Ecce Homo Novus : snapshots, the ‘new man’, and iconic montage in the work of Santiago Alvarez
2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 3-04 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13504630.2013.817636
ISSN1363-0296
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema History and Criticism
ResumoAbstractThis essay explores Santiago Alvarez's iconic, montage-style filmmaking as it prefigured Modernity's accelerated crisis as produced by transnational capitalism and theorized years later by poststructuralists and postmodernists. Alvarez, one of the fathers of New Latin American Cinema, stands as an ever more relevant mentor for many contemporary young filmmakers in terms of his lessons about audience cultivation and politicized, immediate, innovative image-making in a context of what he termed 'accelerated underdevelopment'. His aesthetic of limited resources and limited time and his early emphasis on the tactless camera eye has become a veritable weapon for change for many filmmakers in Latin America's latest decade, which saw successive economic crises, the failure of neoliberal policies, and a rise in left wing governments.Keywords: underdevelopmentCubaneoliberalismiconsphotographycapitalismcolonialismdemocracynew man Notes1. Ana M. López suggests that the Cuban role, as the only socialist nation in Latin America at the time of the development of the New Latin American Cinema project, 'has yet to be fully detailed' (Martin, Citation1997, p. 151). Not only does The Hour of the Furnaces share an ideological cinematic approach with the films of Santiago Alvarez, in that both styles reflect the possibility of the film medium functioning as a 'weapon' of change (and, I would argue, as a new form of literacy), it also shares a number of formal qualities such as the use of found or taken footage, photo collages, surrealist imagery, the use of popular music and rhythmic editing strategies.2. Veteran Dutch socialist filmmaker, Joris Ivens, also played an important role in the development of the ICAIC and the training of some of its filmmakers. Ivens was taken seriously as documentarian by ICAIC's founders because of his experience with newsreels and low budget filmmaking, and because of the fact that he had traveled to Cuba and supported the revolution. Cuban military leaders gave him access to film because he had filmed in Spain during the civil war and in China during its war against Japanese invaders. For a fuller exploration of Ivens' work see Chapter 10 in Chanan (Citation2004); and Panizza (Citation2011). For a documentary about Ivens' life and work, see Hughes (Citationc2009).3. The current hysteria in the US and Europe over intellectual property rights in the face of digital remixes of film, music and photos, and the general notion that, with internet and digital technologies, anyone can be an artist, offers a capitalist response to García Espinosa's optimistic take on the notion of widespread imperfection in art.4. While I focus primarily on two Alvarez films dedicated to the topic of racism and inequality in the U.S. in this paper, it is useful to keep in mind that 1965, the year in which Now was made, marks the start of the filmmaker's series of films about the people of Southeast Asia. Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam, made in 1965, was followed by many films about US aggression and imperialism in the region, which include: Escalada del chantaje, Hanoi Martes 13, La Guerra olvidada, and 79 Springtimes of Ho Chi Minh. As Chanan argues, by the 1970s, the ICAIC turned its attention to anti-colonial wars that resulted in two 1976 films on Angola: Angola, victoria de la esperanza (Angola, Victory of Hope), and La guerra en Angola (The War in Angola). See Chapters 10 and 11 in Chanan (Citation2004).5. One finds traces of the surrealist sensibilities of Dada and Buñuel in Alvarez's work, as well as a rejection of high art forms in favor of everyday themes and objects, mixed media collages, and contemporary pop culture icons, elements that are emblematic of the work of Duchamp, Rauschenbergh, Lichtenstein, and others.6. For more detailed discussions of the influence of Italian neorealism and the CSC (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia) in Rome on New Latin American filmmakers and ICAIC members, see: Chapters 7 and 8 in Chanan (Citation2004), Chapter 6 in Ruberto and Wilson (Citation2007), and the Introduction in Tompkins (Citation2013).7. Lena Horne had this to say about the composition of the lyrics used in Now!: 'I had committed myself to do a benefit at Carnegie Hall for SNCC … So I asked Jule [Styne] if he could do something special for that concert. He mulled it over and said, "Hey – how about putting some lyrics – just the way you talk and the things you talk about – to the Jewish song called 'Hava Nagilla'. He got Betty Comden and Adolph Green to do the lyrics and the song was called 'Now!' and it became a cause celebre, when the networks refused to allow the recording I made of it to be played" (cited in Waugh, Citation1995). For a detailed comparative musical analysis of Alvarez's Now! and The 79 Springtimes of Ho Chi Minh, see John Hess's chapter in Waugh (Citation1995).8. For The 79 Springtimes of Ho Chi Minh (1969) Alvarez was asked to go to Vietnam and film the funeral of Ho Chi Minh. Hanoi, Tuesday the 13th (Citation1967), considered his masterpiece, places Alverez in the role of witness as he saw the first US bombs dropped over Hanoi. This work is described as Alvarez' anger converted into energy.9. See, for example, the work of the HIJOS collective (Argentina), Cineinsurgente (Argentina), Cine-Mujer (Colombia), Cine-Mujer (Mexico), and Grupo Miércoles (Venezuela), among others.
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