Third Cinema Influences

The following descriptions defy the depth and complexity of each theorist, but are intended to give the reader a sense of their ideas and encourage a closer reading of their work.


Karl Marx (1818-83) German philosopher; works include Capital and The Communist Manifesto. The Marxist approach to media concentrates on social conflict in capitalist countries. Marx argued that the dominant class creates the dominant ideology. The media play a major role in transmitting this ideology to us as if it were 'common sense'.

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) Italian political thinker whose principal ideas are contained in his Prison Notebooks. In media studies he is best known for his notion of hegemony.

Louis Althusser (1918-90) French Marxist social philosopher. Leading member of the French Communist Party. Influential during the 1970s. His term Ideological State Apparatus is perhaps the most commonly known, but his theories of ideology, interpellation and subject-positioning were highly influential in cultural studies .

Bertolt Brecht (1889-1956) German playright, poet, and stage director noted for his development of 'epic theatre' and 'dialectal theatre', Marxist themes, and his attention to the confrontation of individuals and societies.

Frantz Fanon A Martiniquean theorist who writies about the effects of colonialism and implicates culture in analyses of struggles for national liberation. Best known for his texts The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks.

Homi K. Bhabha A widely published theorist known for his texts on nationalism, colonialism, and postcolonialism.

Bill Nichols

Amilcar Cabral A cultural theorist from Guinea-Bisseau, West Africa who examines the relationship between man and Nature and man and the social classes, and the implication of these relationships in struggles for national liberation.

Teshome Gabriel Author of Third Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation.

Julio Garcia Espinosa Author of "For an Imperfect Cinema". A Cuban filmmaker and theorist who challenged the formal perfection of Western cinema; an advocate for the democraticization and popularization of art and its means of production.

Octavio Gettino & Fernando Solanas Argentine authors of "Towards a Third Cinema", a statement supporting the deconstruction of colonial/neocolonial hegemony in cinema and the construction of a new, revolutionary cinema based on documentary realism. Advocates of the decolonization of culture as a program for a worldwide liberation movement.

Ousmane Sembene Senegalese filmmaker and novelist, often considered the father of Sub-Saharan African cinema. Sembene considered himself a modern incarnation of the griot, a tribal storyteller, and used his media to grapple with the complexities of independence and modernization in the post-colonial era.

Manthia Diawara Known for his work in the canon of Black cultural studies, his explorations of Black modernity, and his revival of the study of 'Blackness'.

Paul Gilroy Professor of Sociology at the University of London and author of There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack, The Black Atlantic, and The Empire Strikes Back.

Aime Cesaire Martinquean poet, playright, activist, and critic of colonialism. One of the founders of 'Negritude', the movement to restore the cultural idenity of Black Africans.

Audre Lorde (1934-92) A self-described "Black lesbian, mother, warrior, poet". Lorde battled for the self-determination of black women and also courageously struggled against disease and the medical establishment in the battle against cancer.

Tomas Gutierrez Alea Cuban filmmaker who collaborated with Julio Garcia Espinosa, addressing national realities amidst otherwise hidden or distorted representations.

Stuart Hall (1951-) Jamaican-born scholar of media and cultural studies. Known for his work in social and cultural theory, political sociology, race, ethnicity, cultural difference, and his explorations of cultural studies as an interdisplinary project.

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) A major international influence on the development of semiology and structuralism in literary theory and criticism, as well as cultural studies. Famous for promoting the idea of 'the death of the author', emphasizing the active process of 'reading' a text.

Keith Warner Caribbean cultural critic who developed the ideology and politics of Black representation in narrative cinema.

Ed Guerero Caribbean cultural critic who developed the ideology and politics of Black representation in narrative cinema.

Clyde Taylor Caribbean cultural critic who developed the ideology and politics of Black representation in narrative cinema.

Haile Gerima Filmmaker who combines oral narrative art and revolutionary filmic codes using symbolic references, double meanings, and atemporal logic to subvert time and space and foreground ideas for analysis.