O Aborto Não É um Crime

Cinequipa was a Portuguese experimental film cooperative founded in December 1973 by a group of television workers from the ENSAIO program, who left their jobs due to ideological conflicts with the employers. Banned from working on television, they formed an independent collective, which was initially sustained through advertising work. Operating during the last years of the Portuguese fascist regime, they avoided the formal status of cooperative (which was politically risky) and instead worked collaboratively under the name of Cinequipa – Experimental Film Group. 

Their work was rooted in political resistance, mutual aid and interventionist cinema. The Carnation Revolution of 1974 marked a turning point: Cinequipa documented the uprising in their film “Caminhos da Liberdade” (1974), capturing the events from April 25 to May 1. Politically aligned with the left, they proposed bold projects to public broadcasting RTP, exposing repression under Estado Novo (PIDE secret police, Portuguese Legião), but faced institutional barriers. Without deterrence, they produced the series “Ver e Pensar”, addressing youth exploitation, cultural problems and police brutality, with voices such as of the historian Magalhães Godinho and the writer Vasco de Magalhães Vilhena. Their most striking work, “Nome Mulher” (co-created with journalist Maria Antónia Palla and filmmaker António de Sousa), criticized gender oppression in Portugal, mixing socio-political intervention with place-based pedagogy. In 1975-1976, Cinequipa was formalized as a cooperative, building a film archive focused on the struggles of the working class and non-manipulative cinema ("cinema não manipulado"). They prioritized allowing marginalized voices to speak directly, counterposing state media monopolies. Despite limited access to television, they achieved series-based contracts with the second RTP channel, reviewing social issues that had not been addressed before. 

Their legacy lies in the fusion of militant cinema with popular education, although their later career is still underexplored.

Cinequipa produced interventionist and educational films, aiming to amplify voices that had long been silenced. The group organized itself as a collective that challenged conventional cinema production models, developing its own structure and working methodology. Although it referred to itself as “a completely vertical cooperative,” this term alluded to the integration of all audiovisual professions—filmmakers, camera operators, electricians, editors, and others—within a single cohesive unit, rather than implying a rigid hierarchy. 

In practice, the work was shaped by a strong spirit of collective debate and shared reflection, with each decision prompting open discussion. Their productions encouraged the active participation of the people being filmed, who were allowed to speak freely and directly, in what the group called “cinema não manipulado”. Throughout its history, the cooperative favored working through production series contracts to ensure the quality of its output and its social impact, seeing film as both a tool for transformation and a means of political engagement. Cinequipa also supported other militant film collectives by sharing its production resources, reinforcing its role not only as a producer but also as a facilitator within a broader network of collaboration. Similarly, it sought to create alternative screening and exhibition circuits to reach wider audiences. From its founding, the cooperative remained committed to collective memory and to building a living archive of popular thought.