The Hour of the Furnaces: A film screening with discussion

The Hour of the Furnaces
Part 1: Notes and Testimonies on Neocolonialism and Violence in Argentina, 1968, 84 minutes

Dir. Grupo Cine Liberación
Spanish with English subtitles

In 1968, Grupo Cine Liberación released their powerful documentary and visual essay, The Hour of the Furnaces. This three-part film analyzes the severe neocolonial situation of 1960s Argentina, radical wings of Peronism, and the role of violence in the national liberation process. Part 1, Notes and Testimonies on Neocolonialism focuses on the everyday violence of the Argentine, employing a Marxist analysis between quotes from Martí, Fanon, Césaire, Che, Mariátegui, and other revolutionary figures. The usage of avant-garde and mainstream techniques was meant to attack the passivity of the spectator and incite political action. The Hour of the Furnaces remains an essential film of militant cinema.

This discussion will go over the Third Cinema movement in Argentina, the making of Grupo Cine Liberación’s The Hour of the Furnaces, and it’s international influence. We will watch and analyze chapters from Part 1 and discuss how it relates to the greater context of (neo)colonialism in the Global South.

Grupo Cine Liberación clandestinely filmed The Hour of the Furnaces in fear of repression by Juan Carlos Onganía’s dictatorship. Because of the subversive nature of the film, attending the film became an act of resistance and was met with violent confrontation by the military. Members of the group, filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino later wrote their manifesto, Towards a Third Cinema, reflecting on the filmmaking process under the political restraints, which would later become the theoretical framework for the Third Cinema film movement.