Third (World) Cinema Focus on Filipino/American Film

Three WorldsThree Cinemas Text and Context  1 st World: USA- Capitalism  2 nd World: Russia- Communism  3 rd World: Everyone else  Typically countries who live with the effects between 1 and 2  1 st Cinema: Hollywood  2 nd Cinema: Independent Films/documentaries  3 rd Cinema: Non- Eurocentric films from 3 rd World Nations  Revolutionary, Oppositional

Intro to 3 rd Cinema  Started in the late 60s in Latin America  Film was not “art for art’s sake” and strived for more relevance and political purpose  Democratic, socialist, national, popular  Films are flexible, experimental, and change with societal conditions  Active viewing is required  Often low-no budget projects

Why is 3 rd Cinema important?  Film as a social mirror  Develops cultural/national consciousness  What is nationalism?  Form and content is different then Hollywood films  We might think it is weird or different because it is in a different “film language” than what we are used to  “The Third Cinema is that cinema of the Third World which stands opposed to imperialism and class oppression in all their ramifications and manifestations”. (Gabriel 2)

Three Phases of 3 rd World Films  Copies Hollywood narrative and aesthetic  Goal is to make money and entertain  Spectacle vs. subject matter Phase 1: Unqualified Assimilation

Phase 2: The Remembrance Phase  More indigenous production  Celebrates own culture and history  Can be uncritical and romanticize the past  Not a tool of revolution– can exploit own people  Hollywood aesthetic, but plays more with spatial conventions

Phase 3: The Combative Phase  Filmmaking is owned and operated by the government  Lives and struggles of people are showcased with intent for change  Film is an ideological tool  Their own cinematic language is used  Nonlinear, more similar to an oral history

Space and Time in 3 rd Cinema  More space in 3 rd Cinema, not as structured  More organic, not representative of “high technology”  Less individualistic, more in relation to others  Time is slower; more “real”  Editing is not as choppy  Might be boring to a Western audience  Western= Time is money

Western3 rd Cinema Film Convention Comparisons  Camera angles are governed by eye level perspective. Angles are primarily aesthetic.  Deliberate usage of low/high angle shots for political or social comment.

Western3 rd Cinema Film Convention Comparisons  Studio sets are used to enhance control over reality  Location sets enhance documentary reality

Western3 rd Cinema Film Convention Comparisons  Camera is mostly fixed. If it moves, it is often to stay with the individual and match their psychological state  Fixed perspective. If the camera moves, it is to contain a sequence or for experiential involvement

Western3 rd Cinema Film Convention Comparisons  Actors avoid looking at the camera or are positioned so that their emotional state is easily observed by the camera  It is not uncommon for the actor to look into the camera, directly addressing the audience