Third Cinema

Third Cinema is a politically engaged film movement and theory originating in Latin America. It opposes colonialism, neocolonialism, and commercial cinema through collective, formally inventive filmmaking.

Fernando Solanas: Argentine filmmaker and theorist who co-directed The Hour of the Furnaces and co-authored the manifesto “Towards a Third Cinema.” His filmmaking and writing helped define Third Cinema’s militant program.
Cine militante: Politically committed filmmaking intended to support movements, organize audiences, or intervene in public struggles. Third Cinema’s militant films sought to participate directly in political conflict.
First Cinema: A term in Third Cinema theory for dominant commercial cinema, especially Hollywood filmmaking organized around entertainment and profit. It names the commercial model Third Cinema directly opposes.
The Battle of Chile: A three-part documentary by Patricio Guzmán, released from 1975 to 1979, chronicling Chile’s political crisis and the 1973 coup. Its politically committed documentary form extends Third Cinema’s project in Chile.
Postcolonial cinema: Filmmaking that engages with colonial histories, their continuing effects, and struggles over cultural representation. Third Cinema helped establish film as a site of anti-colonial cultural resistance.
Octavio Getino: Argentine filmmaker and theorist who co-directed The Hour of the Furnaces and co-authored “Towards a Third Cinema.” His collaboration with Solanas produced the movement’s foundational manifesto.
Participatory cinema: Filmmaking that invites participants or audiences to help shape a film’s production, interpretation, or circulation. Third Cinema often treated spectators as potential participants in political action.
Second Cinema: A term in Third Cinema theory for auteur-centered art cinema that challenges commercial conventions but remains within established cultural institutions. It distinguishes Third Cinema’s revolutionary ambitions from independent auteur filmmaking.
Memories of Underdevelopment: A 1968 Cuban film by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea about a bourgeois intellectual navigating post-revolutionary Havana. Its self-critical style shows how political cinema could question its own perspective.
Decolonization: The process through which colonized peoples and territories end colonial rule and confront its continuing structures. Third Cinema links cinematic practice to broader political and cultural decolonization.

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