The Terror and the Time
Synopsis
In 1953, what was then known as British Guiana elected its first “internal self government” under colonial rule. Nervous about the government’s progressive programs and supposed Soviet influence, the British suspended the constitution, jailed the democratically elected leaders, and staged a military invasion. Made in 1978, The Terror and the Time is an incendiary piece of agitprop documentary filmmaking that revisits the events of that seminal year in Guyanese history. Set to a series of poems by the great poet Martin Carter and against the backdrop of the cold war and events of 1953 in such places as Iran, Guatemala, Kenya and the US, this film—the first of only two works by the Victor Jara Collective—was banned by Guyana’s government, and has rarely screened since it was made.
This film is a part of Dreaming to Change the World: The Films of The Victor Jara Collective retrospective.
- Director: The Victor Jara Collective
- Country: Guyana
- Language: English
- Duration: 75 minutes
- Year: 1978 Type: Short Films
About the Director
Named in honor of Chilean musician and dissident Victor Jara, who was murdered by the Pinochet regime in 1973, and influenced by the politically committed New Latin American cinema of the 1960s, Guyana’s Victor Jara Collective formed with the intention of making formally daring films that explored the country’s own political, social and economic struggles as an emerging postcolonial nation.
Venue:
O Cinema Wynwood
90 NW 29th St, Miami, FL 33127