The ongoing collaborative research project around the Mostra Internacional de Cinema de Intervenção, launched in September 2025, announces two new international iterations in April 2026. The series of events is a collaboration between Doc’s Kingdom and the Paranational Cinema – Legacies & Practices project at the University of Zurich. 

In May 1976, the Mostra brought together more than 150 militant films from around the world in postrevolutionary Portugal. Despite being one of the first international gatherings entirely dedicated to militant cinema in Europe, only scant traces remain of it.

I.

WHO WAS AFRAID OF INTERVENTION CINEMA? 

Kino Xenix, Zürich, Switzerland

21 April 2026

Two films which were part of the Mostra’s programme offer entry points to specific aspects of the historical event: the shift from representation to self-representation, the use of reenactment as a formal strategy, and the capacity of cinema to intervene in oppression and its structural causes—many of which persist to this day.

This programme is presented by Brigitta Kuster (Humboldt University Berlin), Raquel Schefer (LIRA, Sorbonne Nouvelle University), Philip Widmann (University of Zurich), and Stefanie Baumann (Doc’s Kingdom). 

Programme

First session, 6.30pm

Barronhos: Quem Teve Medo do Poder Popular?

(Barronhos: Who Was Afraid of People’s Power?)

by Luís Filipe Rocha (PT, 1976, 53’)

>> The screening will be preceded by a short presentation of the Mostra Internacional de Cinema de Intervenção (1976), enriched by a selection of archival materials. 

Second session, 8.30pm

Nationalité : Immigré

(Nationality: Immigrant)

Sidney Sokhona (FR, 1975, 70’)

>> The screening will be introduced by Raphaël Grisey.

More information here.

Support

Programme supported by the UZH’s Global Outreach Fund as part of a cooperation between the SNSF-funded project Paranational Cinema—Legacies and Practices at the Department of Film Studies / University of Zurich, the Department of Cultural History and Theory / Humboldt University Berlin, and Doc’s Kingdom. 

II.

WHAT IS NEEDED

EMAF European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Germany

24—25 April 2026

What Is Needed explores the festival that, taking place in Portugal in 1976, represented a unique attempt to connect different liberation and emancipation movements as well as films from the Global North and South. Fifty years later, the programme examines the possibilities of “intervention” into the institutions of a liberal, democratic, postfascist society. 

Programme

First session — Friday 24.04, 1pm 

Applied Magnetics – O Início de uma Luta 

(Applied Magnetics – The Start of a Struggle)

Cinequipa (PT, 1975, 43’)

>> The screening will be followed by a conversation with Ana Algarra Navarro, Raquel Schefer and Philip Widmann.

Second session — Saturday 25.04, 3.30pm 

Deux festivals à Grenoble 

(Two festivals in Grenoble)

Ateyyat Al-Abnoudi (FR, 1974, 29’)

>> The screening will be followed by a conversation with Stefanie Baumann, Raquel Schefer, Cecilia Valenti and Philip Widmann (in English).

More information here.

Acknowledgements

Alejandro Alvarado, Catherine Ruelle, Dina Duque, Joana de Sousa, Léa Morin, Manuel Mozos, Octávio Espírito Santo, Teresa Paixão

In memoriam 

Concha Barquero