SOME NOTES ON THE HOUR OF THE FURNACES

The people of a neo-colonial country, like ours, do not own the land they walk on; the dominant culture is not theirs, neither its subversive possibilities. Rebellion is their major cultural expression. The only valid role for an intellectual, or an artist, is to join that rebellion, documenting and furthering it.”

“Our commitment, as men of cinema and individuals, is not with universal culture, neither is it with art, nor with an abstract man; it is and, above all, will be with the liberation of the Argentine and Latin American man.”

Those are the first and last paragraphs of Grupo Cine Liberación’s declaration of principles – An act of liberation.

Setting out from Fanon’s adage – “every spectator is a coward or a traitor” – Getino and Solanas formed Grupo Cine Liberación around the project of “The hour of the furnaces”. They did not think of it simply as a film, but rather as a film-act, which was to be both political and cinematographic.

“The hour of the furnaces” analyses and reflects upon the causes of neo-colonialism and the mechanisms by which the neo-colonial order is imposed upon the peoples of Latin America, and by extension, of the world. . In that sense, “The hour of the furnaces” is a documentary.

But the film, or rather the film-act, is in itself an invaluable document of its time, one of generalised anti-imperialist struggle; from Vietnam to Cuba; from Bolivia to Congo.

No least, “The hour of the furnaces” is also a finest piece of cinematographic art, one where form and content are smelted into a unique language. The silent truths that “The hour of the furnaces” spells out could only be uttered by the images, music and words so admirably put together by Solanas and Getino.

Solana drinks in a rich a varied cinematographic tradition. Einsenstein, Orson Wells and Fernando Birri are all influences recognised by the film-maker.

“The hour of the furnaces” was secretly filmed between 1964 and 1967 and it had to be put together in Italy only a few days before its first public screening in Pesaro.

The film was obviously banned in Argentina, as in some other countries of Latin America, most of them under military dictatorships, and the members of Cine Liberación became social pariahs for the established culture.

In spite of this, in the following years thousands of people would see the film in underground screenings up and down the country. These would often be interrupted by the audience to discuss the issues raised in it, as the film-act encouraged.

After Perón’s return to Argentina in 1973 the ban on “The hour of the furnaces” was lifted. However, first the fascist organised violence of the Triple A (the Argentine Anti-communist Alliance), and later the military coup, would send all Grupo Cine Liberación members into exile.

Director: Fernando Solanas
Production companies: Grupo Cine Liberacion
Producer: Edgardo Pallero
Assistant director: Gerardo Vallejo
Screenplay: Octavio Getino, Fernando Solanas

Director of Photography: Juan Carlos de Sanzo
Editors: Octavio Getino, Fernando Solanas
Music: Fernando Solanas
Sound: Octavio Getino
Argentina 1968

more information at http://www.pinosolanas.com/