Screenings

A regional constellation. La Cinemateca del Tercer Mundo (C3M)

La Cinemateca del Tercer Mundo (1969-1974) was a utopian project. Yet it materialized during a period of increasing violence and state repression in Uruguay prior to the coup. With over 20 members and with extreme material limitations, it served as an archive and regional distributor for emerging militant cinema in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized film forums, published a magazine, and made counterinformation and political agitation films to transform its present.

This session reviews the history of C3M, starting with the experiences that informed its activity. For example, Walter Achugar, who, together with the Departamento de Cine de Marcha, chose to make the distribution of films from Asia, Africa and Latin America an anchor to create an audience and generate critical debates with students and workers. One of the more than 100 films that the C3M archive housed at one point, the Cuban Por primera vez (1967), shares with us the arrival for the first time of the cinema in a rural community. Or the classic Me gustan los estudiantes (1968), by Mario Handler, is a hymn to those who fight against imperialism. Edited using a razor blade and musically structured, this film caused a spontaneous riot at its premiere. The Grupo Experimental de Cine, made up of architecture students, made Refusila (1969). With a dizzying pace, this film shows the social protests in the streets over the course of a year.

Once consolidated, the C3M became a national political cinema thanks to its screening circuit. Urgently confronting reality, Líber Arce, Liberarse (1969) is dedicated to the first student martyr, killed in 1968. Going beyond borders, they also opened a subsidiary in Venezuela. Caracas, dos o tres cosas (1969), by Uruguayan Ugo Ulive, takes the city by radio, while Jorge Solé’s film TVenezuela (1969) deconstructs soap operas, commercials and newscasts.

As of 1971, the group suffered censorship and seizures of films, and of the only Moviola in the country. Achugar and Eduardo Terra were arrested and tortured, and other filmmakers were forced into exile. And yet, as Hugo Alfaro would say, these films continue, with their topicality, to promote the permanent desire for radical change.

Por primera vez, Octavio Cortázar, 1967, 35mm to DCP, 9 min; Refusila, Grupo Experimental de Cine (Daniel Erganián, Pola Alonso, Rosalba Oxandabarat, Alicia Seade, Alfredo Echaniz, Mauro Bardier, Walter Tournier and Dardo Bardier), 1969, 16mm to digital, 7 min; Líber Arce, Liberarse, Mario Handler, Marcos Banchero, Mario Jacob, 1969, 16mm to DCP, no sound, 12 min; Me gustan los estudiantes, Mario Handler, 1968, 16mm to DCP, 6 min; Caracas, dos o tres cosas, Ugo Ulive, 1969, 16mm, 16 min; TVenezuela, Jorge Solé, 1969, 16mm, 30 min.

Copies provided by Arsenal and Archivo General de la Universidad de la República (Uruguay).

Acknowledgements: Mario Handler and Florencia Handler. Special thanks to the ongoing work of the historians and specialists Cecilia Lacruz and Isabel Wschebor Pellegrino, and the Laboratorio de Preservación Audiovisual del Archivo General de la Universidad de la República (AGU).

Date
9 March 2025
Times

18.30

Access will not be allowed once the screening has started

Space
The Auditorium
Admission fee

€ 4 / € 3 Concessions
5-session pass: € 15 / € 12 Concessions
Friends of the CCCB: free of charge

Tickets on sale at the CCCB ticket offices ([email protected] / 933064100) and online.
Passes are only available from the ticket desk.

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