Third World Cinematheque. A little-known film library

Abstract

The Third World Cinematheque (C3M) is a phenomenon that has been very little studied in Uruguay. Founded on November 8, 1969, this movement made up of young intellectuals belonging to the 60's generation, sees cinema as part of a political militancy that falls within the coordinates of the Uruguayan left wing. Although was extended for a short period of time (November 1969-July 1974), through its films and the publication of the Cinema of the Third World magazine, it left a mark in the cinema and Uruguayan critics. It will no longer be an idea in the head and a camera in the hand, as Glauber Rocha holds, but a camera in the hand that, like a machine gun, makes the cinema a place of action and political struggle. As time passed, the political cinema, elaborated by the C3M was forgotten due to the political conditions generated by the coup d'état; However, within the framework of Uruguayan cinema, it is relevant to analyze, not only its films but also its theoretical essays, testimonies and analysis about the cinematographic aspects that underlie the institution as well as the New Latin American Cinema. This work aims to discuss the role played by the C3M in the early 70's and the way in which the cinema developed by this collective became part of the country's social and cinematographic memory.