Length: 81'
Director: Colectivo dos Trabalhadores da Actividade Cinematográfica
Colaboration: Acácio de Almeida, José de Sá Caetano, José Fonseca e Costa, Eduardo Geada, António Escudeiro, Mário Cabrita Gil, Fernando Lopes, António de Macedo, João Moedas Miguel, Glauber Rocha, Elso Roque, Henrique Espírito Santo, Artur Semedo, Fernando Matos Silva, João Matos Silva, Manuel Costa e Silva, Luís Galvão Teles, António da Cunha Telles
Editing: Monique Rutler
Production: Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Produção de Cinema e Televisão/Instituto Português de Cinema
Arms and the People (Arms and the People) is the most famous film of the Portuguese Revolution. Shot in the week between the 25th April and the 1st May, 1974, it brings together the mass demonstrations and the speeches of Mário Soares and Álvaro Cunhal, the release of the political prisoners and the street interviews made by the Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha. Directed by the Collective of Workers of the Cinematographic Activity, it is a priceless historical document, made on the fly by several Portuguese filmmakers and technicians. An inescapable part of European militant cinema, Arms and the People is also a manifest on the relation between cinema and politics, not only as a mere diffuser of the events, but mainly as an active participant of the revolutionary act.
This DCP results from the 4K digitization of the original 35mm camera negative conserved by Cinemateca. Digital grading was made using a distribution print as a reference. The sound comes from the optical soundtrack of a distribution print conserved by Portuguese Cinemateca.