hand, cinema
operates with materials which are drawn from reality and already existing cultural forms of
expression in order to function and operate. It is also necessary to be vigilant and eliminate
nefarious action which the information media can have and to purify the forms of popular
expression (folklore, music, theatre, etc.) and to modernize them.
The cinema language being thereby linked to other cultural forms, the development of cinema,
while demanding the raising of the general cultural level, contributes to this task in an efficient way
and can even become an excellent means for the polarization of the various action fields as well as
cultural radiation.
Films being a social act within a historical reality, it follows that the task of the Third World film-
maker is no longer limited to the making of films but is extended to other fields of action such as:

articulating, fostering and making the new films understandable to the masses of people by
associating himself with the promoters of people's cinemas, clubs and itinerant film groups in their
dynamic action aimed at disalienation and sensitization in favor of a cinema which satisfies the
interests of the masses, for at the same time that the struggle against imperialism and for progress
develops on the economic, social and political levels, a greater and greater awareness of the masses
develops, associating cinema in a more concrete way in this struggle.
knowing how cinema will develop is linked in a decisive way to
In other words, the question of
the solutions which must be provided to all the problems with which our peoples are confronted
and which cinema must face and contribute to resolving. The task of the Third World film-maker
thereby becomes even more important and implies that the struggle waged by cinema for
independence, freedom and progress must go, and already goes, hand in hand with the struggle
within and without the field of cinema, but always in alliance with the popular masses for the
triumph of the ideas of freedom and progress.
In these conditions, it becomes obvious that the freedom of expression and movement, the right
to practice cinema and research are essential demands of the film-makers of the Third World
freedoms and rights which they have already committed to invest in the service of the working
masses against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism for the general emancipation of their
peoples.
United and in solidarity against American imperialism, at the head of world imperialism, and
direct or indirect aggressor in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Palestine, in Africa through the
intermediary of NATO, SEATO and CENTO, and in Latin America, hiding itself behind the
 Appendix B 107

fascist coup d'etat of the Chilean military junta and the other oligarchies in power, the film-makers
present here in Algiers, certain that they express the opinion of their film-maker comrades of the
Third World, condemn the interventions, aggressions and pressures of imperialism, condemn the
persecutions to which the film-makers of certain Third World countries are subjected and demand
the immediate liberation of the film-makers detained and imprisoned and the cessation of measures
restricting their freedom.

Committee 2: Production/ Coproduction

The Committee on Production Coproduction, appointed by the General Assembly of the Third
World Film-Makers Meeting in Algeria, met on December II, 12 and 13, 1973, under the
chairmanship of Ousmane Sembene. The Committee, which devoted itself to the problems of film
production and co-production in the Third World countries, including the following film-makers
and observers: Ousmane Sembene (Senegal); Sergio Castilla (Chile); Santiago Alvarez (Cuba);
Sebastien Kainba (Congo); Mamadou Sidibe (Mali); Benamar Bakhti (Algeria); Nourredine
Touazi (Algeria); Hedi Ben Khelifa (Tunisia); Mostefa Bouali (Palestine); Med Hondo (Mauri-
tania). Observers: Simon Hartog (Great Britain), representing the British film-makers' union, and

Theo Robichet (France). Humberto Rios (Argentina) presented an information report to the
Committee.
The delegates present, after reporting on the natural production and coproduction conditions
and the organization of the cinema industries in their countries, noted that the role of cinema in the
Third World is to promote culture through films, which are a weapon as well as a means of
expression for the development of the awareness of the people, and that the cinema falls within the
framework of the class struggle.
Considering:
— that the problems of cinema production in the countries of the Third World are closely linked
to the economic, political and social realities of each of them;
— that, consequently, cinema activity does not develop in a similar fashion:

a. in those countries which are waging a liberation struggle,

b. in those countries which have conquered their political independence and which have
founded States,
c. in those countries which, while being sovereign, are struggling to seize their economic and
cultural independence;
— that those countries which are waging wars of liberation lack a film infrastructure and
specialized cadres and, as a result, their production is limited, achieved in difficult circumstances
and very often is supported by or is dependent upon sporadic initiatives;

— that in those countries struggling for their economic and cuhural independence, the principal
characteristic is a private infrastructure which enables them to realize only a portion of their
production within the national territory, the remainder being handled in the capitalist countries;
This leads to an appreciable loss of foreign currency and considerable delays which impede the
development of an authentic national production.
— that in those countries in which the State assumes the responsibility for production and
incorporates it in its cultural activity, there is, nevertheless, inamajority ofcases, a lack of technical
and industrial development in the cinema field and, as a consequence, production remains limited
and does not manage to cover the needs for films in those countries. The national screens,
therefore, are submerged with foreign productions coming, for the most part, from the capitalist
countries.
— that, if we add as well the fact that world production is economically and ideologically
controlled by these countries and, in addition, is of very mediocre quality, our screens bring in an
ideological product which serves the interests of the colonizers, creating moreover the habit of
108 Appendix B

seeing films in which lies and social prejudice are the choice subjects and in which these
manufacturers of individualistic ideology constantly encourage the habits of an arbitrary and
wasteful consumer society;
— that coproductions must, first and foremost, be for the countries of the Third World, a
manifestation of anti-imperialist solidarity, although their characteristics may vary and cover
different aspects. We do not believe in coproductions in which an imperialist country participates,

given the following risks:

1 the imperialist country can shed influence through production methods which are foreign to
the realities of our countries,
2. the examples of coproductions have given rise to cases of profit and the cultural and
economic exploitation of our countries.

The participants in the Committee therefore concluded that it is necessary to seek jointly
concrete means to foster the production and coproduction of national films within the Third World
countries.
In line with this, a certain number of recommendations were unanimously adopted:
— to provide the revolutionary film-makers of the Third World with national cinema
infrastructures;
— to put aside the conceptions and film production means of the capitalist countries and to seek
new forms, taking into account the authenticity and the realities of the economic means and
possibilities of the Third World countries;
— to develop national cinema and television agreements for the benefit of the production and
distribution of Third World films and to seek such agreements where they do not exist and to
exchange regular programs;
—
to organize and develop the teaching of film techniques, to welcome the nationals of countries
in which the training is not ensured;
— to use all the audio-visual means available for the political, economic and cultural
development of the countries of the Third World;
—
to promote coproductions with independent, revolutionary film-makers, while leaving to each
country the task of determining the characteristics of these productions;
— to include in the governmental agreements between countries of the Third World those
measures likely to facilitate coproductions and film exchanges;
— to influence the establishment of coproductions between national organizations of the Third
World in endeavoring to have them accepted by the governmental and professional institutions of
their respective countries (through the infiuence, in particular, of the acting president of the non-
aligned countries, Mr. Houari Boumediene);
— to propose the need for the creation of an organization of Third World film-makers, the
permanent secretariat of which should be set Cuba. While awaiting the creation of this
up in

organization, the UAAV (Union of Audio-Visual Arts of Algeria) will provide a temporary
secretariat;
The film-makers will henceforth keep each other informed of their respective approaches
undertaken within the framework of the FEPACI (Pan-African Federation of Cineastes).

Committee 3: Distribution

The Committee charge of the distribution of Third World films, after consideration of the
in

different remarks of the members present, proposes: the creation of an office to be called the Third
World Cinema Office.
 Appendix B 109

It will be composed of four members including a resident coordinator and one representative per
continent. The Committee, in reply to the offer made by Algeria, proposes that the permanent
headquarters of the office be established in Algiers.

The goals of the office will be:

1. To coordinate efforts for the production and distribution of Third World films
2. To establish and strengthen existing relations between Third World filmmakers and cinema
industries by:
a. the editing of a permanent information bulletin (filmography, technical data sheets, etc.) in
four languages: Arabic, English, French and Spanish
b. making a census of documentation on Third World cinema for the elaboration and
existing
distribution of a catalogue on the cinema production of the countries of the Third World
c. fostering other festivals, film markets and film days on the Third World level, alongside the
other existing events
d. the editing of a general compilation of official cinema legislation in the Third World countries
(problems of censorship, distribution of film copies, copyright, customs, etc.)

3. To take those measures required for the creation of regional and continental organization
leading to the creation of a tricontinental organization for film distribution
4. To prospect the foreign markets in order to secure other outlets for the productions of the
Third World countries (commerical and non-commerical rights, TV and cassettes).

The office will approach the authorities of the OAU, the Arab League and UNESCO in order to
obtain from these organizations financial assistance for its functioning. It will also approach the
authorities of those countries having effective control of their cinema industries, i.e.: Algeria,
Guinea. Upper Volta, Mali, Uganda, Syria and Cuba, as well as other countries which manifest a
real desire to struggle against the imperialist monopoly. In addition to the above-mentioned
assistance, the operating budget of the office will be composed of donations, grants and
commissions on all transactions of Third World films entrusted to the office.

[The meeting was held in Algiers from December 5 to 14, 1973. The resolutions of the various
committees were released in Algiers. This copy has been only slightly modified in grammar and
spelling by Cineasie Magazine.]
 Appendix C

Interview with Ousmane Sembene

[In January 1975, Ousmane Sembene was a featured guest lecturer in a "Film and Social Change"
class conducted by this author at the University of California, Los Angeles. His lecture and
question-and-answer sessions on films and issues were taped. What follows are excerpts that have
been transcribed from these tapes.]

First of all, I am not a professor and I do not think I am qualified to teach anything. am an artist
I

and I want to be a militant. I want to participate in the changes that have been taking place in the
last twenty years in Africa and in the whole world.
Africa was the last continent to have cinema. What is the face that we see of Africa today? What
is African culture? Is there a single African culture or several African cultures? Presently, there
is no

Tanzanian culture, there no single Senegalese culture nor a Guinean culture. Because of the
is

colonial systems imposed upon us, there is no culture in such states. But there are cultures from the
various ethnic groups because the groups, themselves, make up these states with their own symbols,
their own references, and their own myths and metaphors.
We notice that there is a fusion taking place. People no longer say I am Wolof; they say I am
Senegalese. And the same is true for Tanzania. But one of the major contradictions is that the
people who govern these countries or the artists who try to express themselves for their people have
undergone an influence or a method of analysis that is typically bourgeois. And these bourgeoisies,
and 1 am talking about the African bourgeoisies, have not made an analysis of their own societies.
They make up, as a point of reference or a point of analysis, systems that come from the capitalist
system. We find that the same thing is true in the communist camp. Their whole point of reference is
the Russian system or the Chinese system in countries where the working class is very advanced

for example, in France and in Italy. But it is still remains for us to do an analysis of the interior of
Africa. An analysis that might be capitalist or communist is one of the dilemmas facing the Artist.
Africa has its own inherent contradiction. Africa was a country of kings, and when we talk about
kings, we talk about serfs. Maybe it is different from the European notion of things, but there was a
problem of caste. There were people who were bom to occupy certain positions until their death.
The colonial system came with the French language or the English language, and while the people
had one language, the officials had another. If you go into court in French-speaking West Africa,
the judge and the prosecutors speak French to another citizen who does not speak French. They
bring in an interpreter even if the judge, himself, is Senegalese and speaks the language of the
defendant.
The disharmony is It is also cultural. What we will have to begin to do is to
not simply economic.
from breaks that prevent our being what we were before.
try to see all the contradictions of these
Now the traditional African education no longer responds to the needs of the contemporary society
of young people. We also know that the people who govern are copies ofthe Western world, even if
they are black. And so to resolve the problem, we are going to have to suppress something. I think
112 Appendix C

that we should begin by suppressing the copy of the Western world. I don't mean that we should
exclude ourselves from the international community, because we have a lot of things to learn from
the West, including its technology. But we have to control these things.

Before becoming a filmmaker, I'd already written several books. think that I am a committed
I

writer,and I'm not ashamed to say so. My commitment is to raise awareness and to bring the
people to change their situation. I live in Africa, and no matter what happens tomorrow, I will not
go into exile. But the problem when 1 was writing books was that I was only known by the elite
minority. When I talked with the masses, some had heard about me or they had seen my picture in
the newspaper, but other than that, that they knew about me. And so the problem for me was
is all

to get involved in an art like cinema, which has a larger audience. When began making films, was I 1

forced to do a traveling —
cinema we went into the bush. Sometimes was invited to the university
I

or to the schools in the very countries that had expelled me. (I prefer that to prison.) There are other
countries in which my films are forbidden. But in countries where am permitted to show my films,
I

we organize debates. Perhaps we don't reach all of the countries, but we reach quite a few people.
Sometimes our discussions last three or four hours. It is not upon leaving these discussions that the
people are going to make a revolution. We have been to certain regions, for example, where the
people refused to pay taxes after seeing Eniitai. because they began to ask themselves, "Why are we
paying taxes?" The next day the local political leaders threw us out.
The problem for us is that it is not for the artist to make the revolution by proxy. That is a
European sickness. That is what we say in Africa. We think that it is a European sickness when
people feel that the thinkers are also men of action. An artist's place is with his people, and he must
be a point of reference in order to arouse awareness. He must never be too far ahead or too far
behind, because it is who make the revolution. This is the role that cinema can play. That
the people
is what we wish to do. And when I say "we," am talking about the w hole African cinema, because
I

we have the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers w hich includes all of the African filmmakers.
Perhaps our films are not on the same level, but for ten years, our films have been posing
all

political problems in Africa. There are some African cineastes who have made only one film and

they can't make any more, and there are others who have only made short films, but they pose the
same problems that IVe explained. We had a meeting in January 73 in Algeria to determine the
role of cinema, and we think our role is to give a certain common awareness. It is true that our films
will not be commerical films that will be seen widely in Europe, but we want to at least control our
own boulevard and cities and countryside. For the meantime, that will be sufficient.
What is an artist? It is very hard for him to grasp for himself what he is, because it is impossible to
measure his impact. It is impossible tomeasure the impact and the extent of influence of a book ora
film. How does it come about that he can seize upon a certain moment in the history of things and
create a book or a film from that? The artistic creation comes about when people begin to reflect
upon what they have done or what they have seen. At the moment he is watching a film, for
example, the spectator forgets that he has been the cause, the moving force for the creation of that
product. When the African filmmaker has completed that analysis and has realized the importance
of that analysis, he wants to look for his place within his own community. If it was easy for us to
analyze this situation in a theoretical way, the practical application of it is much more difficult,
because the Africans had to wait seventy-five years after the birth of cinema in the w orld to have an
African making a film. And then we had to wait three years after that before we had an African film
with an African language. Two years after that, we created the Affair Passe.
Now the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers has been in existence almost ten years. It was
just this year that we wrote up a code of conduct for African filmmakers. This code of conduct
allows us to be much more committed politically. We have tried to insert our films in the general
progress of thecommunity without being a political party, because we understood the political
nature of our role and because we noticed that we have far more followers in Africa than any
 Appendix C 113

political party or any religious faith, Muslim or Christian. But that was not enough for
whether it is

us, because the masses, who really do not have have given us the support that we need. They
a face,

have also helped us to go beyond the ethnic problems of language and have become our allies. This
has come about because we have been moving toward the masses. We have been showing them our
films and we have been talking politics with them. People were not meeting to get someone elected;
they were meeting to spread an awareness that they were the only ones who should decide their fate
and that their own culture and their own language have as much culture inherent in them as any
other culture in any other language.
Cinema, could replace the traditional story-telling activity, the traditional legends, because
itself,

the filmmaker, himself, becomes a story-teller. It is up to the filmmaker to explain his work as much
as possible, because once he has completed the work, it goes beyond him and he loses control of it.
When the filmmaker has thought out a piece of work and has given birth to it, once he presents that
film to the masses, he must undergo the consequences. So for us, the filmmaker's role appears to be
very explicit and clear. With the support of the masses, we began to discuss the possibility of a
national cinema with the political leaders. We knew that a national cinema was controversial. We
are seeing the birth of a modern African bourgeoisie. But since they were in power, we took
advantage of nationalist attitudes to bring about the creation of a national cinema. We continue to
struggle and continue to bring about awareness and to give people something to reflect upon.
We also take a position against imperialism that is controlling our culture. We know that we can
not simply solve the problems of cinema without getting involved in the political problems that
There can be no single solution for cinema if we forget the other aspect, the political
exist in Africa.
aspect, of the culture. Presently in Africa, one of the major problems that we confront is the
circulation and distribution of our films. We know that we receive the worst films from Europe,
and the same is true for our television. So cultural imperialism exists in Africa and is creating a
black bourgeoisie. This black bourgeoisie is becoming more and more fascist. Because of this, we
cannot do our work thinking only of the color of the skin. We also have to consider the political

aspects.

[QUESTION: Is the new artist in Africa coming from the educated class? In other words, are they
developing new bourgeois attitudes?]

I will not talk about my own personal experience; I will just give you examples from cinema and
then from some other arts. We are not rich (the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers), but we
still train people in Africa. We don't take responsibility for their lives, but we give them technical
and political training. In this way, during the liberation struggle in the former Portuguese colonies,
we brought some of their filmmakers for training in Senegal. Those filmmakers certainly don't
come from the bourgeousie. In West Africa, for the past ten years, we have had four classes of
filmmakers. And they do not come from the bourgeoisie, either. Although we're afraid that they
might want to become bourgeois because of the myths of cinema and the way the public responds
to filmmakers in the Western world.
A phenomenon can assume two aspects in a developing
bourgeois attitude or a bourgeois
country. It can be a mental attitude, determined by the country where we received our training and
therefore not necessarily corresponding to the realities of our own country. We know that much
more was said about the new Brazilian cinema in Paris than it was in Brazil. We have seen French
filmmakers arriving in Cannes in order to justify the existence of the French Left and then
proceeding to criticize the realities of their own country.You can live in these countries and be
bourgeois. We know, for example, that there are some people who impose the same schedule that
they find in the Western world. Others cannot work without their whiskey, and then there are those
who require taking a shower before going to bed and there are those who have great difficulty
having a discussion with the peasants because there is so much dust on the highway and no good
machine for them to work with. Many refuse to confront these obstacles; they refuse to reach out
114 Appendix C

toward the masses. This can also be an example of a bourgeois attitude. We must bring about an
awareness in the masses, but we are the conscience of the masses. If we say
it is not true to say that
that, then we become paternalistic, then we are doing the same thing that priests are doing in all

other countries in the world. Every Sunday we go out and visit the people and say, "Be very patient,
everything is going to work out."

QUESTION: If it became necessary, what kind ofpolitical party would the artists ofyour country
join?

I if there existed a party that respected what the artists want, that
think that in the present context,
is,one with a clear cultural policy for the country, then the artist, I think, would be forced to work
with them. The fact that a federation of African filmmakers can even exist in the continent, a
federation that is not obedient to any government, is one of the controversies that we have been
able to overcome. We have been recognized by the Organization of African Unity and we have
observers at the Arab League and at OC A M We do not know how long this is going to last, but we
.

have to work within those boundaries.

As far as our relationship with the African heads of state is concerned, it is foreign imperialism
that is our enemy. The federation of African filmmakers is aware that it is within each state that
each national film association must solve its own problems.

QUESTION: What are the languages of Senegal and how many people speak those languages? Do
you think Africans should return to their original philosophy, and what is that philosophy?

There are a lot of languages on the African continent. The major language in Senegal is Wolof. We
think that between 80% and 90% of the population speak Wolof, even if they are not from Wolof-
speaking ethnic groups. It is a "national" language. The official language is French. You mustn't
forget that we are in a country where the president is and
the poet of negritude. French, Greek,
Latin are taught. The Wolof language could very easily serve as a unifying factor for the various
ethnic groups in Senagal. Sometimes we are told that if we opt for an African language, we are only
isolating ourselves. We can only say that that is political myopia. We notice, for example, that in

Switzerland and in Belgium, there are several languages. We notice also that Finland has a single
language. But as far as the European community is concerned, an African language is a minority
language. There are other languages in Africa that are dominant even over Wolof. In West Africa,
you have Hausa, Mandingo, and Pular. African filmmakers have stopped making films in
European languages. For our meetings, all of the African languages are the official languages.
As for your question on the philosophy, it is difficult to answer in a concrete way because we have
to go back a little bit. We know that in our languages there is great richness. We know that by
opting for African languages, we can find the sense of these traditions and adjust them to
contemporary realities. All of that is linked to a real independence for Africa. It is not the problem
of adapting those languages that will solve class conflict. The fight to impose an African language is
a political act. We find in our own languages our own philosophy and our own genius. Whenever
Africa is studied in the African universities, we study much more of the past than we do the present.
That also convinces us of the richness of our languages.

QUESTION: Can you talk to us a little bit about the problems ofproduction — thefinancial aspect
ofproduction of cinema? And also explain to us how it came about that you film in 35-mm,first of
all in black and white, and then 35-mm in color. And what do you think of the possibilities offilm

production in 16-mm?
 Appendix C 115

Our sources of financing come from different areas. There is, for example, the French national
cooperation and another cooperation that is responsible for Africa. Those two companies
participate in film projects. They either give money before the film is made or give money to
complete the For example, the French cooperation has a scriptwriting competition each year
film.

with a prize of 15 million francs. In both ofthose companies, we have representatives who represent
the filmmakers. In this way, at least one filmmaker can make a film each year. When he returns to
Africa, he must cooperate with the national association in his country. He must recruit his crew and
gather his material there. The laboratories in France and Rome and elsewhere have a system of
credit. The most difficult aspect to deal with once the film is made is marketing. For that, we also
have a tactic. We make a survey of the films that exist and then we go to a festival in a country that
says it wants to help us. We show them these films and we say, "These are the films that you can help
us with." This helps us to break even as far as the cost of the film is concerned.
Now, as far as 16-mm or 35-mm is concerned, it varies according to the filmmaker. It is true that I

have always worked 35-mm, but it was just chance that that happened because have a 35-mm
in I

camera. On the other hand, we have found a new method. The young people whom we have trained
like 16-mm color because it is much more mobile, the crew is much smaller, and it can be blown up

to 35-mm. Of the six films made in Senegal last year, only two were made in 35-mm and the other
four were in 6-mm. In the other states. 6-mm is popular. Now we are negotiating to get a camera
1 1

in Super 16 to reduce the cost of our films.

We use color because color permits us to correct some fiaws that would be very visible if the
cinema were black and white. We mustn't forget that we break even on our films, financially, only
in Europe and Europe prefers color. Africa is colored and we sell Europe color. We do not have

complexes about it because our work is in Africa and in Africa we show our films for free, and that
is the only thing that interests us.

QUESTION: So you can make a feature-length film with $35,000

Even with 4,000 francs you can make a film.

QUESTION: First of all, I want to find out whether or not you consider it a filmmaker's duty to
give priority to his artistic or political dictates. First, which comes first? Which should come first?
And also, in what form is the major difference between African and American films?

I think that you can make a film with $4,000 because film is the work of a crew. If the filmmaker
starts out with the idea of making a film in the Hollywoodstyle, then ofcourse he will need millions.
But in our countries, the beginners make films for less than $8,000. Of course, we have the
collaboration of the people and our friends. For example, we do not have any studios. We film in
apartments that people lend and so the crew can work for much less. It just depends on their will
us,

power and and also it depends on their ideology. What interests us is to see if we
their togetherness,

can associate form and content, because that is when the work reaches its universal aspects. Every
artist is seeking that. If we could manage to have the technical aspects that are found in American

cinema while maintaining our own content, then I think we would bring a great change to world
cinema. We think that that type of form could be very useful in Africa. Because we work out in the

open space, we save money.

As far as form is concerned, the African filmmakers, themselves, have established a competition.
We looked at our films and discussed them and decided that we have to move forward. And so our
cinema must assume a new form. We noticed that often in our films, there is too much and the
talk

rhythm is slow. We have to change that. Films with less talk, more rapidity, and much more
explicitness are needed as far as the masses are concerned, because many of the people don't speak
the same language. We also know
sound creates visual images; so we must
that try to bring about
an association between the visual and what is heard.
116 Appendix C

We don't know what is going to happen this year or next. We think that we are going to
contribute something. At the present time, all of the African filmmakers are working on a subject
that theywant to film. We are not trying to define ourselves in relationship to any specific cinema.
We want to borrow from each one whatever we can and transform to make up our own cinema. it

We know that there is a difference between America and Africa, but we don't want to spend our
time trying to define ourselves in relationship to America. We say both with pride and with
modesty that we are the beginning and the end of the world, because we can no longer be
suppressed or killed. If others are not happy with us, that is too bad; but we continue to exist and we
will do everything in order that they recognize our existence.

Concluding Remarks

I thank you very much. I don't know if 1 really brought you anything. But for those who are going
to be working in the Third World, there is a place for you in cinema. Of all the arts, presently the
most important is the cinema. The cultural nourishes the political, but it is the political that gives
the final definition to the cultural aspects of film. We will not go back anymore. We have enormous
difficulties,but we are sure of our victory because people can no longer do whatever they want to
do. Weknow, of course, that the American establishment sees things differently. We know that
they will find allies in Africa and we know they will do everything to maintain their supremacy. But
what they don't know is that they can no longer break us. We have seen the failure that they have
had and we know that they will never leave Southeast Asia. We are sure that Latin America is going
to be free also. There will never be in the future a docile colony. Africa is on the move.
We have a lot of faith in the young people. There are a lot of young people who don't think the
same way I do or the way our fathers did. We are acquiring a lot from our men of college. When we
created our federation, our friends from Latin America created their own federation called the
FELACI. We have an office of cinema from the Third World in Algeria, and within the next year,
there will be a meeting of filmmakers in the Third World. It won't just be a meeting of pleasure, but
a meeting to exchange our experiences and find out how to become more effective. Presently, we
are organizing a week of Senegalese We are going to do the same thing very soon
films in Mexico.
in Somalia; we are even preparing a meeting in Tanzania with Nyerere. All of this is part of the

liberation of Africa and the Third World.

 Filmography

On Third World Films Cited in This Study

Film Country

Antonio das Mortes

Aziza
Barravento
Battle of Chile, The
Beyond the Plains

Black Girl
Black God. White Devil
Blood of the Condor
Blood Will Triumph over the Sword
Borom Sarret
Brazil: No Time for Tears

Brickmakers, The

Budouin Boy, The

Ceddo
Chuquiago
Colombia 70
Con^eicao Tchiambula,
A Day in a Life
Courage of the People
Chronicle of the Years
of Embers
Cry of the People
Dawn of the Damned, The
Defense of the People, In
Double Day, The
East is Red, The

El Chacal de Nahueltoro
Emitai
118 Filmography

End of Dialogue
 Filmography 119

Tupamaros
 Notes

Chapter 1

1. Initially the term. Third World, was used to designate those states in Africa, Asia and Latin
America which called themselves "non-aligned," i.e., committed neither to the Western
(capitalist) nor the Eastern (communist) power blocks. The term implies a common economic
and ideological purpose. Third World Ideology is "more socialist than the American model
and more democratic than the Soviet one"; it is not a Western model of "social democracy"
but one that is truly indigenous and places more emphasis on culture as a tool for ideological
as well as economic independence.
The term also bears a connotation of rural life, especially on agricultural economy and
poverty.
The term "Third World" also refers to developing nations, some of which have opted for
socialist reconstruction of their society (e.g., China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique)
and some of which have chosen a capitalist mode of development (e.g., Nigeria, India, Brazil).
The new term, "North/ 5ow//; dialogue" is another in a series of terminologies
developing, less developed, south, nonaligned and underdeveloped — that refer to the Third
World.
As Pierre Jalee writes, "The expression [Third World] is short, practical and everyone
knows pretty well what sort of country it refers to."
For further reading on the term and its application, see the following introductory articles:
Irwin Silber, "China and the Three Worlds," Guardian (February 1, 1978), p. 21 and passim;
Sidney Mintz, "On the Concept of a Third World," Dialectical Anthropology, vol. I, no. 4
(September 1976), pp. 377-82; and Peter Berger's "Speaking to the Third World,"
Commentary, vol. 72, no. 4 (October 1981), pp. 29-36.
See also the following for a detailed study of the socio-political and economic history of the
nations of the Third World: Peter Worsley, The Third World (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago
Press, 1965); Immanuel The Modern World-System (New York: Academic
Wallerstein,
Press, 1974); J.E. Goldthorpe, The Sociology of the Third World (New York: Modem
Reader, 1968); Pierre Jalee, TTie Pillage of the Third World (Hew York: Monthly Review
Press, 1968) and The Third World in World Economy (New York: Monthly Review Press,
1969).

2. The concept and proposition of "Third Cinema" used to refer to a special kind of Latin
American film. Of late its use encompasses all films with social and political purpose. The
term is being widely accepted by the progressive Third World cineast. The concept is referred
to as "New Wave" or "Left Cinema" in India; "cinema shebab" in the Arab world; "parallel
cinema" in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon); and "cinema de conscience" or "engaged cinema" in
Senegal. In general all share in the "politicization of cinema": a cinema for the decolonization
122 Notes for Chapter 2

of culture and total liberation. "First Cinema" refers to those who follow the models of
distribution and production of Hollywood. "Second Cinema" refers to the national cinemas
in the Third World that are limited by a neo-colonialist ideology.

3. Bill Nichols, ed., Movies and Methods (^tvkt\cy: University of California Press, 1976),p.47.

4. This theoretical work first appeared in 1 969 as an article in Tricontinental (Theoretical Organ
of the Executive Secretariat of the Organization of Solidarity of Peoples of Africa, Asia and
Latin America). The same theoretical piece has since been reprinted in Cineaste, Afterimage
and in the anthology edited and compiled by Nichols, Movies and Methods. The notion of
"Third Cinema" is not the creation of Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino alone; similar

concerns about the state of Third World cinema were articulated earlier by such notables as
the Argentinean Fernando Birr who wrote about "a cinema that reinforces the revolutionary
consciousness of the masses." See Cine cubano. Year 7, nos. 42-43-44, "Cine y subdesarrollo,"
1957, p. 14.

5. Nichols, Movies and Methods, p. 45.

6. Those who adhere to the mainstream of Hollywood cinema have acquired names which link
them with their mentors: The Indian cinema of marble staircases and Victorian villas where
song, dance and sacred cows abound is referred to as "The Third World's Hollywood," and
the Egyptian cinema of belly dancers and beautiful people who celebrate their lofty
exclusiveness is typed as "Hollywood on the Nile" or the "Arab World's Hollywood."

7. An interview with Glauber Rocha, "Cinema Novo vs. Cultural Colonialism," Cineaste, vol.
IV, no. 1 (Summer 1970), p. 4.

8. Andres R. Hernandez, "Filmmaking and Politics," American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 17,
no. 3 (January/ February 1974), p. 383.

Chapter 2

1 For an understanding of the application of semiotics and textual analysis to film, the reader is
referred to an excellent introductory textbook with a useful bibliography: Bill Nichols,
Ideology and the Image (B>\oom\n^on: Indiana University Press, 1981). For further reading
on Roland Barthes, Image I Music I Text and Elements of Semiology (New
this topic see:

York: Hill and Wang, 1967 and 1967 respectively). The debates in Screen magazine are also a
useful source, and so are a number of articles published in Camera Obscura, among which
there is an overview of the work of Bellour, Heath and Kuntzel by Janet Bergstrom in issue
no. 3/4 under the title "Enunciation and Sexual Difference."

2. Christian Metz, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1974).

3. An excellent introduction for the study of film in the context of ideology is Sylvia Harvey's
May 68 and Film Culture (London: British Film Institute, 1978). See also. "Cinema/
Ideology/ Criticism" in Screen (translated by Susan Bennet), vol. 18, no. 4 (Winter 1977-78),
pp. 35-*7.

4. Metasystem — a system that tends to turn inward toward the mechanism of own operation its

and production of meaning. Metafilm — a film which takes as theme the problem of own
its its

creation. The Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Memories of Underdevelopment, or Glauber

film of
Rocha 's Antonio das Mortes both question the nature of cinema. When filmmakers focus on
"the aesthetic factor" underlying their work and make this a dominant factor in their style, it is
referred to as operating under a metasystem. Picking on the People by Luis Ospina is a good
 Notes for Chapter 2 123

example of self-reflective (or metacinema). The film criticizes the exploitative nature of some
Third World filmmakers who do not approach their craft as a tool of social transformation
but only to capture images of misery because of their commercial appeal. In this particular
film a member of the lower class delivers an outrageous monologue as the filmmakers try to
pay him off. A short Cuban film. For the First Time by Octavio Cortazar, is about the delight
of seeing a film for the first time. The film is successful in evoking a critical understanding of
cinema at an intellectual as well as emotional level. The film documents and criticizes that
which it records as well as itself.

5. An excellent reading of the concept of "point of view" is given in Nick Browne's The Rhetoric
of Filmic Narration (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982).

6. The relationship of realism to reality is an intriguing one and it points to the films'

verisimilitude. Because a work of art assumes a special type of code viewers require the same
key to grasp what the artist poses. An example will illustrate the case: Matisse, the French

was once approached by a woman who had noticed a portrait the figure of a woman
artist —
inwhich one arm was longer than the other. When she drew the artist's attention to it he is
supposed to have remarked. "Madame, you are mistaken. That is not a woman, that is a
picture." It seems that it is better to discuss "reality" in terms of relationships instead of just
facts. To communicate a certain reality an artist may venture beyond the pale of

verisimilitude —
such an act does not make a certain fact any less real, particularly since all art
work is a construct.

7. Nichols, Movies and Methods, p. 52.

8. Ibid., p. 61.

9. Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press Inc., New York), 1968, p. 222.

10. Nichols, Movies and Methods, p. 58.

11. For the lack of interest in the connection between Marx's view of ideology and his rejection of

idealism, see: Raymond William's recent book, Marxism and Literature (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1977) chap. I, sec. 4, Ideology.

12. Arne Nesse, Democracy, Ideology and Objectivity. Studies in the Semantics and Cognitive
Analysis of Ideological Controversy (Oslo-Oxford, 1956), pp. 160-68.

13. The prime proponent and advocate of the theory of Sociology of Knowledge, Karl
Mannheim recognized "ideology" as a form of socially distorted thinking. To him ideologies
correspond to the interest of ruling social groups which sought to preserve the status quo and,
therefore, he believed it had a conservative character. He therefore put forth the theory of
Sociology of Knowledge in place of ideology. See Karl Mannheim's Ideology and Utopia
(London, 1936), p. 69. For this particular school's contemporary adherents and the shift in

the application of the conceptual tool see, "The Internland of Science: Ideology and the
'Sociology of Knowledge' " by Stuart Hall in Working Papers in Cultural Studies, no. 10
(1977), pp. 9-32.

14. Marx and Engles, The German Ideology (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1974), p. 47.

15. For an in-depth discourse of the debate see the two major parts: (a) Theories and (b)
Problems of Social Democracy in Working Papers in Cultural Studies, no. 10, 1977.

16. Frederick Engels, "Letter to Bloch" (1890), Marx and Engels, Selected Works (London:
Lawrence & Wishart, 1970), p. 682.

17. Marx, Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, in Selected Works, p.

182.
124 Notes for Chapter 2

18. There is a school of thought which proposes an alternative route: In Maoist terms, aspects of
the superstructure of society can develop in advance of the substructure and even assist in the

transformation of the base. See: American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 17, no. 3 (Jan/ Feb.

1974), p. 353. The aesthetic theory of the Frankfurt school, i.e., Maz Horkheimer, Herbert
Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin et al, shares the same view that a revolution can
first take place in the superstructure which in turn will effect a revolutionary change on the

mode of production.

19. Karl Marx, Selected Writings, ed. David McLellan (New York: 1977), p. 82.

20. Karl Marx, Grundrisse, trans, by Martin Nicolaus (London: Penguin, 1973), p. 109.

21. Karl Marx, Selected Works (1968), F. Engels, "Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx in

1883," in 435.

22. Adam Schaff, Marxism and the Human Individual (McGraw-Hill Book Company: New
York/ St. Louis/ San Francisco/ London/Sydney/Toronto/ Mexico/ Panama, 1970), pp. 2,
3. Schaff enumerates the following important books as having surfaced only since the 1920s:

Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. The German edition of this book appeared
in 1932.The other book mentioned by Schaff is A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's
Philosophy of Right in 1927. Schaff contends that these essential writings of Marx were
unknown to Kautsy, Rosa Luxemburg, Plekhanov and Gramsco, and even Lenin. In a new
book The Grundrisse by Karl Marx, edited and translated by David McLellan, the editor
mention of this thousand-page manuscript (apparently unknown
states that "the first public
to Engels)was made available by David Rjazanow, the director of the Marx-Engels institute
in Moscow, who announced its discovery to the Socialist Academy in Moscow in 1923." The

Grundrisse as well as the other unknown writings of Marx began to appear in English editions
in the West only in the 1950s. See also Martin Nicolaus, "The Unknown Marx," New Left

Review, 1968.

23. Roger Garaudy, Marxism in the Twentieth Century (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons;
1970), p. 211.

24. Ibid., p. 205.

25. Louis Althusser, For Marx (New York: Vintage Books, 1970), p. 233.

26. Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (London: New Left Books, 197 1 ), p. 1 55.

27. Althusser, For Marx, p. 231.

28. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" in Lenin and Philosophy, pp. 121-73.

29. Ibid., p. 162.

30. Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, p. 102.

31. Ibid., p. 99.

32. Cabral, Amilcar, Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral (London:
Monthly Review Press 1973), p. 54.

33. Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, p. 61.

34. Cabral, Return to the Source, p. 52.

35. For an indepth study of Fanon's theory see: Peter Geismar, Fanon: The Revolutionary as
Prophet (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1969).

36. Fanon, Wretched, p. 85.

 Notes for Chapter 3 125

37. Ibid., p. 53.

38. Quoted in Renate Zahar, Frantz Fanon, Colonialism and Alienation (New York: Monthly
Review Press, 1974). p. 80.

39. Nichols, Movies, p. 57.

Chapter 3

1. When Lenin made the statement, "of all the arts, the most important for us is the cinema."
film began to be inextricably linked to ideology; hence the class nature of films. When
Fernando Solanas spoke for "a cinema that chose its public and not a cinema of cultural co-
existence with a generalized public (Cineasie interview, vol. Ill, no. 2. Fall 1969). he was
characterizing the new cinema as anti-oligarchic and anti-bourgeois on the national front and
anti-imperialist on the international front. Such propositions have had a great impact in
identifying the masses and their true purpose, which is to achieve total liberation. For
instance, the direct result of Blood of the Condor was not only in the expulsion of the Peace
Corps during the Torres Regime but also in serving notice to the Indians about their
predicament as a colonized people in Bolivia. To cite another example, Sembene relates that

when the film Emitai was shown in Dakar, Senegal, the maids and servants left the babies and
their domestic responsibilities and invited each other to see the film. Here again is a case of
cinema as an organizing tool of the masses. G.M. Perry and Patrick McGilligan, "Ousmane
Sembene: An Interview." Film Quarterly, vol. XXVI, no. 3 (Spring 1971), p. 37. See also
"Interview with Jorge Sanjines," Cineasie (Spring 1972), p. 18.

2. All these films do not restrict their themes to racial concerns alone. Race is seen in the context
of class. For instance, the failure in Soleil O to turn African migrant workers in Paris into
"white thinking blacks" is better understood in the context of class. Even when films deal first
hand with the issue of slavery the class perspective is never lost. Two films from Cuba serve as
excellent examples.The Last Supper, an allegorical depiction of Christ's last supper, centers
around a count and his twelve slaves; The Other Francisco tells a story of doomed romance
between two slaves who are persecuted by their masters. In both instances, the films do not
lapse into liberal rhetoric: instead the socio-historic and economic base of racism is the films'
prime concern.

3. "The Courage of the People: An Interview with Jorge Sanjines," Cineaste (Spring 1972). p.
18. See Supra 1. Antonio Eguino. the cameraperson for Sanjines's Blood of the Condor

—
subsequently did his own film. Chuquiago a film appropriately called "X-Ray of a City" (La
Paz. Boliva). This excellent film is divided into four episodes and revolves around four
representatives of social classes in Boliva: Isico. a young Indian peasant boy; Johnny, the son
of an Indian bricklayer, who does not want to identify himself as an Indian; Carlos, a corrupt
bureaucrat; and Patricia, the daughter of a bourgeois industrialist.

4. The term has a widespread use; culture here is used in the context of music, but culture also
denotes literature, theater, film, painting and sculpture. The term also signifies "folk-culture."
It attacks what is seen as the "mechanical" aspect of "civilization." Culture has a "double
relation": to nature and to other men women. For further reading on this theme, see: R.
Williams. Marxism and Literature. See also: Stuart Hall. "Culture, the Media and the
'Ideological Effect'."Mass Communication and Society (London: Oxford University Press,
1977), pp. 315-48; Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press. 1963).

pp. 207-48 and Amilcar Cabral. Return to the Source (New York: African Information
Service, 1973), pp. 57-69.
126 Notes for Chapter 3

5. Glauber Rocha's Antonio das Mortes had a wide critical acclaim in the United States and in
Europe. The Spring of 1974 issue of Screen gave a twenty-one page "structural and textual"
analysis of it. The method was presented by Rene Gardies. In the United States, Journal of
Modern Thomas Kavanagh's "Imperialism
Literature, vol. Ill, no. 2 (April 1973) published
and Cinema; Glauber Rocha's Antonio das Mortes. " For a critical
Revolutionary
perspective of Cinema Novo, see: Hans Proppe and Susan Tarr, "Cinema Novo: Pitfalls of
Cultural Nationalism," ywm/j Cut, 10/ 1, pp. 45-48. See also the cover story: "Cinema Novo,
1

Cinema engage," Cineaste (Summer 1970). A helpful bibliography of works on Brazilian

cinema is Bradford Burn's "The Brazilian Cinema: A Bibliographical Guide." This brief
bibliography has thirty-six entries. For additional material on the subject see Randal
Johnson, "Brazilian Cinema Today," Film Quarterly (Summer 1978).

6. A Cinema from other kinds of cinema is its insistence

principal issue that distinguishes Third
to view women in a much more progressive light. The most poignant examples in this regard
are Humberto Solas's Lucia, Ousmane Sembene's Emitai (see chapter 4) and Ceddo (see
chapter 5). With the Cuban Woman by Octavio Cortazar and a recent film. Portrait of
Teresa, by Pastor Vega documents the changing role of Cuban women in building socialism.
Mention must be made of four distinguished Third World women filmmakers Sara —
Maldoror (Sambizanga), the Colombian cineast Marta Rodriguez (The Brickmakers and
most recently Campesinos, [Peasants]), the Senegalese Safi Faye (Fad Jal), and the late

Cuban filmmaker, Sara Gomez Yara (One Way or Another). One Way or Another is

challenging in its choice of theme and style — it depicts the issue of women and race, which is

still lagging behind other achievements in present day socialist Cuba. The imagery in the

film — an iron ball smashing down the old slums of Havana — symbolizes the need for a new
consciousness to replace the old machismo spirit. Sara Gomez died suddenly of an asthma
attack at age thirty-one. This film is her last tribute to the issue she raised so profoundly.

7. Lucia has had a wide viewing and critical coverage. The film is an excellent example of the
best of Third Cinema. Many studies have been made of Lucia. The following sources will
serve as introductions to the film as well as to the efforts of the Cuban Film Institute. The best
analysis to date is John Mraz, "Visual Style and Historical Portrayal," /wmp Cut, No. 19, p.
21-27. Mraz includes visual structure, shot analysis and segment themes in his study of the
film. See also: Peter Biskind, "Lucia: Struggles with History,"ywm/j Cut, no. 2, pp. 7-8; Olivia

Espin, "Lucia: An Introduction and Critique," Caribbean Review, vol. VI, no. 4 (1974), pp.
36-40. Another interesting piece is Steven Kovacs, "Lucia: Style and Meaning in Revolu-

tionary Film," Monthly Review (June 1975), pp. 33-48.

8. For a detailed discussion of the film see an indepth interview with Nana Mahomo, director of
the film, conducted by this author: "Let Their Eyes Testify," Ufahamu, vol. VII, no. 1 (1976),
pp. 97-113.

9. Elena Solberg-Ladd, the director of Double Day, follows the interview format in her
subsequent film Simplemente Genny, a film described as an essay on lower-class Latin
American women. The film documents conflicts on cultural as well as class levels. Both of
Solberg-Ladd's films were produced by the Latin American Film Project, New Jersey.

10. The Third Cinema's proposal to develop a new system of industrial production parallel to and
in opposition to the prevailing system has resulted in direct confrontations with certain Third
World governments. Because enforced censorship has caused the creation of underground
distribution networks in some Latin American countries, such films as The Traitors and La
Hora de los Hornos ran the risk of government retaliation and had to be protected by militant
armed guards during their screenings. It is due to such direct confrontations that
governmental repression against filmmakers in Latin America is widespread. Most of the
 Notes for Chapter 4 127

filmmakers discussed in this study have, therefore, either been exiled or tortured and quite a
few have lost their lives. According to Andres Racz, "The government hates the artist as much
as it hates the revolutionary, because it realizes that they are the same." Hans Herman, an

Argentinean cameraman, actually recorded his own death— he was shot by government
troops as he was and films,
filming. (This particular footage has been used in several newsreels
for instance, in Patricio Guzman's The Battle of Chile.) For a list of those Latin American
filmmakers, jailed, exiled or killed, see: "In Latin America They Shoot Film-makers," Sight
and Sound (Summtx 1979), pp. 160-61. The same article has also been reprinted in Seven
Days, 25 April 1977.

Chapter 4

1. Jorges Sanjines, "Cinema and Revolution," Cineaste (Winter 1970/71), p. 14.

2. Michael Chanan, ed., Chilian Cinema (London: British Film Institute, 976), p. 84.

3. "Film in Chile: An Interview with Miguel Littin," Cineaste (Spring 1971), p. 5.

4. CM. Perry and Patrick McGillian, Film Quarterly (Spring 1971), p. 40.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid., p. 39.

7. From "On the Making of the Film, Traitors.^' A Tricontinental Center promotional piece.

8. Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods, p. 45.

9. See Teshome H. Gabriel, The Developing African Cinema (Los Angeles: Crossroad Press,
forthcoming 1982).

10. Ibid.

11. "Film in Chile:," p. 6. Littin also states that his development as a filmmaker took place in
constant relationship with filmmakers from BoUvia, Brazil, Cuba, etc. See also Chanan,
Chilean Cinema, p. 64.

12. "A Talk with Jorge Sanjines," Cineaste (Winter 1970/71), p. 12.

13. La Hora de Los Hornos had a wide critical reception and acclaim as an excellent example of a
film that posits an ideological-political argument. Although the filmmakers claim the film to

be a result of a collaborative effort, hence, a collective film, it is nevertheless clear that both
Solanas and Getino were the major motivating force behind the film. Both worked on the
editing of the film; Getino is sound and the script; Solanas is credited for the
credited for
photography. See: James Roy MacBean, "La Hora de Los Hornos," Film Quarterly {¥a\\
1970), pp. 3 1-37. See also a reprinted interview from Cinetique, no. 3, 1969 in the same issue
of Film Quarterly, pp. 37-43.

14. Jorges Sanjines, "Cinema and Revolution," p. 14.

15. Ibid.

1 6. Such seasonal cues to denote time lapse are, of course, not new. Shorter time and space lapses
between sequences or locations have been achieved through a shift in seasons; for instance, in
the Japanese film. The Island, directed by Kaneto Shindo, flowering trees were used for
spring, yellowing leaves were employed for autumn and falling snow was used to signal
winter.
 128 Notes for Chapter 4

17. An interview with Ousman Sembene, Cineaste, vol. VI, no. 1 (1973), p. 29 and passim.

18. Ibid.

19. In spite of the emphasis now placed on innovations in sound, Sembene proposes to accent
instead the importance of "silence" in films. In this regard he joins a notable auteur such as
Luis Bunuel, who once remarked, "1 don't like music in films; think it's a lazy device, a kind
1

of trickery ..." See: Ado Kyrou. Luis Bunuel (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963), p. 111.

20. See Teshome H. Gabriel, The Developing African Cinema.

21. In this respect. One Way or Another could be regarded as an excellent sequel to Lucia, since
Sara Gomez's film is informed with a sense of reality similar to that articulated by Solas here.

22. I must acknowledge the concept of "anonymous shots" to John Mraz's analytic work
mentioned earlier. (See chapter 3, note 7). The concept opens up a new critical perspective in

that it makes shot(s) that appear only once in a film as semiotic devices for understanding film
details.

23. Julianne Burton, "The Promised Land." Film Quarterly (Fall 1975), p. 59.

24. Robert Scott, "The Arrival of the Instrument in Flesh and Blood: Deconstruction in Littin's

'The Promised Land,'" Cine-Tracts, no. 4, p. 91.

25. "Film in Chile," p. 8.

26. Ibid., p. 9.

27. The film text The Promised Land.

28. Scott, "The Arrival of the Instrument," p. 97.

29. Burton, "The Promised Land," p. 59.

30. Before Antonio das Mortes Glauber Rocha directed Barravento, Black God, White Devil
and Land in Anguish. All these were considered autobiographical works on the peoples and
cultures of Brazil. Antonio das Mortes which is both in opera and parable form is considered
"a resume and critique" of his earlier films.

31. The film text Play a Giron.

32. Katherine Montagne, "Sembene: The Pacesetter," Topic, no. 70, p. 34.

33. Interview withOusmane Sembene, Cinema-Quebec, vol. 3, no. 9-10, pp. 13-18. Sembene is
joined here by Mexican film director Jorge Fons, who had said, "... I'm not part of all of
them because they're going to bring on the revolution. They're going to help make films, and
by those the revolution, but first things first." See, Beatriz Nevares, The Mexican Cinema
(Albuquerque: New Mexico Press, 1976), p. 124.

34. "Cinema Revolutionnaire, LTxperience Bolivienne," Positif, no. 164 (Decembre 1974). pp.
27-32.

35. Littin is in consort with the Chilean "Film-makers Manifesto" that he helped write, where it is

stated, "That the revolutionary cinema will not assert itself through decrees. Consequently we
will not grant privilege to one particular way of making film; it must be that the course of the
struggle determines this." See Chanan, Chilean Cinema p. 84. See also "Twenty Years of
Revolutionary Cinema," 1, Jump Cut, no. 19.

36. Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 1968). p. 315.
 Notes for Chapter 5 129

37. Ibid., p. 86.

38. Ibid., p. 199.

39. Fanon, Black Skins/ White Masks, footnote no. 8, p. 221.

Chapter 5

1. Umberto Eco, "On the Contribution of Film to Semiotics," Quarterly Review of Film
Studies, vol. 2, no. 1 (February 1977), p. 1. The popular joke in Italian reads, "qui ITiodettoe
qui lo nego." Eco cited this phrase in connection with a theory he was advancing in his short
essay.To the question "To what extent can filmic experience help one to better understand
cinema?" or "To what extent can filmic experience help one better understand semiotic
problems?" He chooses the former, hence the popular joke he cited. I tend to agree with the
latter statement of his.

2. Brian Henderson, "Toward a Non-Bourgeois Camera Style," Movies and Methods, pp. 442-
37. This work is an elaborate commentary on the link of style to ideology.

3. To Roland Barthes, Significance is not a work through which an artist can master his
language or his style but it is an altogether different kind of labor through which one explores
how language or style works. Significance cannot be reduced to communicate or to represent
or to express: "it places the subject (of writer, reader) in the text not as a projection ... but as a
"loss," a "disappearance." See: Roland Barthes, Image/ Music/ Text (New York: Hill and
Wang, 1977), p. 10.

4. TTie solution to the form/ content dichotomy may best be defined as one of interpretation in
which, though "content" is regarded as determining "form," any art that has lasting value
must be one in which "form" is appropriate in all respects to its "content." Without "form"
there cannot be art; but "form" alone also cannot be offered as art. For a film to be a socially
and aesthetically significant art form it must strive towards an appropriate blending of "form"
and "content." As Terry Eagleton puts it, "But if form and content are inseparable in practice,
they are theoretically distinct. This is why we can talk of the varying relations between the

two." See: Terry Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1976), p. 22.

5. Raymond Durgnat, Films and Feelings (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1967), p. 24.

6. Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, p. 20.

7. Ibid., p. 26.

8. Bay of Pigs, the NBC film was produced in 1964. Playa Giron was produced in 1973. Bay of
Pigs is a 30 minute film while Playa Giron is a 103 minute feature. In one sense, therefore, the
comparison of the two films may seem out of place and unnecessary. I was, however,
motivated to compare the two films because of the subject matter they both share.
For background reading of the "Bay of Pigs" incident, see the following introductory
pieces: Robert A. Devine, ed.. The Cuban Missile Crisis (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971).
See also a short piece with a deeper insight into the issue Victor Bernstein and Jesse —
Gordon, "The Press and The Bay of Pigs," Jlie Colombia University Forum (a reprinted
form, no date supplied).

9. Journey to the Sun was produced by the South African government in 1975. The same year
Last Grave at Dimbaza was produced by Morena Films a film group which comprises —
black and white South African exiles in Britain. Their first film. End of Dialogue, was shot by
Africans inside South Africa. Nana Mahomo explains how this first film was done: "One
130 Notes for Chapter 5

asset in our favor is that South Africans don't see a black person carrying a camera, they think

he is carrying it The international distribution and its impact was so

for his white master."
strong that the South African intelligence was asked to find out all about this invisible black
crew. For the sequel to End of Dialogue, Last Grave at Dimbaza, a diversionary tactic was
needed. The Morena Films group decided to let the South African government know that
they were shooting a new film. Immediately, of course, the government increased their
vigilance —
they were looking for the same black crew, but this time around Morena Films
sent two British comrades to tour the country as tourists and film at the same time. The film
was later assembled in London.

10. An interview with Nana Mahomo, director of Last Grave at Dimbaza, by Teshome Gabriel,
Ufahamu, vol. VII, no. I, 1976.

11. A good introductory article about the state of affairs in South Africa is John Harrington's
"The State of California and Southern African Racism," Ufahamu, vol. Ill, no. 2 { 1976), pp.
117-56.

12. Jacques Ehrmann, Literature and Revolution (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967), p. 173 and
passim.

13. Ibid.

14. Terry Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology (London: New Left Books, 1976), p. 20 and passim.

15. Adrian Lajous-Vargas, ''Mexico: The Frozen Revolution," Cineaste (Winter 1970/71), 36.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid., p. 37.

18. Reed: Insurgent Mexico is based on Reed's 1914 book. Insurgent Mexico (New York:
International Publishers, 1969) which he wrote while working as a journalist for Metropoli-
tan Magazine on an article about Pancho Villa. Later on, Reed went to the Soviet Union
where he wrote Ten Days That Shook The World (fiew York: International Publishers, 1971)
on the Bolshevik Revolution.

19. For a penetrating analysis of this theme, see: Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology, p. 92: "The
Critic is not, of course, a therapist of the text. His task is not to cure or complete it, but to
explain why it is as it is." Alternately, Marina Heck in Cine- Tracts, no. 1 , p. 43, writes, "When
a message is emitted it isn't only what is said that has a signification but also the way it is said,
and what is not said and could be said."

20. Ibid., p. 20.

2 1 The material is enormous; the following are introductory works and attempts at a synthesis of
Freud and Marx: Thomas Johnston, Freud and Political Thought (The Citadel Press, 1965),
pp. 81-102; Reuben, Marxism and Psychoanalysis (A Delta Book, New York, 1965) pp. 55-
125; Bruce Brown, Marx, Freud, and the Critique of Everyday Life: Toward a Permanent
Cultural Revolution (Monthly Review Press, 1973); Jack J. Spector, The Aesthetics of
Freud: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Art (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972), pp. 77-145;
Paul Robinson, The Freudian Left (Colophon Books, 1969 and Harper and Row Publishers,
1974).

22. Buiiuel had said "Surrealism was a big lesson in my life and also a big marvelous poetic step."
See: J.H. Matthews Surrealism and Film (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press,
1971), p. 141 and passim. Buiiuel also is fond of repeating a statement attributed to Andre
Breton, "He is a jackass. He never dreams." Bufluel believed that the irrational governs the
 Notes for Chapter 6 131

world and the cinema even more. See: Joan Mellen, ed., The World of Luis Bunuel (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1978) pp. 92, 107.

23. 1 am indebted to Denise G. Williams "The Young and the Damned," Visual Dimension of
Latin American Social History: Student Critiques of Eight Major Latin American Films,
edited by Prof. Burns. Williams puts "the Culture of Poverty," using Oscar Lewis's Five
Families, to proper use when analyzing Bunuel's Los Olvidados.

24. "Film in Chile: An Interview with Miguel Littin," Cineaste (Spring 1971), p. 5.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

Chapter 6

1 Amilcar Cabral, Return to the Source (New York: African Information Service, 1973), p. 1 1

and passim.

2. Ibid., p. 42.

3. Ibid. See also Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, the chapter on "Nationalism," where
Fanon writes, "nationalism is at the very heart of the struggle for freedom." (p. 232.)

4. Cabral, Return, p. 42.

5. Gideon Bachmann, "Antonioni After China: Art versus Science," Film Quarterly (Summer
1975), p. 26.

6. Umberto Eco, "De interpretatione, or the Difficulty of Being Marco Polo (On the Occasion
of Antonioni's China Film)," Film Quarterly (Summer, 1977), p. 9.

7. Peter D'Agostino, "Chung: 'Still' Another Meaning," The Dumb Ox: A Quarterly Art
Journal (Summer 1977), p. 8.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. See an eighteen-page pamphlet entitled "A Vicious Motive, Despicable Tricks — A Criticism
of Antonioni's Anti-China Film 'China'," (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1974). See also
"Repudiating Antonioni's Anti-China Film," Peking Review, no. 8 (February 22, 1974).

11. Ibid.

12. Daniel Bickley, "Joris Ivens Filming in China," Film-maker's Newsletter, vol. 10, no. 4, p. 26.

13. Umberto Eco, "De interpretatione," p. 11.

14. Quoted in Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978), p.

171.

15. Ibid.

16. Paul Pickowicz, "Cinema and Revolution in China," American Behavioral Scientist, Sage
Publications, vol. 17, no. 3. (Jan/ Feb., 1974), p. 350.

17. Mao Tse-Tung, Selected Works, vol. Ill (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1967), p. 82.

18. Sontag, On Photography, p. 173.

132 Notes for Chapter 6

19. US-China Peoples Friendship Association, Newsletter, vol. 2, no. 1 (Jan/ Feb., 1976), p. 3.

20. The film text— 77j^ East is Red

21. Pickowitz, "Cinema and Revolution," p. 352.

22. Robert Scott, Cine-Tracts, no. 4, p. 87.

23. Jean Debrix, "camera dramaturgy," Films in Review, vol. Ill, no. 5 (May 1952), p. 283.

24. Ibid., vol. Ill, no. 6 (June 1952), p. 282.

25. Michael Flacon from Raccords, no. 6.

26. Pickowitz, "Cinema and Revolution," pp. 346-47.

27. The New York Times. November 11, 1976, p. 4.

28. Ibid.

29. The Guardian, November 14, 1976, p. 6.

30. Mao Tse-tung had written an editorial in 195 1 in the Peoples Daily criticizing The Life of Wu
Hsun. He had attacked the film for its praising of Wu Hsun (1838-96) whom he considered "a
landlord's agent." The film presented Wu Hsun as a person who was willing to help children
gain a better education. Again, in 1953 Mao Tse-tung wrote a letter attacking Inside Story of
the Ching Court as a "film of national betrayal." The
was condemned for distorting the
film
nature of imperialism by "vilifying the Yi Ho Tuan It had come to light in
(Boxer) Rebellion."
recent years that Liu Shao-chi, former President of the People's Republic, had considered the
film "patriotic." For further reading on these circumstances, see Mark Scher, "Film in
China," Film Comment (Spring, 1969), pp. 8-21.

31. According to Sergei Toroptsev, "The Chinese Cinema under the Veil of 'Re\i\a\\'' Asia and
Africa Today, no. 5 (Sept/Oct. 1978), no genuine "rehabilitation of former films has taken
place yet." The writer argues that still "the Chinese press is blowing up the 'tragedy' of the
opposites of Mao Tse-tung, who preached 'correct' truths and the 'gang of four', who were
assiduously distorting these truths." He further argues that the most productive period of
film — the 1950s — was not in the list of the first six films 'rehabilitated.' For an account of
early Chinese years which indeed were the most productive times in Chinese film production,
most helpful book, Dianying: An Account of Films and the Film Audience in
see Jay Leyda's
China (Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1972).

32. "Show Biz in Red China After Mao," Variety (May 24, 1978), p. 1.

33. Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, May 26, 1981. I am deeply grateful to Professor Richard
Hawkins of the Department of Theater Arts (UCLA) for enlightening me about present
conditions of production and trends in Chinese cinema. He has been to China and has for a
long time been keenly interested in promoting interest in Chinese films in America.

34. Pauline Kael, / Lost it at the Movies (Toronto: An Atlantic Monthly Press Book, 1954), p.
148.

35. Quoted in John H. Lawson, Film: The Creative Process (New York: Hill and Wang, 1964), p.
246.

36. Penelope Gilliatt, "The Antonioni Canon," L 'A vventura: A Film by Michelangelo Antonioni
(New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1969), p. 264.

37. Peter Schjeldahl, "Cuban 'Memories' You Won't Soon Forget," The New York Times, May
20, 1973.
 Notes for Chapter 6 133

38. Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic (May 19, 1973).

39. True, the film does show the "alienation" of a "non-socialist" within Socialist Cuba but that is
not the essence of the film. Although the film, firsthand, represents the alienation factor, it is

not the "central" concern of the film; rather, it is ideology that is the object of the text. People
view Sergio as a character to such an extent that they get caught up thinking that he represents
the point of view of the director. Not so. The point of the film is to ask what Sergio, the
character, does represent. For further orientation on these questions see"An Interview with
Tomas Gutierrez Alea," Cineaste, vol. VIII, no. I., p. 8. See also; "Cuban Cinema: Tomas
Gutierrez Alea," Film Quarterly (Winter 1975/76), pp. 45-56. For the relationship of
"ideology" to "Alienation," see Eagleton's Criticism and Ideology, pp. 79-80.

40. John Howard Lawson, Film the Creative Process, p. 341.

41. Julianne Burton, "The Promised Land," Film Quarterly (Fall 1975), p. 18.

42. The film text Memories of Underdevelopment and passim.

43. Lawson, Film the Creative Process, p. 354.

44. Gerald Mast, A Short History of the Movies (New York: Pegasus, 1971), p. 353.

45. Quoted in Laurence Gavron, "Jean Rouch 'Revisited'," On Film, no. 8 (Spring 1978), p. 26.

46. Stephen Mamber, Cinema Verite in America: Studies in Uncontrolled Documentary

(Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1974), p. 1.

47. Interview with Jean Rouch, "The Politics of Visual Anthropology," Cineaste, vol. VIII, no. 4,
p. 17.

48. Lyle Pearson, "Four Years of African Film," Film Quarterly (Summer 1973), p. 45. Rouch's
films such as Moi, un noir were censored by the government of the Ivory Coast; La Pyramide
Humidine on race relations was banned all over Africa; and Les Maitres fous was
"controversial everywhere." In Rouch's own words, Cocorico Monsieur Poulet was
considered "scandalous: to tell a funny story when there is a drought in Niger." See Dan
Yakir's "Cine-transe: The Vision of Jean Rouch," in Film Quarterly (Spring 1978), pp. 2-1
and the interview with Rouch cited above, note 47.

49. Emilie De Brigard, "The History of Ethnographic Film," Principles of Visual Anthropology
(The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1975), p. 36.

50. Ibid.

51. Interview with Jean Rouch, p. 19.

52. Ibid., p. 20.

53. Ousman Sembene has directed nine films including Xala. The Songhai Empire made as a
thesis film under Konskoi and Guerassimov in the Soviet Union has never been distributed.
Borom documents a day in the life of a horse-cart driver. Niaye treats the subject of
Sarret
incest, suicide and murder. Tauw presents a young unemployed who cannot find employment

in Senegal's neo-colonialist system. The rest— Mandabi, Emitai and Ceddo—are all

discussed in this study.

54. It must be noted that Ousmane Sembene himself straddles two cultures. He is rooted within
Africa's literary culture where as an image-thinker he has written several books and stories
using French; he is also rooted in the present where he assumes a new kind of artistic mode in
which he plays continuously with the concept of image-making itself.
134 Notes for Chapter 6

55. "Sem-enna-worq" is a favorite form of poetry in Ethiopia. The concept, however, exists in
most African languages. For its unique use and meaning see, Donald Levine, iVax and Gold:
Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965).

56. Ousmane Sembene, Xala (Conn: Lawrence Hill and Co., !975). Xaia, the novel, differs

significantly from the film version. The book explores interpersonal relationships and
individual inner states more fully. For instance, in the novel El Hadji's negative side comes
from his own nature and attitudes towards others, whereas the film captures his negative side
mostly by a contrast established between his life style and that of the beggars. The film omits
many family relationships; for instance, Awa's father is present as a Christian character in the
novel, and Rama has a fiance, Pathe, a psychiatrist with whom Rama discusses her father's
xaia. Dimensions of Oumi's, Awa's and Rama's personal and family lives are altogether left
out in the film version.

57. Most of the dialogue in this study is taken from the film itself.

58. Although I have referred to beggars continuously, Sembene shows a peasant among them
(not in the novel) who represents the destitute rural workers. When a skillful pickpocket,
Thierry (the man who replaces El Hadji as a board member), steals the money his villagers
gave him to buy food, ashamed to return to the village he joins the beggar band in the city.

Sembene includes a peasant in an urban setting so that the national issue will not be forgotten.

59. If a spectator's initial introduction to Sembene 's filmic work is, for instance, either Emitai or
his latest feature Ceddo, both employing a collective heroism and shot in social space, one
might conclude that Sembene does not understand the value of intimate shots. However, in

an earlier film,Mandabi, shot with individual space and much camera intimacy, Sembene
shows a mastery of close-up shots. In fact, anyone who has seen the film is sure to remember
the face, the feet and even the nostrils of the lead character, Ibrahim Dieng. The details remain
in our visual memory. In each of the above cases one thing is certain Sembene 's search for —
an African cinema is evident. In each instance, style modifies subject matter.

60. Translated from Nations Nouvelles, 1976, p. 28.

61. Ibid.

62. The Sembene plays in his films a la Hitchcock illustrate his interest in popular
bit parts

iconography: in Tauw he portrays an employment office bureaucrat; in Mandabi Sembene is

the post office scribe — a cross cultural translator; in Emitai he is a quarrelsome corporal who
objects to replacing a five-star general with a two-star. In Ceddo he plays a forced Muslim
convert and is given the Muslim name Ibrahima.

63. Interview with Oi smane Sembene in Seven Days (March 10, 1978), pp. 26-27.

64. Haile Gerima has completed five films including Harvest: 3000 Years. His short film. Child of
Resistance, is a film based on the concept of "you can jail a revolutionary but not the
revolution." Bush Mama is a portrait of urban black America; Wilmington 10 — U.S.A.
10,000 community produced film on the incarceration of the Wilmington 10. His most
is a
recent film.Ashes and Embers, treats the subject of a black veteran of Vietnam who is torn
between his ideals and fantasies. The war has so messed up his head that he can neither relate
with others nor with himself.
 Bibliography

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Afterimage. Espinosa, Garcia, U. "For an Imperfect Cinema," no. 3 (Summer 1971), pp. 54-67.
Cineaste. Burton, Julianna. "Memories of Underdevelopment in the Land of Overdevelopment,"
vol. VIII no. 1 (1977), pp. 16-21.
Gupta, Sehdev Kumar. "New Wave Cinema in India," vol. VI, no. 3, pp. 23-25.

Kamphausen, Hannes. "Cinema in Africa: A Survey," vol. V, no. 2 (Spring 1972), pp. 28-
41.
Solanas et. al. "Latin American Militant Cinema," vol. IV, no. 3 (Winter 1970/71), a
special issue.
Paquet, Andre. "Toward an Arab and African Cinema: the 1974 Cartage Film Festival,'
vol. VII, no. 1, pp. 19-26.
Cine-Tracts. Scott, Robert. "The Arrival of the Instrument in Flesh and Blood: Deconstruction in
The Promised Land," no. 4 (Spring-Summer 1978), vol. I, no. 4, pp. 81-97.
Littin's

Film Comment. Cover story: "Film in Asia," vol. V, no. 2 (Spring 1969).
Special Issue: "Propaganda Films about the War in Vietnam," vol. IV, no. 2 (Fall 1966).
Special Issue: "Visual Anthropology," vol. VII, no. 1 (Spring 1971).
Film and Filming. "Joris Ivens Filming in China," vol. 10, no. 4 (February 1977), pp. 22-26.
Davis, Elliot. "Filming in Ethiopia: The Making of Harvest," vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 18-19, 38.

Film Quarterly. Bachmann, Gideon. "Antonioni After China: Art versus Science"(Summer 1975),
pp. 26-30.
Hour of the Embers: On the Current Situation of Latin American
Burton, Julianne. "The
Cinema" (Fall 1976), pp. 33^W.
.. Callenbach, Ernest. "Comparative Anatomy of Folkmyth films in Robin Hood and
Antonio das A/or/e^" (Winter 1969-70), pp. 42^7.
Eco, Umberto. "De Interpretatione, or the difficulty of Being Marco Polo (on the occasion
of Antonioni's China Film)" (Summer 1977), pp. 8-12.
Gupta, Chidananda D. "Indian Cinema Today" (Summer 1969), pp. 27-35.
Kernan, Margot. "Cuban Cinema: Tomas Gutierrez Alea" (Winter 1975-76), pp. 45-56.
..Johnson, Randal. "Brazihan Cinema" (Summer 1978), pp. 42-45.
Framework. "Nous aurous toute la mort," no. 7/8 (Spring 1978), pp. 23-28.
"On Guzman, Rocha, Faye, Cisse, Hondo, Rouch, etc.," no. II (Autumn 1979).
Jump Cut. Mraz, John et. al. "Revolutionary Cuban Cinema, pt. I" no. 19 (December 1978).
Special issue.
Proppe, Hans, and Tarr, Susan. "Cinema Novo: The Pitfalls of Cultural Nationalism,"
no. 10/11 (June 1976), pp. 45^8.
Waugh, Thomas. "How Yukong Moved the Mountains: Filming the Cultural Revolu-
tion," no. 12/13 (December 1976), pp. 3-6.
136 Bibliography

On Film. Gavron, Laurence. "Jean Rouch 'Revisited'," no. 8 (Spring 1978), pp. 26-31.

Sightand Sound. Biskind, Peter. "In Latin America They Shoot Film-makers," vol. 45, no. 3

(Summper 1976), pp. 160-61.

Engel, Andi. "Solidarity and Violence." vol. 38, no. 4 (Autumn 1969), pp. 196-2(X).
Wilson, David. "Venceremos! Aspects of Latin American Political Cinema," vol. 4 1 no. 3 ,

(Summer 1972), pp. 127-31.

Screen. Hackner, Helen & Matias, Diana. "John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln," vol. 13, no. 3
(Autumn 1972), p. 6.
Take One. Murphy, William, T., and Weiner Bernard. "Films of the Revolution," and "Two Third
World Films," vol. IIL no. 3, pp. 5, 14-16.

Variety. "Africa Making 80-100 Feature Films Annually," (Anniversary Issue) (January 1974).
"Show Biz in Red China After Mao" (May 24, 1978).

Interviews With Third World Filmmakers

Alea, Gutierrez T. "Individual Fulfillment and Collective Achievement." Cineaste, vol. VIII, no. 1.

Alvarez, Santaigo. "5 Frames are 5 Frames, not 6." Cineaste, vol. VI, no. 4.
Eguino, Antonio. "Neo-realism in Bolivia." Cineaste, vol. IX, no. 2, pp. 26-29, 59.
Gerima, Haile. "On 3000 Year Harvest." Framework, no. 7 8 (Spring 1978). pp. 30-35.
Giuliana, G. and Bedei, Elena. " 'OLOLOHA' Trois Tempignages sur la Somalie revolutionnaire."
Afrique Asie, no. 116 (Septembre 1976). pp. 45-46.
Guzman. Patricio. "The Battle of ChWe." Socialist Revolution, vol. 7, no. 5 (September, October
1977), pp. 36-68.
Hondo, Med. "Med Hondo." Framework, no. 7,8 (Spring 1978), 28-30.
Littin, Miguel. "Film in Chile," Cineaste, volume IV, no. 4, pp. 4-9.

Mahamo, Nana. "Clandestine Filming in South Africa." Cineaste, vol. VII, no. l.pp. 18-19 and 50.
"Let Their Eyes Testify." Ufahamu, vol. VII, no. 1. pp. 97-113.
Peries, Lester, J. "Third World Film-maker," Sight and Sound, vol. 46, no. 3 (Summer 1977), pp.
182-85.
Ray, Satyajit, "The Politics of Humanism." Cineaste, vol. XII, no. 1 (1982), pp. 24-29.
Rocha, Glauber, "a propos political cinema!" Afterimage, no. 3 (Summer 1971), pp. 70-77.
"Cinema Novo vs. Cultural Colonialism," Cineaste, vol. IV, no. 1, pp. 2-9, 35.
"The Way to Make a Future." Film Quarterly (Fall 1970), pp. 27-40.
Sanjines, Jorge. "Tlie Courage of the People." Cineaste. vol. V, no. 2, pp. 18-20.
"Ukamau and Yawar MaWku." Afterimage, no. 3 (Summer 1971), pp. 70-77.
Sembene, Ousmane. "Film-makers Have a Great Responsibility to Our People." Cineaste, vol. VL,
no. 1, pp. 26-31.
"Ousmane Sembene." Film Quarterly (Summer 1973), pp. 36^2.
"Sembene's New Film Attacks Islam." Seven Days (March 10, 1978), pp. 26-27.

Sen, Mrinal. "Introducing Mrinal Sen." Jump Cut, no. 12/13 (December 1976), pp. 9-10.
"The New Indian Cinema: A Cinema in a Non-revolutionary Society." Jump Cut, no. 8
(Aug.-Sept., 1975), pp. 15-19.
Solanas, Fernando. "Cinema as a Gun." Cineaste, vol. Ill, no. 2, pp. 18-26, 33.
"Fernando Solanas." Film Quarterly (Fall 1970, Spring 1978), 2-11.
Solas, Humberto. "Every Point of Arrival is a Point of Departure. "yuw/j Cut, no. 19 (December
1978), pp. 27-33.
Traore, Mahama. "Cinema in Africa Must be a School." Cineaste, vol. VI, no. 1, pp. 32-35.
 Bibliography 137

Miscellaneous Publications

Africa. "Africa on the Big Screen," no. 69 (May 1977), p. 97.

"Cannes Film Festival and Africa," no. 73 (September 1977), pp. 88-89.
"Film-makers and African Culture," no. 71 (July 1977), p. 80.
A Fair Enough Bargain." no. 85 (September 1978). p. 96.
"Films:
"Sembene Ousmane and the Censors." no. 86 (October 1978). p. 85.
Africa & Asia Today. "Today the Chinese Cinema under the Veil of 'Revival'." no. 5
(September/ October 1978), pp. 61-62.
American Behavioralist Scienlisl. A special number on "Film and Man's Politics in the Developing
Areas." vol. 17, no. 3 (January February 1974). Includes: "Cinema and Revolution in China,"
pp. 328-359; "Filmmaking and Politics: The Cuban Experience," pp. 36-392; "Film and Social
Change in Africa — "
pp. 424-38; "Egypt in Shadows: Films and the Political Order," pp. 393-
423.
Atlas. "Africa: Overcoming a Colonial Heritage" (March 1976), p. 37.
"Algeria's Neo-realists: Films for Nation Building" (July 1978), p. 51.
"African Film Festival" (July 1976), p. 49.

"India's 'Cinema Cinema' " (May 1979), p. 59.

"Indonesian Films: A Distorted Mirror" (October, 1975), p. 53.
Horn of Africa. "The Film Artist in Developing Nations — Ethiopia," and "Harvest: 3000 Years,"
vol. I, no. (January/ March 1978), pp. 57-59.
1

Ideologies & (I & L). "The Other Francisco: Film Lessons on Novel Reading," vol. I. no.
Literature
5 (January/ February 1973). pp. 19-27.
Jeune Afrique. "Alyam Alyam: La Jeunesse paysanne au Maroc," no. 923 ( 3 September, 1978), p. 1

53.
"Le Premier Long Metage Ethiopien," no. 854 (20 Mai 1977). p. 60.
"Les Films africains veulent etre vus" and "Hollywood sur Volta," no. 947 (28 Febrier
1979), pp. 46^8.
.."L'Ordre regne en Republique ouest Africaine," no. 927 (1 1 Octobre 1978). p. 81.
Latin American Literary Review. "Blow-up: Cortazar's and Antonioni's," vol. IV, no. 9 (Fall-
Winter 1976), pp. 7-13.
"The Reel Against the Real: Cinema in the Novels of Guillermo Cabrera Infante and
Manuel Puig," vol. VI. no. 11 (Fall/ Winter 1977). pp. 22-29.
Presence Africaine. "'Xala': Une Satire caustique de la Societe Bourgeoisie Senegalaise." no. 103
(1977), pp. 144-57.
"Le Cinema au Senegal en 1976," no. i07 (1978), pp. 207-14.
Topic. "Sembene: The Pacesetter," no. 70, 1973.
"When An African Makes, He Does So to Express Something Deep within Himself." no.
70, 1973.
UNESCO "The Awakening African Cinema," no. 3 (March 1962).
Courier.
UNESCO "The Reluctant Pioneers of the Cinema," nos. 574/757 (May 1-2, 1970).
Features.
Ufahamu. "Image of Black People in Cinema," vol. VI. no. 2 (1976). pp. 133-67.
IVorking Papers in Cultural Studies. "Ideology and the Sociology of Knowledge," no. 10 (1977),
pp. 9-32.

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140 Bibliography

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 Index

Aesthetic(s): 3; and ideology of Third Blood of the Condor. 3, 16, 21, 37, 38, 17 1

Cinema, 5-8; compromises. 96; of Blood will Triumph Over the Sword. 17, 117
liberation, 6, 16. 90; of Third Cinema, 8; Bolivia, 16, 117
region of ideology, 50 Brazil. 3, 17, 19, 27, 117
Africa(n): 22, 23, 24, 25; films vs. Latin Brazil:No Time for Tears. 19, 117
American, 27-28; films and ideology in, 74- Brick-makers, The, 15, 117
79; South, 45-47 Budouin Boy, The. 3, 17 1

Alea, Tomas Gutierrez, 17, 69/70, 73, 74, Bunuel, Luis, 51, 130
133 Bush Mama. 1 34
Algeria, 39, 97, 103, 107, 109, 117 Brecht, Berthol, 47, 54
Althusser, Louis, 6-7, 1 1-12, 13
Alvarez, Carlos, 15, 117 C.A.C. See Committee of African Cineastes
Alvarez, Julia, 18,40, 118 Cabral, Amilcar. 12, 13, 14, 60, 62; on
Angola, 18, 27, 117, 118 culture, 57-58
Anonymous shot: as a device of anticipation Camera: as an observer, 60; hand-held, 27,
[in Lucia], 32; obligatory glimpse [in Los 29; intimacy, 25, 134; likened to a rifle, 7;

Olvidados], 53; concept of, 128 movement, 30; Style: 25, Antonioni's 60-61;
Antonio das Mories. 17, 117, 1 22, 1 26; vs. The in African/ Latin American film, 27-28;
Promised Land, 35 participatory, 61; Sembene's, 87; similarity
Antonioni, Michelangelo, 59-60, 61, 69, 70, of, 36; violent works made with, 14
71,73,74 Campesionos, 126, 18. See Peasants
1

Argentina{n), 17,37, 117/8, 122; group of, 23 Ceddo.S6-S9, 117

Armed struggle, 13, 19-20 Censorship: [in Senegal], 86; [in Latin
Ashes and Embers, 134 America], 126/7
Audience, 16, 47, 49; Sembene projects his, Changes in Village. 1 6; See Gamperaliya
27; in the position of jury, 37, 22; point of Character(s): 24, 7 choice of, 6 in relation
1 ; 1 ;

view of the, 64; to participate in, 64 to, 29; of the lunatic, 92, 97; representing
Aziza, 18, 117 evil/ the good, 63; Sergio [in Memories] as
a, 133
Bai Hua, 69, 1 18. See Chen Youhua Chaskel, Pedro, 17, 119
Barravento. 3,40, 117, 128 Chen Youhua, 69, 1 18. See Bai Hua
Barren Lives, 3, 119; see Vidas Secas ChiangChing.67,68,69
Barthes, Roland, 112, 129 Child of Resistance. 34 1

Battle of Chile. The. 3,96, 117, 127 Chile, 21,22, 132

3,

Ben Ammar, A., 17 1 China [Peoples' Republic of): 3, 18, Film and
Ben Baraka, Souhel, 18, 118 Ideology in, 59-69
Beyond the Plains, 3, 1 1 Chou En-Lau, 62; symbolic attack on, 67
Biblical: paradigm, metaphor, 17/
17; 18; Chronicle of a Summer, 74
religious figures as symbols, 32 Chronicle of the Years of Embers, 97. 117
Birr, Fernando, 103, 122 Chronique d'un Ete. See Chronicle of a
Black Girl. 78, 117 Summer
Black God. While Devil, 40, 17, 128 1 Chung Kuo, 59-61
144 Index

Chuquiago, 117, 1 25 Distribution: and exhibition, models of. 23-

Cine: aesthetics, 36; liberation. 24; Nuevo, 24. 108

24; structuralism, 5 Documentary: 44; non-fiction, 46. See

Cinema: 5; as a gun, 25; confrontational, 6; Revolutionary film
de conscience, 2 de la Base, 23; engaged,
1 1 ;
Dolce Vita. La. 70.71,73,74
121; First, 122; Freud-Marx co-existence Doroudian, Mahmoud, 17, 117
in, 51; guerrilla, 7, 25; non-illusionistic, 31; Dos Santos, Nelson Pereira, 19 1

Novo, 3, 24. 36; of decolonization, 1, 121/2; Double Day. The. 18. 19. 117
of establishment Left. 36; of intervention, Duck, You Sucker, 48-50
97; of liberation, 6; of the masses, 7; of Durgnat. Raymond. 42
"silence." 26. 88-89; of subversion. 95;
revolutionary. 100; role of. 105; Second. 46. Eagelton. Terry. 42. 50
122; traveling, 112. Verity, 36, 74 East is Red, The. 3, 18, 60, 63. 65
Class: 15-16, 17; historical. 29; Eco, Umberto, 42. 59. 61
representative of. 71 Editing: comparison of. 47; in Lucia. 29, 30;
Close-up: 26, 30; to emphasize decadence. style, 61; strategy, 82

3 1 Chinese style, 61,62; lack of, 66. 75.87;

;
Eisenstein: theory of syntax, 27

images as brackets. 91/92; thematic, 34 El Chacal de Nahuelioro: 22, 32, 5 1 , anatomy of

Cocorico Monsieur Poulet, 33 1
style. 52-54

Codes: cinematic, xi; ideal. 8; cultural versus Emitai. 18, 25-26, 77, 89, 1 17, 134
ideological. 57-93; class. 81; filmic. 82; End of Dialogue. 118, 129

conventional. 82; in formation, 86; of the Engaged cinema. See Cinema

culture of poverty. 90, 92 Engel: interactive model of "base"/
Colombia, 15. 24. 1 17. 1 18 "superstructure," 9
Color. 47. 49; choice of. 60, 83 Entertainment, 96
Comedy(ic): 78; form, 79; pedagogic. 30 Ethiopia, 27. 90. 92
Committee of African Cineastes, 23 Equino, Antonioni. 17, 125 1

Composition, 82-84 Exhibition. See Distribution

Communication: direct, 92; system of. 6 Eye-level shot. See Shot
Confeicao Tchiambula, A Day in a Life AQ, 17 1

Context [text, reception, production]: 2, 5; FadJal. 3, 117

cultural, 85; historical, 30; ideological, 95; Fanon, Frantz, 7; on conceptualization of
evolving, aesthetic and social, 6, 13, 19, 20; Marxist theory and praxis, 12-14
of man-the-individual and man-the-social- Faye, Safi, 3, 117
being, 57; style in the, of its use. 4 1
FEPACI: See Pan African Federation of
23.

theoretical. 5-14; viewers to appreciate, 28 Filmmakers

Consciousness: false. 9; ideological. 7; of Fellini, Fredrico, 69, 70, 73

historic class, 29; radical, 3; of Fiction: their recreation, 36; world of, 96
revolutionary, 17; stream of, 38 Film: as allegory, 32; form, 90; pace of, 27, 90;
Cortazar, Octavio, 118, 119, 123 within-a-film, 36
Courage of the People, 21. 117 Fimbo Ya Mnyonge. 27, 117
Critical inquiry, 95. See Criticism First Cinema. See Cinema

Criticism: film theory and, 5, 6, 14; Flashback(s): 54, 88; choice of [in Lucia], 3 in 1 ;

ideological. 7; as intervention, 50. See also. TTie Promised Land. 32. See also El Chacal

Aesthetics and Context de Nahueltoro

Crv of the People. 96. 117 method of
Folk: culture, 79, 95; film, 32;
Cuba(n): 17. 18. 28. 29. 31.43-45, 58; Film purgation [in Xala\ 82; narrative tradition.
and Ideology in, 69-74; 96, 18. 19 1 1 83, 85; song, 17,31,32
Culture: 16-17, 125; curtain, 38, 84, 85; Folklore. 32, 35, 90, 106
decolonization of, 2, 7: definition of, 157; of Fons, Jorge, 128
poverty, 5 1 , 90, 131. See also Folk and For the First Time. 117, 1 23
Folklore Frame, 64. 66. 84. 88

Dawn of the Damned, The, 39. 117 Gamperaliya, 16

Defense of the People, In, 37, 117 Gardner Song, The, 67
Dehalvi.Jamil, 3, 118 Gerima, Haile, 27, 40. 90-93, 18, 134 1

Deng Finlan, 68. 118 Getino, Octavio, 21,23. 118, 122

Deng Xiaoping, 69 Ghana. 3, 119
 Index 145

Giral, Sergio, 17, 118 Liberation: struggle for decolonization and,

Gleyzer, Raymondo, 49, 118 18; of women, 28. See Aesthetic(s) and
Godard, Jean-Luc, 74 Cinema
Guinea Bissau, 57 Ufe of Wu Hsun. The: Mao Tse-tung on, 32 1

Guzman, Patricio, 3, 117, 127 Linquist, Jay, 103, 119

Littin,Miguel, 17, 32-33, 35, 39, 1 17, 1 18; on
Haile Gerima. See Gerima revolutionary film, 21/22
Hand-held. See Camera Lui Shao-ch'i, 67
Hans, Herman, 127 Lui Shaoqui. See Lui Shao-ch'i
Harvest: 3000 Years. 23, 27, 90-93, 18 1 Long Chain, The, 18, 118
Harvey, Sylvia, 99, 122 Long Shot, 25. See Shot
Hero: anti-, 63, 70; as collective subject, 8; Los Olvidados, 51-54
collective, 62, 134; function as a, 34; mass, Low Angle shot, 36. See Shot
25; in The Promised Land, 1 Lucia, 18.28-32, 118
Hitchchock, Sembene a la, 134 Luta Continua, A, 19, 97, 1 18
High angle: use of, 84. See Shot
Hollywood: 2, 3, 7; the Third World's, 122; Mad Masters, The, 76. See Maitre Fous
on the Nile, 122; Arab World's, 122 Mahomo, Nana, 1 18
Holmquist, Pea, 107, 118 Maitre Fous. Les, 75
Hondo, Med, 24, 107, 118, 119 Maleh, Nabil, 117
HoradelosHornos, La. 25, 21, 39, 1 18, 126/ 127 Maidoror, Sara, 18 1

Hour of the Furnaces, The, 25. See Hora Mandabi. 118

17, 22,
Hu Yaobang, 69 Manifesto, 2, 99
Huang Zumo, 68, 1 18 Mao Tse-tung: 67, on release of The Pioneers.
67; on films, 132.
Identification: cultural, 97; denied any easy, Marx, Karl: "camera obscura" model, 9; on
85; ideological discourse rather than, 53; in beauty, 10; "work" as aesthetic activity, 10,
Third Cinema, 8; possibility of, 17; shift 12, 13
among characters, 36 Mask. The. 40, 118
Ideology(ical): and Ideological State Mauritania, 107, 118, 119
Apparatuses, 12; apparatuses and effects, 6; Mediation, ideological, 6; theory of, 6
criticism, 7; Christianity as the dominant, Medium Shot. See Shot
18; deterministic, 9; end of, 8, 9; forms Memories of Underdevelopment. 70-74, 1 1

[Marx], 10; theory of, 12-14; What is, 8-14 Meta-system. See System
Image: weapon, 7; mental, 34; quality, 30 Metz, Christian, 5
Imaginero, 3, 18 1 Mexico, 48, 49, 118
In Laws. The. 69, 118 Mexico: The Frozen Revolution. 48-50, 1 18
India, 16, 18, 118 Middle Kingdom, 59. See Chung Kuo
Inside Story of the Ching Court, 1 32 Moi, UnNoir. 75, 113
Interpellate(ion), 6, 12 Money Order. See Mandabi
Iran, 17, 37, 117 Morena Films, 129
Island 127 Morocco(an), 18, 118
Mozambique, 19, 1 18
Jackal of Nahueltoro, 22. See El Chacal de
Nahueltoro Narrative: 32; oral, 90-93; structure, 30. See
Journey to the Sun, 45-47, 18 1 Flashback, Folk and oral tradition
Narrator: as lecturer and as confidant, 46; as
Kaneto Shindo, 127 oral interpretor, 93; leisurely, 90. See also
"Voice" and TEXT
Lakhdar-Hamina, Mohammed, 1 17 Nee-Owoo, Kwate, 40, 119
Land in Anguish, 128 Nigeria, 40, 118
Last Grave at Dimbaza, 19,45-47, 1 18, 129/30
Last Supper. The. 17/ 18, 96, 1 18 O Povo Organizado. 97, 1 18
Latin America: repression of filmmakers, Ole, Antonio, 27, 40, 117, 118
126/ 127; style of, 27-28 One Day I Asked. 18, 118
L'.^vvfmMra, 70, 71,73 One Way or Another. 18, 1 1 8; challenging in its

Leduc, Paul, 49, 118 theme and style, 126

Leone, Sergio, 48, 49, 67 Oral tradition. 27, 90-93. See Folk, Folklore,
146 Index

Culture and Narrative Sanjines, Jorge, on revolutionary film, 21-

Ospina, Luis, 3, 118, 122 22; 117, 118
Other Franscisco, The, 17, 118 Sanz, Luis, 1 17
Sara Gomez Yara, 118, 126
Pakistan, 3, 118 Second Cinema, 6; definition of, 122. See
Pan African Federation of Filmmakers, 1 12, Cinema
113, 114 Self-refiective, 36
Pan shot: left/ right axis, 66; integrity of the Sem-enna-worq, 78, 34. See "Wax and
1

space, 85; quick, 66; reverse, 91; swish, 91 Gold"

Panning, in Chinese films, 65-66 Sembene, Ousmane: 3, 17, 22, 24-26, 107,
Father Panchah. 16, 118 117, 18,
1 19; and interview with,
1 1-1 16 1 1

Fathway to the Stars. 27, 118 Semiotics [semiology]: 5, application of, and
Feasants, 26. See Campesinos
1 textual analysis, 122; Third Cinema, 8
Peoples Republic of China. See China Senegal, 3, 17/ 18, 22, 86, 1 17, 1 18, 1 19
Peries, Lester James, 16, 117, 118 Sequel, 93, 128
Peru, 118 Sexism, 18-19
Fickingon the Feople, 3, 118, 122 Shot, eye-level, 84, 88; high angle, 88; long,
Fioneers, The, 67 73; long medium, 62; low angle, 61, 84;
Flaya Giron: 3, as revolutionary film, 36; vs. travelling, 66/67. See also Anonymous
Bay of Figs, 42-45 shot. Close-up shot. High angle shot. Pan
Point of View: 5, 42, 88; ideological, 44; and Zoom shot
interchangeable, 62; of a character, 64; of "Significance," 41, 129
observer, 27; through peasant's mind, 35; Silva, Jorge, 15, 118
theory of, in Third Cinema, 7 Simplemente Genny, 118, 126
Pooya, Rafigh, 37, 117 Snow, Michael, 66
Fortrait of Teresa, 96, 97, 1 18, 126 Sociology of Knowledge, 8, 9, 123
Preloran, Jorge, 3, 1 18 Solanas, Fernando, 2, 23, 18 1

Frincipal Enemy, The, 40, 118 Solas, Humberto, 31, 118

Fromised Land, The. 17,32-35,40, 118 Soberg-Ladd, Helena, 117, 118
Fyramide Humdene, La, 133 SoleilO, 16, 27, 118
Song of the Dragon River, 63
Race, 125. See also Class Sontag, Susan, on two different cultures, 62
Racz, Andres, 127 Sound: Sembene's use, 26; innovation in,

RaySatyajit, 16, 118 28. See also Cinema of silence

1

Real, The, 36; and the unreal, 34; referent, 8; South Africa, 45, 46, 47
within the imaginery/ lived, 1 Space: and time, 85; integrity of. 85;
Realism, 123; deviation from, 34; liberated, 7; social/ individual, 65, 134
psychological, 69; revolutionary, 62 Spaghetti western, 48
Red Detachment of Women. 63 Spectator(s): 33, 36; model in cinema, 8;
Red Lantern. The. 63 according to Fanon, 39; to recognize
Reed: Insurgent Mexico, 49-50, 119, 130 themselves, 97. See also Subject
Rekawa, 16, 118 Sri Lanka, 16, 118
Religion, 17-18 Style: anatomy of. 5 1-55; approaches to, 24-
Representation: elevated above real life, 65; 40; new, 22; of African and Latin American
frontal, 61; of signifiers, 8; traditional film, 27-28; of humor. 25; radical
practices of, 95; religious symbols as departure, 36; of realism. 69. 96; politics of,

cultural, 35 4, 41-50; Third World film, 7. See also

Revolutionary [film]: 21-40; approaches to Camera Style

documentary film, 36; as a call for Subject, 7, 6 33; call for, 12; collective subject,

reflection, 22; epitome of, 32; form, 90 8. See also Spectator

Rios,Humberto, 103, 117 Sun and the Man, The. 69, 1 18
Rouch, Glauber. 17, 35, 1 17, 1 18, 128 Syria. 3, 1 17
Rodriguez, Martha, 15, 1 17, 1 18 System: meta-. 5. 6. 122/3; of
Romance on Lushan Mountain, 68, 118 representation, 12; semiotic, 8
Rouch, Jean, 74, 75, 76, 77
Taking Tiger Mountain bv Strategy. 63
Sambizanga, 15, 18, 118 Tanzania, 27, 117, 118
 Index 147

Tauw.n, 118, 133 Van Leirop, Robert, 1 18

TEXT: pre-existent text, 95. See also Vega, Pastor, 96, 97, 118, 126
Narrator, Voice and Culture. Text: in crisis, Venceremos. 17, 119
33; in motion, 90; message of, 6; object of, Victory to Victory. From. 19, 65-67, 1 19
133. See also. Culture, Folk, Folklore Vidas Secas. 1 1 9. See Barren Lives
Theory(ical): 62; context, 5-14; traditional "Voice": omnipresent and omniscient, 80;
canons, combines "Revolutionary
14; that over, 31. See Narrator and TEXT
Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism," 62
Third Cinema: concept of, 122; definition of, Wavelength, 66
6, 121-22; praxis, 6^8; semiotics, 8; Towards "Wax and Gold," 78; a cinema of, 77;
a, 2; ultimate goal, 97. See also, definition of, 78; method, 78
Aesthetic(s), Context and Ideology Welmington 10— USA 10,000, 134
Third World, 1; definition of, 121 West Indies. The. 21, 119
Thousand and One Hands, 18, 118 With the Cuban Women, 26 1

Tierra Prometida, La, \1. See The Promised White Haired Girl, The. 63
Land
Time: Africans' experience of, 28; and space, Xala, ll-%b
85; linear, 91
Towers of Silence, 3, 1 18 Yamar Mallku, 38. See Blood of the Condor
Travelling Shot, 66. See Shot Yang Yanjin, 68, 118
Tricontinental, 122 Yara, Sara Gomez. See Sara Gomez
"Tropicalismo,"35 You Hide Me, 3,40, 119
Troubled Laughter. 68, 1 18
Tunisia, 18, 117 Ze-dong, Mao. See Mao Tse-tung
Tupamaros, 19, 118 Zhao Huanzhang, 69, 118
Two Blueprints. 67 Zimbabwe. 3, 171

Zoom shot: use in Chinese films, 66; in

Ugboma, Eddie, 40, 118 Memories, 73
Uruguay, 1 18 Zou Enlai, 62. See Chou En-Lai
ISBN 0-8357-1359-8