Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal

1977 / USA, Portugal / English, Portuguese / Color / 89 min / 16mm

Directors, Script, Photography, Editing: Robert Kramer, Philip Spinelli
Producers: Barbara Stone, David Stone
Production Company: New York Cinema Co.
Source: Cinemateca Portuguesa

Scenes was conceived as an essay on the political trials in Portugal after the April revolution with particular reference to the Movement for Popular Power. It was shot from 1974 to 1976, and a prologue and an epilogue were added in 1978.

“Our project wasn’t to tell ‘the Portugal Story.’ We offered scenes from the class struggle in Portugal, glimpses that were not the usual ones since Class Struggle is not an ordinary starting place for a movie. A violently fragmented montage of images interacts with a cool, imperturbable analytic text: in a way the conflict between the two is the subject of the movie.”

—Robert Kramer (Festival Cinema Giovani 1997)