Call for papers| RCL nº. 65 |Radical Cinema Movements and Theories Fifty Years after the Algiers Meeting

Editors: Rodrigo Brum e Maria do Carmo Piçarra 

In December 1973, the Third World Filmmakers Meeting was held in Algiers, bringing together directors, critics, and cultural workers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America to collectively reflect on the political, cultural, and aesthetic stakes of cinema in the context of decolonization and transnational cooperation between the so-called Third World countries. Hosted in post-independence Algeria—then a hub for anti-colonial solidarity and internationalist cultural exchange—the meeting remains a landmark moment in the history of radical film movements and Third Cinema theory.

Fifty years later, in December 2023, a gathering was held in Cairo to revisit this historical event. The Cairo encounter brought together scholars, filmmakers, professors, and archivists to reflect on the significance and legacy of the Algiers meeting—particularly in relation to contemporary struggles for counter-hegemonic cultural practices and the current absence of transnational cooperation models from the Global South to support and promote film culture across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This special issue seeks to build on the conversations initiated in Cairo and invites contributions that revisit, expand upon, or critically engage with the 1973 meeting, its theoretical frameworks, and its resonances today. We welcome original research articles, historical reconstructions, critical essays, and theoretically engaged reflections that align with or expand upon the following thematic axes:

Genealogies and Historical Contexts
Analyses of the geopolitical, cultural, and institutional conditions that made the 1973 Algiers meeting possible. This may include work on connections to parallel events such as the 4th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (Algiers, September 1973), the role of state and non-state actors in the organization of the meeting, and broader solidarities between filmmakers across the Global South during the Cold War era.

Documenting the Algiers Meeting
Archival research, historical reconstructions, or analytical accounts that engage directly with the 1973 meeting—its participants, debates, outcomes, and material traces. Contributions may also address questions of memory, historiography, and the challenges of documenting ephemeral or underrepresented events in global film history.

Third Cinema Revisited
Critical engagement with the theoretical frameworks that shaped the meeting, including but not limited to Third Cinema, militant cinema, and Franz Fanon. We invite reflections on how these frameworks have evolved, been contested, or been reinterpreted in different contexts over the past fifty years.

Afterlives and Contemporary Resonances
Explorations of how the spirit of the 1973 meeting continues to inform contemporary filmmaking, archiving, programming, and theorization. We also welcome comparative perspectives and case studies from contemporary contexts that echo or diverge from the vision articulated in Algiers, for instance, in its published resolutions: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blc.2010.2.1.155

Transnational Solidarities and Cultural Infrastructure
Investigations into the networks, institutions, and infrastructures that facilitated transnational film circulation and collaboration among filmmakers from the Global South—both in the lead-up to and in the wake of the Algiers meeting. This may include film schools, state-funded programs, festivals, and informal collectives.

We particularly encourage submissions that reflect on the methodological and archival challenges of writing and advancing counter-hegemonic film histories.

 

Submission Details

Articles may be written in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese and will undergo double-blind peer review. Visual essays are also accepted. Formatting must follow the journal’s submission guidelines.

Any inquiries, please contact the editorial assistant Patrícia Contreiras icnovaeditorial@fcsh.unl.pt, or the editors Rodrigo Brum rodrigo.brum@aucegypt.edu  and Maria do Carmo Piçarra  mcarmopicarra@fcsh.unl.pt

Articles (6,000–8,000 words), visual essays (12 pages of images and a maximum of 500 words) and reviews (800-2,000 words) will be due by March 30.

Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively through the OJS platform of the Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens(RCL).
At the time of submission, please indicate (in the comments section) the issue number of the journal to which you wish to submit your manuscript.