In the spirit of Oswald de Andrade’s landmark 1928 provocation, the Manifesto Antropófago, this program features works that engage in found footage filmmaking, a subaltern practice of decolonization and critique through the collage of appropriated images and audio. This practice, sometimes called “recycled cinema,” “détournement,” or “cinema of appropriation,” has particular resonance in the region, where outsiders’ misrepresentations often dominate the local cinematic productions on screens. For ‘COWBOY’ AND ‘INDIAN’ FILM (1958), Nuyorican artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz took a print of Anthony Mann’s WINCHESTER ’73 and hacked the reels to pieces with a tomahawk “to release their evil.” Placing the film fragments in a medicine bag, he performed a ritual exorcism inspired by his Yaqui grandfather before splicing together the random fragments, some upside down and others right side up. A Cuban newsreel from 1960 shows the triumphant supporters of the Revolution taking over the former offices of major Hollywood studios, and repurposes the reels found within. The progeny of these forerunners are diverse in their strategies and aims, ranging from Ricardo Nicolayevsky’s mile-a-minute cinematic sprint to Artemio’s mash-up of Walt Disney’s adaptations of WINNIE THE POOH and Francis Ford Coppola’s APOCALYPSE NOW.

Alfredo Salomón NO D.R. (Mexico, 2002, 1 min, digital)
Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos NEWSREEL 49 (Cuba, 1960, 1 min, 35mm-to-digital)
Rafael Montañez Ortiz ‘COWBOY’ AND ‘INDIAN’ FILM (USA, 1958, 2 min, 35mm-to-digital)
Nicolás Guillén Landrián DESDE LA HAVANA ¡1969! RECORDAR (Cuba, 1969, 17 min, 35mm-to-digital)
Ricardo Nicolayevsky THE BIG WACK (Mexico, 2002, 2.5 min, digital)
Marisol Trujillo, Miriam Talavera, and Pepín Rodriguez ORACIÓN POR MARILYN MONROE (Cuba, 1983, 8 min, 35mm-to-digital)
Artemio APOOHCALYPSE NOW (Mexico, 2002, 8 min, digital)
Eduardo Menz LAS MUJERES DE PINOCHET (Canada/Chile, 2004, 12 min, digital)
Nicolas Testoni LAS RUINAS DE BAHÍA BLANCA (Argentina, 2012, 5.5 min, digital)
Taller Independiente de Cine Experimental POBRE DEL CANTOR (Mexico, 1978, 2 min, Super-8mm-to-digital)
Total running time: ca. 65 min.