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| Fernando E. Solanas, Octavio Getino | |
Cinemateket, Filmhuset 20 nov, 18.00 Fernando E. Solanas, Octavio Getino Smältugnarnas timme (La hora de los hornos) 1968. 16 mm. 3 delar. 260’, e.t. |
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 Fernando E. Solanas, Octavio Getino: Smältugnarnas timme (La hora de los hornos), 1968 The Hour of the Furnaces is an important political film essay from 1968. The film consists of three parts. For various reasons usually only the first part is shown outside outside Argentina, however here we will show it the film in its full length At that time, in 1968, the film was produced as part of a struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism as well as a poetic celebration of the Argentine nation. With the film, Solanas and Getino wanted, among other things, to dispute the hegemony of both Hollywood and European art cinema and instead propose a “Third Cinema” which would be independent in production, militant in politics, and experimental in language. The Hour of the Furnaces is structured as a tripartite political essay where it weaves disparate materials – newsreels, eyewitness reports, TV commercials, photographs – into a historical tapestry. “The title /…/ comes from a quote Che Guevara used to open what was to become his last public statement, the “Message to the Tricontinental”, in 1967: “It’s the hour of the furnaces and only the light shall be seen”. The author of the quote is José Martí, Cuba’s nineteenth century national hero. This double reference, to a revolutionary who died fighting Spanish colonialism, and to a revolutionary who had just died fighting neo-colonialism, cues the viewer to think of the parallelisms between contemporary liberation struggles and Latin American wars of independence in the nineteenth century; namely, a voluntarism and a nationalist anti-imperialism that effectively trumped other epistemological categories. In this regard, the film’s strong bias against validating questions of power that fall outside the realm of political economy is a reflection of its times. At the same time, however, this limitation should not blind us to the film’s greatest strength: the clear articulation of a revolutionary discourse through an equally revolutionary means of representation. Shot clandestinely between 1966 and 1968, during the initial stages of what would come to be known as Argentina’s infamous “dirty war”, the film was screened clandestinely as well, to a sympathetic audiences of workers, anarchists and revolutionaries who would regularly interrupt the projection to discuss concepts and issues raised in the film… [The film is divided into three parts:] Part 1 corresponds to the thesis of the current status quo; Part 2 to a prolonged antithesis of Peronist struggle; and Part 3 to a soon-to-be-achieved synthesis.” Quoted from Paul A. Schroeder http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/07/45/hour-furnaces.html> |
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