Cinema in Uruguay (1960-1974): Resistance, Guerrilla and Third World

Abstract

The article reviews the dialogue between documentary and animated cinema produced in Uruguay during the 1960s and 1970s and different forms of political resistance. The Uruguayan historical-political situation is contextualized and three films are analysed as examples, in order to show the complexities of the moment: Como el Uruguay no hay, by Ugo Ulive (1960), Me gustan los estudiantes, by Mario Handler (1968) and En la selva hay mucho trabajo por hacer, by Walter Tournier (1974). The three short films show a clear accusation of Uruguay’s political situation and, additionally, they reveal the complexities within Uruguayan society in moments of democratic debacle. The complicated political scenario of the country during those years led to the coup d'état of 1973 and the consequent exile of Ulive, Handler and Tournier. The three directors followed a combative form of filmmaking from different Latin American nations by discussing the intellectual’s role in a colonized space and eventually they became big names of the New Latin American Cinema. They came together at the Cinemateca del Tercer Mundo (C3M), founded in Montevideo in 1969, and set up a relationship with other Latin American filmmakers of the time. They discussed about the political and artistic situation in the continent, by creating networks of exhibition and co-working and by publishing theorical material on all those topics. The C3M thus became a space for debate on key notions such as Third Cinema, Imperfect Cinema or Cinema of Denunciation, promoted from the Global South as a way of confronting European and Hollywood film industries.