Inter-generational/disciplinary/class film communities: the process activated by María Barea’s films

Transnational efforts to rewrite the history of film production by women in the Global South have proliferated in the past few decades. A case in point is the historicization, preservation, restitution and activation of María Barea’s films, which an interdisciplinary and intergenerational group of researchers has been conducting since 2015. This article analyses the community-making dynamics of this feminist transnational preservation and recirculation project, an all-encompassing process led by a collective of scholars, archivists and activists, with the crucial participation of the filmmaker. The recovery of these films not only safeguards their materiality but also reaffirms a communal cinema praxis inspired by Barea’s work. The preserved images have taken on a new life in dialogue with contemporary audiences, extending far beyond academic and cinephile circles. In this process, the activities of the group responsible for historicizing and preserving Barea’s work have become community-making devices.