Section curated by Cineclube de Compostela

A programme developed in collaboration with Cineclube Compostela, and which includes outstanding examples of ethnographic cinema, many of which have never been released in Galician cinemas. We will have different ethnographic pieces that offer different reflections on work in a programme coordinated by the visual artist Vicente Vázquez and the art historian and programmer of the Cineclube, Julio Vilariño Cabezas. 

Since its inception, there has been a close link between cinema and work. It is worth remembering here that the first film recorded by the Lumière brothers was the Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory, a paradigmatic film when it comes to establishing this type of link. In the history of the medium, both in documentary and fiction, there has always been a vein that tries to closely resemble work, searching for the real-life links between workers, industry and production mechanisms, from the attempts in the avant-garde era to represent the working class, to the essayistic experiments of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s of certain action groups that include filmmakers and workers alike. 

This selection seeks to visualise the invisible works, the taboo subjects normally excluded from the working culture through a series of formally and thematically provocative proposals. The first session focuses on Llagostera’s film Gran Sol, about fishermen in the Sole Bank. The second is driven by the theme of money, the integration in the labour market and the concept of work as capital. In the third session, we will talk about jobs that we do not consider as such, which means those who perform them are left on the margins of the system and possible labour protection; and the last one will be a contrast between work as craft and work as industry.

O necem jinem

Tuesday, March 29 at 8.30 p.n. Teatro Principal

90’ I 1963 I Checoslovaquia

Vera Chytilová

In 1963 Věra Chytilová debuted with this film. She shows two seemingly opposite narratives: the stories of two women in their thirties who never met but who, on different levels, have to deal with a similar problem. This parallel narrative follows the marital crisis of a housewife and the professional crisis of an Olympic athlete.

Three Quarters 

Wednesday, March 30 at 10 p.m. Teatro Principal

5′ I 2015 I EUA

Kevin Jerome Everson

A silent 16mm black and white short film that features two magicians in Philadelphia practice their slight of hand tricks.

Les prostituées de Lyon parlent

Wednesday, March 30 at 10 p.m. Teatro Principal

46′ I1975 I France

Carole Roussopoulos

Approximately two hundred prostitutes occupied the church of Saint-Nizier, in Lyon, in the spring of 1975. They give their testimonials as women and mothers,  to demand police, tax, and social harassment be stopped. Outside the church the debates are broadcast in video screens for the people on the streets – mainly men.


Hands: Shannon One Design

Thursday, March 31 at 6 p.m. Numax

26′ I 1981 I Irland

David y Sally Shaw-Smith

Plot: David and Sally Shaw-Smith documented more than forty different traditional Irish crafts. In this chapter Jimmy Furey, a former eel fisherman, builds a sailing boat based on a traditional 18ft River Shannon angling boat. The documentary covers the process of constructing the boat.

Classe de lutte 

Thursday, March 31 at 6 p.m. Numax

40′ I 1969 I France

Chris Marker, Groupe Medvedkine de Besançon

In March 1967, Chris Marker receives a letter from the People’s Cultural Center, an organization that participated in the occupation of the Rhodiaceta factory in Besançon, requesting his films to be screened at the factory. Marker accepts and travels to the factory. Once there, take the 16mm camera and film the strike. This event gave rise to the film “A bietot j’espere” (1968) but, above all, to the union of workers and filmmakers for the common creation of militant films, under the name of Medvedkine Groups. From the first section, that of Besançon, comes the medium-length film “Classe de lutte”. This work follows the creation of a union section of the CGT in a watch factory in Besançon in which the worker Suzanne Zedet fights to mobilize the rest of the women in the factory.

EL MAR DE LOS PECES. notas sobre terranova

Saturday, April 2 at 8 p.m. Numax

100′ I 1988 I Spain

Ferran Llagostera 

En 1988, el catalán Ferrán Llagostera dirigió “Gran Sol”, una historia ambientada en un barco pesquero que faenaba en los grandes bancos del norte y contaba las historias de los marineros embarcados en él. Tres años después, el director convocó a varios de los protagonistas de esta película (Bisquert, Lucena, Iriondo) para rodar “Terranova”, una historia muy parecida pero inspirada en la novela ” La mar es mala mujer” de Raúl Guerra Garrido.