Colectivo Cine de Clase

The Colectivo de Cine de Clase was formed by the couple Helena Lumbreras Giménez and Mariano Lisa Escaned. Cine de Clase is one of the first collective cinema groups to carry out their shoots in clandestinity. They identified militant cinema as a political response to Francoist autarky*, developing critical imaginaries of the transition through anti-capitalist image production practices. Between 1968 and 1978, they created a documentary body of work with a strong political and socially critical message. The films (medium-length pieces shot in 16 mm) featured the direct participation of the people and their struggles. They filmed El campo para el hombre (1973), about the problems of Galician smallholdings and Andalusian latifundia; O todos o ninguno (1975–76), about the strike at the Laforsa foundry in Cornellà de Llobregat, which triggered a broader strike in the Baix Llobregat region; and A la vuelta del grito (1977–78), about the crisis of transnational capitalism and its repercussions in Spain.

The semantic motivations of the Colectivo de Cine de Clase deepened their aim to dignify the working class. Cine de Clase meant working-class cinema. The collective production process was non-hierarchical, based on a democratic and communal decision-making structure regarding documentary storytelling and modes of representing reality.

The Colectivo de Cine de Clase is part of the group of cinema collectives that encompass the most significant experiences of anti-Francoist militant cinema, including: Colectivo de Cine Madrid, Colectivo de Cine de Clase, Cooperativa de Cine Alternatiu/Central del Curt, Grup de Producció, Equipo Imaxe, Yaiza Borges, Equipo Penta, Colectivo SPA, and Grup de Treball.

*Mariano Lisa’s voice in an interview with María Camí Vela:
“In the film O todos o ninguno (1975–76), we decided that everyone participating in the film had to appear on camera, including the workers, as a challenge to power. It was a way of saying: ‘the working class is not afraid. We will go out into the streets and onto the screen. Here we are—if you want, you can arrest us and put us in jail, but you'll have to imprison an entire regiment, because we are all responsible for this film.’ It was the first time we used the term Colectivo de Clase, and we kept it in the next film, A la vuelta del grito (1977–78).”
Camí-Vela, María. "Entre la esperanza y el desencanto. El cine militante de Helena Lumbreras." Published in Aranda, Daniel; Esquirol, Meritxell; Sánchez-Navarro, Jordi. Puntos de vista: una mirada poliédrica a la historia del cine. UOC, Barcelona, 2009.

The Colectivo de Cine de Clase explores a methodology of political and aesthetic participation through the film camera, characterized by its ideological coherence and a remarkable ability to stir consciences, using direct testimony to construct a political and cinematic discourse. The documentary medium-length films were shot on 16 mm camera and film stock, according to Mariano Lisa, because this type of material was much more affordable to use, and they had very limited resources to make the documentaries. Prior to filming, Mariano Lisa and Helena Lumbreras would take documentary photographs as part of the filmmaking process, which they later developed to rework the framings during the shooting of the documentaries. The methodology they followed within the militant cinema collective was based on teaching members of the group how to use the cameras so they could capture their own point of view about what they wanted to express. Afterwards, Helena edited the documentary and screened it for the entire group, so they could discuss and agree—or disagree—on the final cut. According to Mariano Lisa, they called themselves Colectivo de Cine de Clase because no one had more power than anyone else when making decisions during the shooting or editing process. Their essential aim was “to film the dreams of the people who were fighting to improve their living conditions.”