Octavio Getino

Octavio Getino
Name	Octavio Getino
Birth date	3 December 1935
Birth place	Buenos Aires
Death date	9 April 2012
Death place	Madrid
Occupation	Filmmaker, journalist, writer, activist
Known for	Co-founder of Grupo Cine Liberación, co-author of "Hacia un tercer cine"

Octavio Getino Octavio Getino (3 December 1935 – 9 April 2012) was an Argentine film director, film theorist, journalist, and political activist. He was a central figure in Latin American cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, co-founding Grupo Cine Liberación and articulating the manifesto "Hacia un tercer cine" with Fernando Solanas. His work connected cinematic practice with movements such as Peronism, Latin American Revolutionary Movements, and cultural debates circulating in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Havana, and Madrid.

Early life and education

Getino was born in Buenos Aires and raised during a period marked by the presidency of Juan Perón and the subsequent political turmoil culminating in the Revolución Libertadora. He pursued studies that combined technical training and humanistic interests, engaging with institutions such as the Universidad de Buenos Aires and film workshops that linked to the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía. Early exposure to periodicals like La Nación and Clarín and to cultural circles around figures such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Osvaldo Bayer shaped his intellectual formation. Influences from international intellectual currents—Frantz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Antonio Gramsci—intersected with regional thinkers like Rodolfo Walsh and Leopoldo Torre Nilsson in his education.

Film career

Getino’s film career began in the environment of Argentine documentary and fiction filmmaking where studios like Pampa Film and festivals such as the Mar del Plata International Film Festival provided platforms. He collaborated with filmmakers and technicians from circles associated with Cine Club, Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, and European auteur traditions exemplified by Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Buñuel, and François Truffaut. His early films blended reportage traditions evident in the work of Dziga Vertov and Joris Ivens with narrative strategies associated with Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave. He directed and produced works that screened alongside films by Fernando Birri, Gerardo Vallejo, and Pablo Álvarez and were discussed in journals such as Cahiers du Cinéma and Proceso.

Getino’s cinematic practice engaged with production collectives, independent distribution, and exhibition circuits including Cine de Base, Cine Clubes, and noncommercial venues in Buenos Aires and Córdoba. His films often addressed social struggles in settings tied to events like the Cordobazo and the agrarian conflicts affecting provinces represented by organizations such as the Confederación General del Trabajo and Movimiento Nacional Justicialista.

Political activism and Grupo Cine Liberación

In 1968 Getino co-founded Grupo Cine Liberación with Fernando Solanas and others, situating the collective in relation to liberation movements across the continent including Cuba's revolutionary government, Sandinista National Liberation Front, and Peruvian and Bolivian guerrilla experiences. The group formed ties with cultural sectors linked to Universidad Nacional de La Plata, student movements that echoed the May 1968 events in Paris, and leftist organizations such as Montoneros and Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional where applicable. Grupo Cine Liberación prioritized collective production, clandestine distribution, and countercultural exhibition practices in response to censorship regimes exemplified by the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance and military juntas such as the National Reorganization Process.

The collective’s films, screenings, and manifestos were intertwined with international solidarity networks connected to New Latin American Cinema conferences, solidarity committees in Havana and Mexico City, and film institutions like the Cineteca Nacional (Mexico). Getino, as activist and organizer, negotiated with trade unions, student federations such as the Federación Universitaria Argentina, and cultural institutions to mount screenings that doubled as political meetings.

Key theories and writings

Getino is best known for co-authoring "Hacia un tercer cine" with Fernando Solanas, a pamphlet and theoretical intervention that confronted both Hollywood's industrial model and certain strands of European auteurism exemplified by Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. The manifesto drew on intellectual resources from Frantz Fanon, Antonio Gramsci, and Pablo Neruda and proposed a cinema that functioned as a revolutionary praxis, a point of debate among filmmakers like Glauber Rocha, Fernando Birri, and critics writing in Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano and Cine Cubano.

Getino’s later writings and essays appeared in journals such as Tricontinental, SICA, and La Jornada, addressing questions of cultural sovereignty, media dependency theories influenced by Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enrique Octavio (note: names as part of discourse), and debates over state-sponsored film policy tied to institutions like the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía y Artes Audiovisuales and film festivals including the Venice Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival.

Later career and legacy

After periods of exile linked to the repression of the 1970s and 1980s, Getino worked in exile hubs such as Havana, Madrid, and Mexico City, collaborating with broadcasters including Televisión Española, Televisión Nacional de Chile, and Radio Habana Cuba. He continued to make documentaries, teach at institutions like the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and advise cultural policy in contexts influenced by the return to democracy in Argentina and transitions in Spain and Latin America. His legacy is evident in later generations of filmmakers associated with Cinema Novo, Tercer Cine, and festival programmers at events like Biarritz Latin American Film Festival and Festival de Cine de La Habana.

Getino’s influence extends into contemporary debates over audiovisual policy, memory projects tied to the Dirty War, and curatorial practices in archives such as the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducros Hicken and the Archivo General de la Nación (Argentina). His writings and films remain studied alongside works by Fernando Solanas, Glauber Rocha, Julio Bressane, and scholars publishing in venues like Latin American Perspectives and Third Text.

Category:Argentine film directors Category:Argentine writers Category:1935 births Category:2012 deaths