Classes de lutte #1 : Cinéma espagnol militant sous Franco — Paloma Polo — Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers — Event — Slash Paris

Past: Saturday, May 20, 2017 7 PM → 11 PM

• Spagna ’68 (1968) by Helena Lumbreras
• El campo para el hombre (1972-1975) by Helena Lumbreras and Mariano Lisa

The screening of the two films will be followed by a discussion with philosopher and activist Mariano Lisa.

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Internationally the 1960s and 1970s were years of latent conflict, notably in the form of the Cold War between the Eastern and Western blocs. At the time Spain was still under Franco’s thumb, with the “enemies of the regime” under threat of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, and even assassination. The artistic scene was marked by frequent use of a military vocabulary, with the term “vanguard” hijacked by the government as a label for a movement made up of victors; artists and filmmakers fell in with the dominant line, even if some of them managed to make subversive play with it.

During the period of transition following Franco’s death in 1975, the dismantling of the workers’ and people’s movement was the price Spanish society had to pay for its new government and institutions to be given the seal of approval by the dominant capitalist countries. This meant the forced deactivation of popular militancy and the deindustrialisation of Spain. Given their reputation as politically committed filmmakers, Helena Lumbreras and Mariano Lisa were blackballed both at institutional level and within the industry. Moreover Spanish men — including those who had opposed Franco — scorned not only feminism, but also all forms of female participation in society. Lumbreras suffered considerably because of this situation, which prevented her from pursuing her cinema and television work.