Flashbacks from a Continuing Struggle
2011; Routledge; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09528822.2011.545621
ISSN1475-5297
Autores ResumoAbstract Abstract These texts by Margaret Dickinson consist of a short article written in 1979 for the journal of the UK film trade union, the ACTT, and explanatory notes written in 2010. While the main article is about the author's experiences of teaching film editing to absolute beginners in newly independent Mozambique, the notes provide background information about both Mozambique and ACTT. In the early 1970s elements within the ACTT proposed nationalisation as a solution to problems of the British film industry; the union commissioned a detailed report, which was hotly debated but then shelved. In Mozambique after independence in 1975 the government decided to develop cinema on the basis of partial nationalisation and established a national film institute, the Instituto Nacional de Cinema (INC), for the purpose. There was also a personal connection between ACTT and Mozambican cinema through the film‐maker and radical thinker, Simon Hartog, who wrote the ACTT report and was subsequently employed in Mozambique to work for the INC there. Keywords: Mozambican cinemaINCfilm teachingMPEA boycottSimon Hartogmontageeditingtrade unionAfrican socialismnationalisation Notes 1. This is not the title under which the article was originally published in the early 1980s in Film and Television Technician as that particular edition of the journal cannot be traced. 2. By 'Communists' I mean members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (1920–1991), which was closely associated with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was referred to by its critics as 'Stalinist'. It should not be confused with the modern party of the same name, or with the Communist Party of Britain, which are successor parties representing different tendencies within the old CPGB. By 'Trotskyites' I refer to Left parties or groups that take inspiration from Trotsky's version of Marxism and condemn Stalin's. The largest at the time was the Socialist Workers Party, founded by Tony Cliff. The Workers Revolutionary Party, associated with Gerry Healy, was smaller but particularly active in the arts and media, attracting many actors, including Vanessa and Corin Redgrave, and directors like Roy Battersby, Ken Loach and Kenith Trodd. 3. Thomas Lionel Hodgkin (1910–1982) became a critic of British colonialism when he was in the Palestine Civil Service from 1934 to 1936. After the Second World War he travelled widely in Africa, became a strong supporter of the African independence movements and began to write on African history and politics. He was innovative among Western scholars in that he wrote from an African perspective, treating colonialism as an episode in the Continent's long history rather than as a starting point. His books include Nationalism in Colonial Africa (Muller, 1956) and African Political Parties (1961). 4. Simon Hartog, 'Les États Généraux du Cinéma: The Nationalisation of the Cinema', Cinema Rising, no 1, 1972, reprinted in Margaret Dickinson, ed, Rogue Reels: Oppositional Film in Britain, 1945–90, BFI Publishing, 1999, p 109 5. Margaret Dickinson, Government and the Film Industry: Britain and France, 1945–1975, Edinburgh University, Politics Department, Master of Philosophy thesis, 1979 6. Nationalising The Film Industry, ACTT Publications, 1973. See http://www.bectu.org.uk. 7. The term 'cooperante' refers to professionals who came from abroad and were usually recruited directly or through support organisations rather than by foreign governments or large aid organisations. They were reasonably paid, though they received much less than modern 'consultants', and they were expected to be committed to Mozambique rather than merely offering their services for financial reward. 8. Countries that were boycotted by the MPEA include Britain (1947–1948), France (1929 and 1946–1956), Denmark (1955–1958) and Spain (1955–1958).
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