María Barea

María Barea began as a film producer in the 1970s alongside Luis Figueroa and the Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés, with whom she learns the trade. In the same decade, with Figueroa, she founds Pukara Cine, a production company, with which they create, amongst other films Los Perros Hambrientos (1976) and Yawar Fiesta (1979). In 1982, she co-founds the Chaski Group with Stefan Kaspar, Alejandro Legaspi, Fernando Barreto and Fernando Espinoza. Later, together with Micha Torres, she founds the first collective of women filmmakers of Peru: Warmi Cinema and Video. Her films, which blur the lines between documentary and fiction, show the commitment and links she cultivated with women from grassroots organisations, domestic workers, and campesinas. Barea’s audiovisual work began being preserved in 2022 thanks to Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (San Sebastián, Spain) and a grant won in the National Competition for Audiovisual Preservation Projects- DAFO- of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

The bio-filmografía of María Barea is available on the online archive ‘Rebeldes y Valientes’ co-ordinated by Gabriela Yepes.