Beyond Cinema, continued: artmaking in service of Decolonization

by Sarah Johnsrude

In our Third Cinema class, we have studied the theoretical frameworks and political histories that contextualized Third Cinema works internationally. It has been a journey of wide berth and great depth, since Third Cinema encompasses a wide variety of films and processes, and addresses a multitude of socio-political needs. The theory throughout history and contemporary practice is so nuanced and locally situated that it is perhaps impossible to define. But as artists and media makers, students and citizens, it is worthwhile to define for ourselves what Third Cinema means, so we can be mindful of how and what we view as audiences.

In this article, I will detail my understanding of Third Cinema and how I see legacies of it at the core of some NYC-based art collectives today.

Third Cinema is, well, cinema, an audio-visual medium. It’s history is in filmmaking — the use of recording image and sound. This practice cannot be separated from the economic history of cinematic production; developed and used as a tool of the West, of the politically powerful, until the means of production made it accessible to a wider variety of artists. This is where Third Cinema begins — a more horizontal availability of technology that challenges the historical “gatekeepers” of film, which prop up structures of imperialist capitalism.

We can refer to this structure as First Cinema, or the “Hollywood” structure. It is a machine of “Illusion” (see Julie Dash’s Illusions): the “illusion” of reality, the “illusion” of universality, the “illusion” of normalcy. In First Cinema, we see codes of storytelling, markers of “production value,” and characters with body types that are supposed to represent the “ideal,” the “status quo.” Because the Hollywood system is inherently a capitalistic enterprise, the financial and aesthetic gatekeepers have a vested interest in supporting films that perpetuate colonial-capitalist structures and values. This influences everything from the story (whose story?), to the production (which artists get to work? who benefits financially?), to the means of distribution (which audience is catered to?).

Second Cinema is commonly thought of as “European Art House” films. Films that challenge some aspects of First Cinema, but, perhaps, are too focused on the individual (vs. the collective), or do not contend with larger global trends that perpetuate inequality (neo-liberalism, for example).

Third Cinema, as we’ve learned it, is necessarily responsive to First and Second Cinema, and attempts to push the boundaries of who, what, where, when and why of filmmaking.

Who gets to make films? Who are the films about? Who gets to see the films?
What are the central conflicts at stake? What are the values and ethics and codes and histories depicted?
Where do we shoot? Where is the story set? Where do we distribute?
When is the story taking place? When is it historically situated?
How is the film produced? How is the story related to the makers? How is the story related to the audience? How does the film function within society?

My favorite guide to placing films on the spectrum of First-Second-third Cinema is to first ask: what is the relationship is to colonization? Does the film, in content or process, subvert colonial trends? Does it challenge existing capitalistic power structures that are the result and enforcement of violent inequalities?

In this article, I seek out folks doing explicitly de-colonial work. I have focused my explorations to NYC-based practitioners, since this is where I live. New York City, built on Lenape land, is quite the petri-dish of the entanglements of neo-colonialism and artistic practice.

I have chosen to focus on collectives to explore the descendants of Third Cinema, rather than specific artmakers. Some filmmakers, such as Gerima, see great agency and freedom in asserting their stories from a singular perspective. I see this as a valid method for making third Cinema work. But personally, I am drawn to art-making that creates and maintains some kind of connection and collaboration. This practice specifically subverts capitalistic notions of individualism, productivity, and worth.

Below, I have given four examples of NYC-based collectives that use artmaking as a tool of subverting colonial systemic oppression.

The Semillas Collective

The first collective I’d like to discuss is The Semillas Collective. They define themselves on their instagram as una colectiva guided by the ancestors (art + healing + decolonizing strategies). They emerged in New York City in 2014 in response to the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students. Their work takes on many mediums — from documentary, to performance, to cultural events — and connects human rights struggles throughout Mexico to indigenous resistance in New York. Their protest art is as important to them as their cultural events, which seek to provide trauma healing to communities facing systemic conflict.

still from They Tried To Bury Us They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds

Their first film, They Tried To Bury Us They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds filmed in the Bronx, is a dance-protest film to spread awareness about human rights violations in Mexico. The use of dance “demonstrates the healing power dance holds when dealing with trauma, the pain and histories we hold in our bodies, and connecting cultures and communities around the world.”(https://filmfreeway.com/1379457)

The dances in the film are a combination of Mexican Indigenous Danza (and it is believed this is the first film to show indigenous Danza), Ballet, and Contemporary Hip-Hop/Flex. The dance is undercut by testimonies of a survivor of the disappearance, voices of the parents of the disappeared, and connects these struggles to police brutality in the United States in including the voice of Eric Garner. The conclusion of the film includes a call to action: stop the U.S. from providing military weapons to Mexico. The director of the film, Daisy Bugarin, presented the case of the missing Ayotzinapa students to the United Nations. In her creative practice, Bugarin “attributes her growth as an artist and a healer to the children, indigenous elders, and fellow women she’s met in communities of resistance. Her practice is rooted in the belief that: the revolution begins in our own bodies. To revolutionize is to evolve and heal. Thus, incorporating healing through art/creative collaborations into our movement is vital.” (https://filmfreeway.com/1379457)

They have since made several films, some, like Mexico’s Impunity (2015), take on a more straightforward documentary style. Others, like Oaxaca VIVE (2016), continue to incorporate dance. They recently produced a dance film, Papalotl-Muyus, in solidarity with families detained at the border.

The collective also collaborates in other artistic and activist endeavors. They make arts and crafts to raise money for social justice projects, and participate in protests relating to the efforts of the Zapatistas. You can learn more about their current projects on their instagram.

Mobile Print Power

Then there is the collective Mobile Print Power, located in Queens. They began in March 2013 as a weekly printmaking and political education workshop at Immigrant Movement International. Organically, co-facilitators emerged and they began referring to themselves as a collective. They are multigenerational — their “profiles” section on their website gives as much gravity to the bio of a youth participant as those who have shaped the program for years. In their mission, they state: “Our different educational backgrounds and viewpoints make us strong as a collective and powerful as artists and activists.”

Mobile Print Power has developed methods for what they call “participatory design in public space.” Their aims are to “engage communities and explore social and cultural situations.” They work collaboratively alongside different communities, even traveling to different places, to co-create silkscreen prints (via portable carts), books, and public sculptures. All of their projects demonstrate a connection to social justice and “shared artistic production.” Their work is inspired by the projects of the Black Panthers and the Young Lords.

One of their first pages on their website detail their 8 principles:

They categorize their recent projects into Public Projects, Collaborations, Publishing, and Workshops. Here are some examples of their work:

Their weekly workshops are open to all. Up until COVID social-distancing restrictions, they were meeting on Tuesdays at Centro Corona (104-05 47th Ave, Queens) from 7-9p.

Mahina Movement

The next collective I will feature is the Mahina Movement, a performance troupe of four women of color “committed to provoking new ways of experiencing art, politics, and life.”(Definition from Fractured Atlas, previous sponsor of the group.)They are Gabriella Callender (Hollis, Queens, NY / African American, Irish, and German), Erica R. DeLaRosa (San Antonio, TX / Chicana), Maura Marquez (Miami, FL / Cuban and El Salvadoran) and Vaimoana Litia Makakaufaki Niumeitolu (Orem, UT / Tongan American).

Mahina Movement combines “art, poetry, and song to create passionate music tied to flesh and bone, straight from the heart.”…They tell “stories of the personal and political wrapped with courage, strength, and awareness of human struggle and connection. 3 voices, and one guitar blend into a powerful force, mixing folk, rock, and rhymes in English, Spanish, and Tongan simmered with indigenous roots and culture.” They combine their sound with theater, painting, and ritual. “They have combined their skills, cultures, ancestors, stories, and languages to reach the masses and ignite inspiration in the face of resignation, cynicism, war, and fear.”(https://www.facebook.com/pg/mahinamovementcommunity/about/?ref=page_internal)

They often perform at spaces of resistance, at The People’s Forum, or demonstrations, or ceremonies, and, as detailed on their facebook page, they have performed alongside Angela Davis, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Kool Herc, Medusa, Suheir Hammad, Slum Village, Tony Kushner, Sarah Jones, Depak Chopra, Immortal Technique, Noam Chomsky, Dead Prez and more.

Here are some images from their performances and flyers advertising their shows:

You can listen to their work here and here

And follow them on Facebook here and follow them on Twitter @mahinamovement

Decolonize This Place

And finally, I’d like to discuss Decolonize This Place, a coalition that organizes mass protests and demonstrations, in addition to weekly programming across the five boroughs. They are founded on what they call “five lines of political inquiry: Indigenous Struggle, Black Liberation, Free Palestine, Global Wage Workers, De-Gentrification, and Dismantle Patriarchy.” They collaborate with various resistance groups throughout the city that represent hyper-local issues within New York City and across the world to host teach-ins and educate folks about the legacies of colonization in all of our systems. They are led by people of color, queer, immigrant, and disabled people. They see themselves as challenging the white supremacy that “continues to characterize the economies and institutions of art.”

Their breakdown of the legacies of colonialism looks like this:

And here’s their mission, taken from their website:

Their most recent actions are connected to the emergence of FTP, an anti-police brutality group whose acronym is open to interpretation.

They began organizing in response to Mayor DeBlasio’s increase in police presence on the MTA and the systematic violence against riders of color and homeless folks under the auspice of fare evasion. Before that, Decolonize This Place held 9 weeks of protest and teach-ins at the Whitney calling for the removal of board member Warren Kanders, CEO of Safariland, a weapons manufacturing company that provides tear gas and rubber bullets that have been used to suppress people across the world (Palestine, Kashmir, U.S.-Mexico border, the NYPD). Decolonize This Place has also been holding annual Indigenous People’s Day events, often outside or near the Museum of Natural History. Details about these events can be found on their website.

Decolonize This Place also creates materials, such as zines, hand-outs, posters, and tee-shirts (in conjunction with the anti-logo, anti-colonial We Will Not Be Silent) to serve as education tools and direction. The zines are particularly rich — featuring artwork, poetry, and annotated resistance theory. One zine titled CASBAH even features Rocha’s Aesthetics of Hunger, a seminal text in our Third Cinema studies. All of their zines are available online here.

DTP also supplements their own creations with a thorough reading list under the “Resources” heading of their website. It details tips for direct action, books on Decolonization, foundational articles, relevant publications, and online resources. DTP is committed to education as the foundation of their movement.

DTP is also well organized on social media. They use their instagram and twitter accounts to amplify instances of police brutality, organize in-person protests, and break down core beliefs and values. One member of DTP, @shelbyworks produces beautiful short films about actions and protests. They can be found on DTP’s youtube account or on ShelbyWorks’ instagram. These films can be considered Third Cinema in and of themselves.

Third Cinema practice is alive and well. To find it, we must seek out communities that are making art to as a tool for the struggle of Decolonization.

Sources

https://www.instagram.com/semillas_collective/?hl=en

http://www.kingslandwildflowers.com/events/semillas-collective

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/semillas-uses-dance-art-grow-ayotzinapa-awareness-n525721

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semillas_collective

https://filmfreeway.com/1379457

http://www.mobileprintpower.com/

https://www.instagram.com/mprintpower/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/mahinamovementcommunity/

https://soundcloud.com/mahina-movement

https://mahinamovement.bandcamp.com/

https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=17