Sunday -- 04.04.10 -- Resurrecting a Revolutionary Cinema: The Hour of the Furnaces

CONTENTS:

1. About this Sunday
2. About the Film Schedule
2.1 About the communal brunch

3. About the Zine/Reader
4. About DocTruck and Red Channels
5. Suggested Reading
6. Useful Links

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1. About this Sunday

What: Film Screening / Discussion
When: Sunday 04.04.10
Where: 16Beaver Street, 4th Floor
When: 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Who: Free and open to all

On Easter Sunday we will present a daylong, open-ended, collaborative and community screening of Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas' The Hour of the Furnaces. In organizing such an event the usual questions arise: what does a film about Argentina mean to us in the United States; what does a film from 1968 mean to us in 2010; and, more broadly, what is the function of a political film, a revolutionary cinema, in our contemporary cultural political and digitally mediated landscape.

The Hour of the Furnaces is historically seen as a benchmark, a landmark, of militant cinema; but with that it also becomes a remnant of a certain time and a place, a relic of a long-since-passed Zeitgeist. The danger comes from the potential of presenting a memorial service; that the ceremonial structure of such an event will be an acting out, an anachronism.

The film's tone, scope, scale, and exhibition demands necessitate a certain theatricality. Furnaces has a 4-hour running time, and three distinct parts with built-in intermissions designed for audience participation and open discussion. We will discuss all of this with a focus on the present. Coffee, tea, juice, bagels, and a simple brunch will be available throughout the day.

--The Hour of the Furnaces: Notes and Testimonies on Neocolonialism, Violence and Liberation - Octavio Getino & Fernando Ezequiel Solanas, 1968, 230 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 230 minutes | Digital Projection

Co-presented by DocTruck, Libertad Gills, Red Channels, and the UnionDocs Collaborative
Co-sponsored by Cinema Tropical and This is Forever

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2. About the Film Schedule

12:00 arrivals and introductions

12:30
--Neocolonialism and Violence - 85 minutes

2:30
--Act for Liberation - 111 minutes

5:00
--Violence and Liberation - 34 minutes

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2.1 About the communal brunch

Please bring your favored springish / easterish / passoverish / ramandanish / Nowruzish light dish or your very very favorite fruit, can-be-eaten-raw vegetable, juice, bread, spread, cheese, ... and please bring less sugar-based foods and less-industrially processed/produced food.

We will provide a base of Milk, coffee, tea, some bread and some spread.
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3. About the Zine/Reader

DocTruck and Red Channels are working together to produce a free limited edition zine/reader to be distributed on the occasion of the screening. It will feature writings by Jose Marti and Che Guevara (which gave the film its title); interviews with Fernando Solanas upon the release of the film; a dialogue between Solanas and Jean-Luc Godard; an essay from the Cahiers du Cinema (via Evergreen Review); the New York Times review of the film upon its commercial release; and the major theoretical piece the film inspired its creators to write, "Towards a Third Cinema." This will be the 6th zine released by DocTruck, and the first print publication by Red Channels.

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4. About DocTruck and Red Channels

Doctruck is a traveling non-fiction-non-narrative film screening series, with free printed materials and sometimes foods. It is curated and organized by Rachael Rakes.

Red Channels is a new series of film and video screenings happening in community and cultural spaces in New York City. The emphasis is on rare and radical works.

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5. Suggested Reading

This is the second program Red Channels has organized with the 16 Beaver Group, following October 7th's "Godard in USA": http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/002948.php

Che Guevara, "Message to the Tricontinental" (16 April 1967)
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1967/04/16.htm

Jean-Luc Godard, "Godard on Solanas, Solanas on Godard" (October 1969)
http://www.indianauteur.com/?p=138

Fernando Solanas & Octavio Getino, "Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for Developing a Cinema of Liberation for the Third World" (October 1969)
http://www.documentaryisneverneutral.com/words/camasgun.html

Vincent Canby, "Argentine Epic" (26 February 1971)
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9906E0DB1530E73BBC4E51DFB466838A669EDE

Rodolfo Walsh, "Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta" (24 March 1977)
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Carta_Abierta_de_un_Escritor_a_la_Junta_Militar

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6. Useful Links

http://www.cinematropical.com
http://www.doctruck.blogspot.com
http://www.libertadgills.weebly.com
http://www.pinosolanas.com
http://www.redchannels.org
http://www.thisisforever.org
http://www.uniondocs.org