Third Cinema, World Cinema and Marxism

Book excerpt: Third Cinema, World Cinema and Marxism offers an analysis of Third Cinema and World Cinema from the perspective of Marxism. Its starting point is an observation that of all cinematic phenomena none is as intimately related to Marxism as Third Cinema, which decries neoliberalism, the capitalist system, and the Hollywood model of cinema as mere entertainment to make money. This is largely to do with the fact that both Marxism and Third Cinema are preoccupied with inequalities resulting from capital accumulation, of which colonialism is the most extreme manifestation. Third Cinema also defines cinematic modes in terms of representing interest of different classes, with First Cinema expressing imperialist, capitalist, bourgeois ideas, Second Cinema the aspirations of the middle stratum, the petit bourgeoisie and Third Cinema is a democratic, popular cinema.