Cinema and the Sandinistas: Filmmaking in Revolutionary Nicaragua

Texas Film and Media Studies

by Jonathan Buchsbaum

Following the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, young bohemian artists rushed to the newly formed Nicaraguan national film institute INCINE to contribute to "the recovery of national identity" through the creation of a national film project. Over the next eleven years, the filmmakers of INCINE produced over seventy films--documentary, fiction, and hybrids--that collectively reveal a unique vision of the Revolution drawn not from official FSLN directives, but from the filmmakers' own cinematic interpretations of the Revolution as they were living it.

This book examines the INCINE film project and assesses its achievements in recovering a Nicaraguan national identity through the creation of a national cinema. Using a wealth of firsthand documentation--the films themselves, interviews with numerous INCINE personnel, and INCINE archival records--Jonathan Buchsbaum follows the evolution of INCINE's project and situates it within the larger historical project of militant, revolutionary filmmaking in Latin America. His research also raises crucial questions about the viability of national cinemas in the face of accelerating globalization and technological changes which reverberate far beyond Nicaragua's experiment in revolutionary filmmaking.

343 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Jonathan Buchsbaum is professor of media studies at Queens College, City University of New York. He is the author of Cinema and the Sandinistas: Filmmaking in Revolutionary Nicaragua (2003) and Cinema Engagé: Film in the Popular Front (1988).

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is about the history of Nicaragua's national film department, INCINE, established by Sandinistas after their revolution. It focuses on INCINE but also intertwines with politics/history of Nicaragua at this time. Buchsbaum also discusses his views on "Third/Militant/Revolutionary Cinema." I take a main question from it to go something like this: when an independent nation wants to develop its national film culture and industry, they have questions of what topics are "authentically ," Nicaraguan in this case. The other big problem is making money both domestically and internationally to keep program financially viable. This book addresses those issues in 1980s for FSLN/INCINE.

There are only 3 countries, I remember reading, where the national films make more money than US films, India, Korea, and I can't remember the other one. "Free Trade" deals authorize quotas to Hollywood industry, as well most of Nicaraguan TV during this time was not about Nicaragua. The book analyzes each of the films/shorts/anything-put-out by INCINE as well, giving the reader insights into Sandinista/Nicaraguan attitudes at the time. There are some stills from some of the films as well.

Topics include:

-FSLN (Sandinista) failures/successes
-US involvement
-Social demographics of Nicaragua
-Cuban cinema industry as support and as a model
-"Third Cinema"/"Militant Cinema"/Revolutionary Cinema theory
-Nicaragua's attempts to build a national cinema (especially in context with saturation of film markets by foreign investors)
-Agrarian issues/export crops/land distribution
-(campesinos wanting own land according to Buchsbaum,
- while Sandinistas preferred communal arrangements to build up a surplus for export, get cash and industrialize)
-Literacy Campaign big success

I recommend this book for information on the above topics and to people who want to be more conversant in advocating a greater diversity of cinema industries throughout the world.