We watched a few different films this past week, but the one I wanted to discuss the most was La hora de los hornos. La hora de los hornos directed by Octavio Getine and Fernando Solanas is an Argentine film from 1971. The film involves many of the struggles and tribulations that the poorer Argentine population faced in their history. What I enjoyed most was the stylistic choices of editing, language, and visual pieces the film used. It feels as if the people made the film and is for the people. In a cinematic experience that involves Native oppression, lower-class struggles, and a general disconnect between the people running the government and its people, there needs to be an easy way of communicating. The editors and people making the film choose a few things to help these points. A quick style of editing involving gunshots and lots of visual stimulation. Verbage that goes slowly and allows for an easy call-to-action understanding. And finally, easy-to-understand imagery that paints a clear picture. There are several examples of this, but the most obvious is the scene of cattle being slaughtered. The editors and directors decided to intercut this with images of white foreign advertisements that cater to importing goods. This is used to make people upset, but it’s easy to digest. For context, Argentina’s population of literate people was not high at this point. By having such clear cut in your face messaging you allow this film to truly be inspiring for those it’s supposed to. A subtle way of making this film was not possible. I always thought this film was supposed to sound like a revolutionist giving a speech to a crowd. Except the crowd gets to be infinitely bigger thanks to this movie.