Chapter 19: Third World Cinema
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Third world cinema
a. operates independently of established national film industries.
b. is produced entirely for entertainment purposes.
c. attempts to mimic the film style and syntax of Hollywood.
d. generally operates in a similar fashion to Western industries only on a smaller scale.
e. Both b and d are true.
f. none of the above
2. “Third cinema”
a. is an auteurist cinema of personal expression.
b. is focused on applying conventional Hollywood narrative to a third world context.
c. is interested in character, spectacle, and escapism.
d. seeks to replace a cinema of passivity with one of aggression.
e. looks to the past for models of construction that will allow it to compete with Hollywood’s
international domination.
f. none of the above
3. The only Latin American country aside from Cuba that has ever won 50 percent of its domestic film
market from Hollywood domination is
a. Mexico.
b. Brazil.
c. Argentina.
d. Chile.
e. Venezuela.
f. None of the above; the United States has always dominated Latin American markets.
4. The American film industry’s complete domination of Latin America markets began
a. in the 1920s as American companies worked to exclude both local and European competition.
b. after the coming of sound as Hollywood made films in Spanish for the Latin American market.
c. during World War I when European exports were curtailed.
d. after World War II with the creation of the CIAA Motion Picture Bureau.
e. from the earliest cinema history.
f. none of the above
5. After the coming of sound, Latin American film industries
a. began to emerge rapidly to make Spanish– and Portuguese-language films.
b. turned away from the United States and began importing films from Spain.
c. continued to be completely dominated by Hollywood, which produced Spanish language films.
d. started up in every major country, eventually earning about 25 percent of their domestic markets.
e. became a less important export market for American films.
f. none of the above
6. Hollywood’s Latin American strategy in the 1940s included all of the following EXCEPT
a. producing films set in Latin American locales.
b. hiring Latin American actors and actresses to appear in Hollywood films.
c. producing Spanish-language films.
d. investing in indigenous Latin American production.
e. producing pro-American newsreels distributed free to Latin American theaters.
f. All of the above were Hollywood policies in the 1940s.
7. The Mexican churros film
a. is a type of art film produced during “the golden age.”
b. is a musical comedy set on the ranches of rural Mexico.
c. is the type of comedy practiced by the actor Cantinflas.
d. is a working-class melodrama with serious political overtones.
e. is a low-budget, quickly produced B-movie.
f. none of the above
8. The “golden age” of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 50s can be attributed to
a. American investment in Mexican films.
b. the establishment of a national film school.
c. private investment from wealthy Mexicans in the national cinema.
d. the work of Emilio Fernandez who was the only filmmaker of note to emerge from the period and
who inspired all other Mexican filmmakers.
e. the development of a studio system much like that of the United States.
f. none of the above
9. The period in which the first graduates of the Mexican national film school emerged to make films of
both great artistry and strong political criticism was
a. the 1970s.
b. the late 1950s.
c. the “golden age” of the 1940s.
d. the 1920s.
e. the late 1980s and early 1990s.
f. None of the above; strong political criticism was never encouraged in Mexican cinema.
10. The privatization of the film industry by Margarita López Portillo
a. spurred an unprecedented production boom.
b. led to the end of the Mexican film renaissance.
c. led to the end of churros production.
d. allowed many of the renaissance era filmmakers to work with larger budgets.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
11. The Mexican film industry in the 1980s and 1990s
a. stabilized at an output of about fifty films a year.
b. went through a period of uninterrupted decline that has still to abate.
c. declined precipitously before expanding quickly then shrinking again.
d. went through a period of unprecedented expansion as government subsidy and private investment
drove a consistent increase in production.
e. produced many films but none of international stature.
f. none of the above
12. The Brazilian film industry
a. did not begin producing films until the 1940s when the government set up a subsidy program.
b. was strong enough by the 1920s to control a significant market share, providing a serious threat to
American dominance.
c. has been a vertically integrated monopoly since around 1910.
d. initially attempted a Hollywood studio-style of organization but abandoned it for independent
production.
e. has never had a centralized film industry with privately funded independent production as the
industry’s long-standing model.
f. none of the above
13. The Brazilian chanchada genre was
a. an action genre of the Brazilian frontier.
b. a form of political melodrama.
c. an art film movement in the 1960s.
d. the Brazilian version of the American western.
e. musical and comedy revue films.
f. none of the above
14. Brazilian cinema novo
a. focused on popular entertainment and stories of the upper class.
b. was produced in a highly structured studio setting not unlike Hollywood.
c. reflected the prosperity of Brazil in the 1960s.
d. won major awards at international festivals.
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
15. The second stage of the Brazilian cinema novo’s development was characterized by
a. urban stories of disillusionment and self-doubt.
b. optimistic stories of proletarian revolts.
c. realistic stories rooted in anthropology.
d. exotic adventure stories of Brazil’s history.
e. nonnarrative films of radical formal complexity.
f. none of the above
16. The dictatorial military government of Brazil in the 1960s
a. repressed all feature-film production.
b. expanded production by creating a state film fund.
c. closed down the National Film Institute.
d. forced the cinema novo directors out of the industry.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
17. In the 1970s and early 1980s, while under the control of a military dictatorship, the Brazilian film
industry
a. produced virtually no films.
b. made almost exclusively pornochanchadas.
c. produced at least a dozen international box-office hits.
d. was so strictly regulated that no films were exported.
e. turned away from issues of the poor and indigenous peoples that had characterized cinema novo.
f. none of the above
18. After the restoration of democracy to Brazil in 1985, the film industry
a. expanded film production in terms of numbers, but the quality of Brazilian films declined.
b. began to deal with issues of poverty and the exploitation of indigenous peoples for the first time in
years.
c. experienced a creative explosion, though in terms of numbers slightly fewer films were being
produced.
d. began a period of decline from which it would never really recover.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
19. Globofilmes is
a. the organization that oversaw the operation of the Chilean film industry under the military
dictatorship.
b. the largest Argentinean production company.
c. an organization of several Latin American film industries dedicated to mutual distribution.
d. the Mexican studio responsible for turning out hundreds of churros films.
e. the company that made Brazilian produced films both viable and popular in the Brazilian film
industry.
f. none of the above
20. From the coming of sound until the mid-1980s, the Argentinean cinema
a. was privately financed and organized around a small group of powerful production companies.
b. was a loose assembly of unstable production companies that would start up and go out of business
often after producing just one film.
c. was modeled after the Hollywood studio system.
d. was relatively free of governmental censorship.
e. only made films with a political propaganda message.
f. none of the above
21. The Cine Liberación group
a. arose in response to a malaise in the Argentinean film industry.
b. represented a decisive break from the cinema novo tradition.
c. made entertaining films that did well at the domestic box office.
d. avoided political content in their documentaries, focusing instead on stories of individual struggle.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
22. After the restoration of Argentinean democracy in 1983, the film industry
a. collapsed.
b. produced a large number of films about the recent past.
c. continued to decline steadily along with the Argentinean economy.
d. continued to operate under strict censorship rules.
e. both c and d
f. none of the above
23. Argentinean cinema rebounded from its low point in the early 1990s by
a. completely privatizing the film industry.
b. nationalizing the film industry.
c. using a tax on video rentals to fund production.
d. organizing several semiautonomous production units.
e. inviting back the filmmakers exiled under Perón.
f. none of the above
24. Bolivia, Peru, and Chile all experienced surges in production in
a. the period after World War II.
b. the mid-1990s.
c. the early 1980s, during a period of political reform.
d. the late 1960s.
e. the 1950s, as their economies began to modernize.
f. none of the above
25. The Jorge Sanjiné film that depicted an American organization wiping out the native Quechuan
Indians through involuntary sterilization and was responsible for the Peace Corps being expelled from
Bolivia is
a. Ukamau. d. Out of Here!
b. The Principal Enemy. e. Blood of the Condor.
c. The Courage of the People. f. none of the above
26. The Bolivian film industry
a. is one of the largest in Latin America.
b. has several midsize studios regularly producing feature films.
c. produces about five films a year through the national film institute.
d. is not currently producing feature films at all, only television and documentary.
e. Both a and b are true.
f. none of the above
27. The Peruvian cinema before 1970
a. was one of the most active in South America.
b. did not produce many films but was known for the quality of its historical dramas.
c. produced no films of any kind.
d. was entirely privately funded with little government support.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
28. Before 1960, the film industry of Chile
a. had no tradition of film production of any kind.
b. was more productive during the silent era than the sound period.
c. had no centers for film education.
d. had no ties at all to the Chilean government.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
29. The three years of Salvador Allende’s Socialist government
a. saw the total collapse of the Chilean film industry.
b. resulted in the production of Socialist propaganda films.
c. was the most creative period in Chilean film history.
d. steered the Chilean film industry toward the production of diverting entertainment films.
e. had little influence on the film industry.
f. none of the above
30. All of the following filmmakers came to prominence as part of the Popular Unity movement in Chile
and were in exile during the Pinochet regime EXCEPT
a. Miguel Littin. d. Sergio Bravo.
b. Raoul Ruiz. e. Patricio Guzmán.
c. Helvio Soto. f. all of the above
31. Raoul Ruiz
a. is one of the world’s most prolific filmmakers.
b. works in a single genre, the political drama.
c. fled Chile in the early 1970s and never returned.
d. has made several children’s films.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
32. In the early 1980s, the Chilean film industry
a. returned to the level of productivity it enjoyed in the early 1970s.
b. collapsed completely and still has not recovered.
c. produced ten to fifteen films every year until the early 1990s when production boomed again.
d. was privatized resulting in a boost in both creative freedom and the number of films produced.
e. was renationalized with the government providing production funds for feature films.
f. none of the above
33. The Venezuelan government’s policies of film industry subsidies and regulations in the early 1970s
led to
a. the production of nearly thirty feature films in five years.
b. a small surge in documentary production but no significant feature films.
c. films that were invariably failures at the Venezuelan box office.
d. the production of only political propaganda films.
e. the production of primarily low-budget exploitation films.
f. none of the above
34. During the productive years of 1993 to 1999, the Venezuelan cinema was primarily financed by
a. private investment capital guaranteed by tax incentives.
b. the government’s Autonomous National Center for Cinematography.
c. international coproduction.
d. Latin American cable television.
e. FONCINE.
f. none of the above
35. Feature film production in Colombia from the 1970s to the 1990s was financed by
a. private investment capital.
b. Colombian television networks.
c. the government-run national film production agency.
d. small independent production companies that could apply for grants.
e. There was no feature film production in Colombia during this period.
f. None of the above is true.
36. The Nicaraguan film industry
a. thrived under the Somoza government but was destroyed by the Sandanistas.
b. dates back to the silent era when it was one of the most vital in Latin America.
c. emerged in the 1960s like so many other Latin American film industries.
d. began after the Sandanistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship.
e. has never produced any significant feature films.
f. none of the above
37. Prior to the Cuban revolution
a. there was no Cuban film industry at all.
b. the Cuban industry was based on a Hollywood model and made about twenty films a year.
c. Cuba made no significant feature films but was active in documentary production.
d. the Cuban film industry supplied the rest of Latin America with Spanish-language films.
e. Cuba had the highest film attendance rates of any Latin American country.
f. none of the above
38. The early revolutionary-era films of Tomas Guitiérrez Alea and Humberto Solás
a. were produced with private funding as Cuban-Mexican coproductions.
b. mixed documentary and narrative techniques.
c. drew international attention to the Cuban cinema for the first time.
d. avoided overt political content to focus more on entertainment.
e. both b and c
f. all of the above
39. All of the following were film education policies of the ICAIC after the revolution EXCEPT
a. producing Socialist-realist propaganda films about the revolution.
b. sending out trucks and boats equipped with projectors to show Charlie Chaplin films.
c. sponsoring mass screenings for one hundred thousand spectators a week at the Cinemateca de
Cuba.
d. publishing and distributing a film culture magazine, Cine cubano.
e. producing a popular television show devoted to film education.
f. All of the above were ICAIC policies.
40. The Cuban cinema of the 1970s
a. struggled under the dictatorial control of the Castro government.
b. experienced an explosion of genres and styles.
c. returned to strict Socialist realism, losing the inventiveness it had in the 1960s.
d. collapsed due to problems that were more financial than political.
e. produced significant documentaries but no narrative features of note.
f. none of the above
41. The production arm of the Cuban ICAIC
a. operates under close government supervision.
b. has been unaffected by the American trade embargo.
c. allows directors to freely choose their own subjects and write their own scripts.
d. is well equipped with cameras and film stock.
e. operates as a centralized bureaucracy with one individual overseeing all production.
f. none of the above
42. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cuban film industry
a. entered a period of heightened creativity and productivity.
b. moved toward private financing of films.
c. was unaffected by the political change.
d. declined sharply, producing only a small fraction of its previous output.
e. continued to grow steadily as a result of consistent ICAIC funding.
f. none of the above
43. In the late 1990s, the Cuban film industry
a. collapsed completely.
b. began to grow again as a result of foreign investment.
c. continued to operate exactly as it had in the 1970s and 1980s.
d. turned to animation and 3-D digital video, among other innovations.
e. both b and d
f. none of the above
44. The most prominent film-producing country in North Africa is
a. Tunisia. d. Senegal.
b. Morocco. e. Algeria.
c. Egypt. f. none of the above
45. Algerian cinéma mudjahad
a. was the first Algerian film genre.
b. was akin to an Algerian New Wave.
c. established an Algerian cinema free of state control.
d. was a historical-action genre set in the nineteenth century.
e. was produced in the 1940s and 1950s as revolutionary propaganda.
f. none of the above
46. Algerian cinema today
a. is in the midst of the cinema djidid movement, a contemporary new wave.
b. is among the most stable in Africa, regularly producing between ten and fifteen features per year.
c. is virtually extinct with most Algerian directors living and working abroad.
d. continues to be government funded though political problems have made production difficult.
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
47. Tunisia
a. has no indigenous film industry but hosts international productions.
b. produces two or three films a year.
c. has regulations against allowing women to make films.
d. has never produced films that have won international awards.
e. is known for hosting the Taormina Film Festival.
f. none of the above
48. The North African country whose system of state funding has made its film industry the region’s most
productive from the 1990s until the present is
a. Algeria. d. Tunisia.
b. Egypt. e. Ethiopia.
c. Morocco. f. none of the above
49. The Egyptian cinema
a. has never been an important economic force in the Arab world.
b. has been produced by a small group of independent production companies.
c. is known for its production of noncommercial art films.
d. is the third most prolific in the world behind India and the United States.
e. operates completely without state support.
f. none of the above
50. The Egyptian cinema of the early 1990s
a. experienced a creative renaissance.
b. saw an enormous increase in production, though the films were routine star vehicles.
c. was rescued by state-run and private satellite television.
d. operated for the first time without significant government censorship.
e. experienced a crisis in production that saw a dramatic decline in the number of films made.
f. none of the above
51. The first indigenous black African film was produced in
a. Senegal. d. Mali.
b. Nigeria. e. Ghana.
c. South Africa. f. none of the above
52. The Senegalese director of La Noire de. . ., the first sub-Saharan feature film whose subsequent films
Ceddo and Emitai were banned by the Senegalese government, is
a. Youssef Chahine. d. Moussa Touré.
b. Ousmane Sembene. e. Jean-Pierre Bekolo.
c. Souleymane Cissé. f. none of the above
53. Souleymane Cissé
a. is a Senegalese director whose films confront the problems of Westernization in a traditional
culture.
b. is an African director whose social satires are typically Western in style and structure.
c. directs mythical films derived from the Malian oral tradition.
d. is the most prominent Moroccan filmmaker whose work is often at odds with government censors.
e. is a revolutionary Nigerian filmmaker whose work is extremely popular throughout sub–Saharan
Africa.
f. none of the above
54. The African country that produces roughly four hundred feature films a year, mostly shot on digital
video in a few days for under $15,000 resulting in the most financially successful film industry on the
continent, is
a. Egypt. d. Nigeria.
b. Senegal. e. South Africa.
c. Algeria. f. none of the above
55. The only significant film-producing country in the Middle East is
a. Israel. d. Iran.
b. Lebanon. e. both a and d
c. Syria. f. none of the above
56. Between the coming of sound and the revolution in 1979, all of the following are true of the Iranian
film industry EXCEPT
a. it produced an average of around twenty feature films a year with a high of ninety in 1972.
b. it experienced a New Wave like those occurring across Europe.
c. it was dominated by the United States.
d. it produced escapist films for a large domestic market.
e. it established a number of film festivals to highlight indigenous production.
f. All of the above are true.
57. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Iranian film industry under the control of the fundamentalist
Islamic government
a. grew to become one of the preeminent film industries in the world.
b. produced many films, but almost all of which were political propaganda.
c. collapsed completely as a result of their being no means of financing feature films.
d. shrunk to a fraction of its former size as the religious power structure of Iran was fundamentally
opposed to the cinema.
e. changed very little from its prerevolutionary form.
f. none of the above
58. The Iranian cinema in the 1990s
a. funded only art films and not entertainment films.
b. eliminated the requirement of state approval of screenplays before they could go into production.
c. was popular domestically but did not win many awards at foreign festivals.
d. was small due to the shrinking domestic market for films.
e. appeared to be moving in a liberal direction until a state crackdown ground the industry to a virtual
halt.
f. none of the above
59. The films of Abbas Kiarostami
a. are stylized, using rapid cuts and odd camera angles.
b. are set in the distant Persian past.
c. blur the distinction between documentary and fiction.
d. tell complex stories in an extremely simple visual style.
e. have most often been international coproductions because of their high budgets.
f. none of the above
60. The Iranian filmmaker whose meditative, hypnotic films feature long takes with a static camera and
often frustrate the audience’s desire for narrative closure is
a. Dariush Mehrjui. d. Abbas Kiarostami.
b. Majid Majidi. e. Bahman Farmanara.
c. Mohsen Makhmalbaf. f. none of the above
61. The cinematic style of the Iranian cinema is closest to that of
a. German Expressionism. d. Eastern European Socialist realism.
b. Soviet revolutionary montage. e. Italian neorealism.
c. the French New Wave. f. none of the above
62. Before the founding of Israel in 1948, the Hebrew cinema in Palestine
a. produced many notable documentaries.
b. was nonexistent.
c. produced many feature films according to the Hollywood model.
d. produced only newsreels for propaganda purposes.
e. was funded by the British government.
f. none of the above
63. The Israeli bourekas genre produced films about
a. the Arab-Israeli conflict.
b. the tensions between Israeli ethnicities and social classes.
c. the struggle for Israeli independence.
d. the generational conflict in Israeli culture.
e. the tensions been religious and secular forces in Israeli society.
f. none of the above
64. The “Young Israeli Cinema”
a. is known for its production of bourekas films.
b. is independently financed by mostly foreign capitol.
c. makes films sympathetic toward the Palestinians.
d. is known for their large-scale historical epics.
e. emerged in the 1990s as a result of the opening of an Israeli film school.
f. none of the above
65. The Thai cinema in the 1980s
a. experienced a production boom, becoming one of the leading producers of films in Asia.
b. began winning awards at international festivals and earning worldwide acclaim.
c. was extremely active as a result of an enormous domestic market.
d. went from producing about two hundred features a year to making only twelve annually.
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
66. The Indonesian film industry
a. suffers from having no national film school.
b. has never produced more than ten films a year.
c. is known for documentaries but has never produced significant feature films.
d. rose to international prominence in the 1990s, winning international awards and breaking domestic
box-office records.
e. produced seventy films a year until it collapsed in the 1990s.
f. none of the above
67. The Malaysian cinema
a. is technically backward though creatively innovative.
b. is nonexistent.
c. has grown rapidly as a result of government investment in high technology.
d. operates completely without government subsidy.
e. is one of the few Asian cinemas to operate without significant international coproduction.
f. none of the above
68. The Korean cinema
a. produced no feature films before 1945.
b. is known for the quantity of films it produces, though the quality of cinematography and lighting is
generally very low.
c. produces very few films but concentrates on making “cinema of quality” to compete at
international festivals.
d. operates completely free of government censorship regulations.
e. has never been one of the largest film producers among Asian countries.
f. none of the above
69. The “New Korean Cinema”
a. combines experimental formal technique with a strong sense of social commitment.
b. emerged in the 1960s under the influence of the French New Wave, whose techniques it borrowed.
c. has never been a political movement, concentrating instead on cinema as a cultural form.
d. makes films that are conservative in form and subject matter but that contain hidden social
criticism.
e. has been a consistent failure at the domestic box office.
f. all of the above
70. Im Kwon-taek
a. is the leading director and spokesman for the New Korean Cinema.
b. has made over one hundred films in his career, including both art films and commercial films.
c. has made very few films but each one is a classic of the Korean cinema.
d. is famous in Korea but relatively unknown in the international cinema community.
e. has always worked in a single genre, the historical spectacle film.
f. none of the above
71. The Korean story based on the first text of p’ansori that has been the basis for fifteen Korean films,
including the first Korean talkie and Im Kwon–taek’s 2000 version, is
a. Chang, the Prostitute. d. Shiri.
b. The Jang-Sun Woo Variations. e. Mandala.
c. The Tale of Chunhyang. f. none of the above
72. The film industry of the Philippines
a. did not exist until the 1960s.
b. specialized in the production of documentaries and educational films.
c. was known for its production of art films in the 1960s and 1970s.
d. was large but specialized in films for low-brow tastes.
e. was very small but produced a steady series of locally successful films.
f. none of the above
73. Lino Brocka
a. was the leading director of exploitation films in the Philippines, eventually partnering with
American International Pictures.
b. started a stylistically inventive Philippine new wave.
c. made films that were popular domestically but received little recognition internationally.
d. made no more feature films after his groundbreaking Manilla in the Claws of Neon Signs.
e. produced the first feature films in the Philippines during the1940s and 1950s.
f. none of the above
74. During the 1980s, the Philippine film industry
a. collapsed in the wake of political corruption and scandal.
b. abandoned the censorship of feature films.
c. curtailed the production of bombas.
d. produced no films that garnered significant international attention.
e. ranked among the top ten in the world in terms of output.
f. none of the above