by Sara Carter Conley
How do you make Third Cinema from within the empire of capitalism? How do you make Third Cinema when, today, mainstream studios and distributors have co-opted many of the methods, themes and techniques that originated out of the Third Cinema movement? And how do you make Third Cinema when the boundaries of advertising and filmmaking have become so skewed as to be almost indistinguishable?
The Brazilian poet Oswald Andrade in his Cannibalist Manifesto, states “Cannibalism alone unites. Socially. Politically. Economically.” The motif of the cannibal would be implemented in films from the Cinema Novo movement as a means to reject and critique the oppressive structures of colonialism. Seen in films like How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, we see an indigenous woman use the white colonizer’s own prejudices and beliefs against him, ultimately leading to his annihilation. This technique is also reflected in the Battle of Algiers when the female FLN members present themselves in modern, secular French fashion so as to more easily pass through border control, coquettishly slipping by with the bombs they’re carrying in their French handbags. As film theorist Rober Stam puts it, “by appropriating an existing discourse for their own ends, they deploy the force of the dominant against domination.”
To make anti-capitalist work, artists should not only address the consequences of the capitalist system, but also draw attention to the mechanisms that allow that system to proliferate. By putting the idea of the cannibal into praxis, we use the oppressor’s tools against them, and by disrupting the monopoly on those tools, in this case the monopoly on television, we can call attention to the way those tools insidiously buttress oppressive systems.
In the 1970s, there were 10 million tv cable subscribers, this number would jump to 40 million by 1980. In 1977, the artist Chris Burden sought to break the omnipotent stranglehold of the airwaves that broadcast television held by purchasing commercial advertising time and having stations play his tapes along with their other commercials. In one commercial, Chris Burden “artist” displays his tax returns for the year, showing his net income of $1,054 (or $4, 906 in today’s dollars).
In Ann Magnuson’s and Tom Rubnitz’s 1984 short “Made for TV,” they call attention to stereotypes of women by mirroring the limited types of female characters found on television. In a simulation of channel surfing, Magnuson plays a bored housewife, a jazz aerobics instructor, a nursery rhyme reader, among others, satirizing societal standards of femininity.
The Argentinian-American artist Jaime Davidovich hosted a cable television program The Live! Show from 1979 to 1984, featuring segments with “Dr. Videovich,” who can cure tv addiction; TeeVee, the soul of television; and a special where viewers are told how they can use the tv for purposes other than watching shows.
All three of these artists use the television as a means to subvert expectations, pushing the viewer to think about the content they normally tune into, about the act of watching. Even simply inserting an interruption, in which the viewer is inclined to question what they are seeing, is a powerful moment of friction in an activity based on subdued consumption.
Cable tv subscriptions peaked in 2000, with numbers declining heavily since. But that doesn’t mean the public no longer watches tv, but rather tv has taken new forms, which require new methods of disruption. In 2019, there were 815 million instagram users, and that number is projected to increase to 1.2 billion by 2023. In 2020, there were 689 million TikTok users internationally. Whereas cable tv may have been more difficult to infiltrate, these apps are particularly ripe for Third Cinema content as they are freely accessible, incorporate cinematic components into their interfaces, and can be made by the people who are directly targeted by oppressive systems.
If Third Cinema is about calling attention to structures of power and the nefarious effects of capitalism, and pushing viewers to respond as opposed to solely being entertained, then these apps are fertile ground for artists wanting to create in the Third Cinema tradition. In the same way Burden, Magnuson and Davidovich used TV to create awareness of its insidious presence, are there creators using Instagram and TikTok to shine a light on the rotting structures of capitalism and colonization? And because, with a little finagling, anyone can sign up as a business on these platforms, are there also artists using the ability to create “advertisements” to further disrupt the role of marketing within these apps? Basically, are there disruptors trying to disrupt the “disruptors?”
In my research, I found many people creating subversive content, but also found myself questioning whether the work could truly be considered a part of Third Cinema, and found very few examples of work that disrupted or highlighted the role of marketing within the capitalist system.
@fifidosch is a white trans woman whose page talks explicitly about the transition process and trans rights, being very upfront about topics that might not make it into polite conversation, like medical procedures. It’s very informative and hilarious, but is her page more of a talk show than a cinematic endeavour?
Continuing in the vein of queerness, @rainbowhistoryclass, run by a diverse group of queer Austalians, is a profile dedicated to queer history, indentifying the origins of queer stereotypes, practices and trends as well as the expressions of gender in precolonial communities. This page may be the closest thing to Third Cinema, as there are various narrators who all take on different characters, and many videos use archival images and sound.
@rainbowhistoryclassPlease welcome @stylebydeni as today’s substitute teacher! 🌈📚 ##oscars ##academyawards ##filmtok ##edutok ##learnontiktok ##queer ##gaytiktok ##lgbtq♬ original sound – 🌈 Rainbow History Class 🌈
@commonsensedonovan, a Black activist, is a creator who posts archival clips of interviews with Black activists and political leaders as well as current news coverage of police brutality, emphasizing the long struggle against racial inequality and its current injustices. There are similarities to be drawn between this page, taking the videos as a whole, and the work of John Akomfrah’s Handsworth Songs, both relying heavily on archival materials to tell contemporary narratives.
@donovancommonsenseMalcolm X Interview On The Solutions To The Race Problems In America ##malcolmx ##humanrights ##fy 🕊🙏🏾🙏🏾✊🏿✊🏾✊🏼✊🏻♬ original sound – Donovan Williams
Native TikTok, pages made by people from various indigenous groups throughout the world, has a large number of participants, many who seek to raise awareness about indigenous history and contemporary culture, and invalidate Native stereotypes. @desertndn is an indigenous user who focuses primarily on debunking commonly held myths regarding native culture, outlining the role Native communities play throughout the world. But in one of their most recent posts, they made a video about the legacy of Native communities in partnership with Rebok, wearing a pair of Rebok tennis shoes. Does this sponsorship invalidate an attempt to frame their page as Third Cinema, does it turn their page into advertising, or are they simply, like anyone, trying to earn a living?
@tiamiscihk is a Native citizen of the Plains Cree and Salish tribes who has a segment called “Aunty T’s History Lesson” in which she talks about Native American history. Again, by using archival images and animations, this page might be closer to the realm of Third Cinema. In one segment, she talks about the role of residential schools, institutions that sought to whitewash and eradicate indigeneity and indiengous culture, and mentions that her parents were both residential school survivors.
@tiamiscihkAunty T’s History Lesson: Residential Schools. ##greenscreen ##fyp ##history ##teacher ##indigenous ##foryou ##learn ##trending ##canada ##goverment♬ original sound – Tia Wood
I personally have found joy by following @slntwrlddd, a Black signer, whose page is dedicated to teaching people ASL with the hopes that followers will be able to better engage with non-hearing speakers, and whose viewers often ask for direct interpretations related to their field, working as an EMT or in retail, for example. This page, I don’t think, could be seen as Third Cinema—I just like it.
Many of the videos found on these pages incorporate techniques used in Third Cinema: hybridity between doc and fiction and the use of archival materials, and all seek to highlight structures of power and oppression. Additionally Because TikTok’s homepage is it’s ForYou page, in which you scroll through content of people you don’t currently follow, you’re more likely to encounter content which you might not otherwise engage with, broadening your scope. But I didn’t find many pages that brought the gaze back onto the act of watching, back onto the viewer, and discovered very few examples of disruptive advertising. One video, by Catherine Adell, a white comedian and actor, was an anti-racism anti-commercial, which circulated throughout TikTok and Instagram, but was distributed as an independent video not as a commercial.
@catadellNow Available! ##MindYourOwnFuckingBusiness ##karen ##mindyourownbusiness ##comedyvideo ##officialvideo♬ original sound – Catherine Adell
While TikTok and Instagram are platforms that maintain capitalist hegemony, they are also distributing videos that center marginalized voices, encourage audience engagement, and critique oppressive, colonialist structures, like those perpetuated by the very corporations who own the platforms. We’ve seen the way social media can be a harbinger of change from the Arab Spring, and, during the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, from the many people who organized gatherings through Instagram. It’s my hope that these platforms won’t just become another marketplace, that there will only be more subversive and creative uses—anti-commercials that screw with the algorithm, for instance. We must use the forces of domination against the dominant.