A trail of fire for political cinema. The hour of the furnaces fifty years later
Javier Campo & Humberto Pérez-Blanco (editors)
Intellect
2018
Cuban revolution, Vietnam War, African de-colonization, May 68, Latin American dictatorships. In the rough seas of crisis, mobilizations, debates and blood La Hora de los Hornos/The Hour of the Furnaces (Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas, 1968) was made. A film that introduced itself as a political essay and intervened in the debates taken place at the time like no other film had done in the history of Argentina, Latin America and, judging by the words of several critics and academics, of the world. No spectacle at all and yet, still cinema. Another cinema. A cinema of investigation, thoroughly documented and, at the same time, of political intervention. Our intention is only to show that the film formal strategies and political stance and the controversies and debates arising from it, are not just something from the past. For us they matter, they are, and the film with them, alive and relevant today. Perhaps, more than ever.