Lumpen Crew: Underground Rumblings (Lumpen Crew: Diálogos Subterráneos)
Santiago, Chile. As mass student protests roil the country, Lumpen Crew, a collective of young hip-hop activists, begin to organize as a political force. As the movement progresses, state repression intensifies. A young labor leader with ties to Lumpen Crew is assassinated and the collective disbands. However, the group’s music and political commitment will mark an entire generation of young rebels.
Interview with Director/Producer Francisco Núñez Capriles
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
In 2011, a mass social movement occurred in Chile, where hundreds of thousands of high school students occupied their high schools simultaneously for seven months, and the demonstrations continued for two years.
During this time, I became interested in understanding what was driving this movement. As I delved deeper, I discovered an intriguing phenomenon - political hip-hop. This underground youth cultural, political, and artistic movement was both grassroots and influential, with the collective Lumpen Crew at its center. The group was engaging in solidarity activities through hip-hop to support students and included several highly influential youth artists.
I began participating in Lumpen Crew, and the collective continued to deepen its artistic, political, and popular education work. Our documentary captures this experience, which we filmed over the course of almost four years.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
The film captures a moment of creative, political, and collective virtuosity that is both inspiring and thought-provoking. The documentary offers an intimate and up-close view of the process as it unfolds, allowing you to become fully immersed in the experience of these young people fighting for their ideals with all their might, and trying to overcome precarious conditions.
The beauty of their commitment and creativity inspired me to make this film, and I hope that it stays with viewers long after the credits roll.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
On a personal level, the film captures the intimate struggles and creativity of the young people involved in a particular political process, offering a unique glimpse into their lives and motivations. At the same time, the film touches on universal themes–such as the need for fundamental political change, the power of youth activism, and the potential for art, education, and social struggle to effect real change, transcend and resonate beyond national and cultural boundaries.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
We shot the film over nearly five years, and finished editing in 2021, almost ten years after filming started. During this time, the political context in Chile underwent dramatic changes.
In 2019, while we were editing the documentary, a massive social uprising of an unprecedented scale erupted in Chile. This event was both hopeful and tragic, as it presented the possibility of political change but also involved significant human costs, including deaths and human rights violations at the hands of the Chilean state. This uprising solidified our conviction that the documentary had to be completed and released, as the experience of the Lumpen Crew provided valuable explanations and context to help understand the events unfolding on a much larger scale years later.
The 2019 uprising was led by young people whose demands were similar to those of the hip-hop youth portrayed in our film almost a decade earlier. This shifting context impacted the development of the film and undoubtedly influenced how it has been received in Chile and beyond.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The film has been well-received. Despite not having been originally produced for festivals, we have been able to participate in a number of festivals around Latin America and now in Europe.
Additionally, in the context of the cultural opening generated in Chile after the 2019 social uprising, we were able to show the film as part of a high school film club program sponsored by the National Film Archive at schools around the country. This has allowed the film to reach a wider audience, including many young students. We have been surprised to see these issues and topics being discussed in institutional spaces, as they were often banned in the past.
Overall, the response to the film has been very encouraging and we hope that it continues to resonate with audiences.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Yes, for instance, we were informed by some of the organizers of the film program that the documentary is being used to prevent violence in high schools. This is surprising because, when we filmed the documentary ten years ago, we were often labeled as "violent" for being part of a movement that demanded our rights by marching in the streets. It is interesting to see how perceptions and attitudes towards youth activism have changed in the wake of the 2019 protests, and we are glad to see that our film is being used as an educational tool.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We hope to reach a wider audience beyond Latin America and share the story of young Chilean artists and activists who have organized and struggled for their rights. We believe that the themes and issues addressed in our documentary are universal and relevant to people around the world, particularly young people who are fighting for social change. We hope that by increasing visibility on this platform, we can connect with audiences who are interested in these topics and contribute to the global conversation on youth activism and social justice.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We would benefit from the support of a variety of industry professionals, including producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, and journalists. As a self-funded project, we have limited resources for promotion and distribution, so any support we can receive from industry professionals who are passionate about our story and message would be greatly appreciated. We are open to partnerships and collaborations that can help us share our story with new audiences, whether through traditional distribution channels, alternative platforms, or in the press.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
We made this documentary to serve as a popular education tool, so that other young people can learn about and from the experience of the Lumpen Crew. We hope it will inspire other young people to reflect on their collective power and how they can organize for change in their own communities.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
The National Film Archive in Chile produced a study guide for high school students about the documentary, which included a number of thought-provoking questions about our film including:
- Do you agree with the idea that music should have a social or political purpose?
- What importance do you give to music in the national culture and what is its role? How does it reflect our identity?
- What other instances of citizen participation exist apart from suffrage? What validity do you attribute to them, and why?
- How do art and activism intersect in the film and what can we learn from this intersection about creating social change?
Would you like to add anything else?
The generation of artists, activists, and popular educators that is portrayed in the film – which includes rappers such as Anita Tijoux, Portavoz, Funky Flu, Michu MC, Subverso and many others – is the creme-de-la-creme of the political hip-hop world during that period.
It’s also important to note that the film was entirely self-funded. We were only able to make it with the support and collaboration of everyone who participated in and around Lumpen Crew. The hip-hop community has continued to support the film and our distribution efforts, which has been extremely fulfilling.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I relocated to California six years ago due to family reasons, and I've just completed production on my second feature documentary titled Fantastic Negrito: Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? The film follows the journey of the iconoclastic triple Grammy-winning musician from Oakland, California. It premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2022, and it has recently received the PAFF Executives' Best Documentary Feature award at the 31st Pan African Film Festival. The film will be screened at festivals throughout the United States, and hopefully, internationally over the year.
Interview: April 2023
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Lumpen Crew: Underground Rumblings (Lumpen Crew: Diálogos Subterráneos)
Santiago, Chile. As mass student protests roil the country, Lumpen Crew, a collective of young hip-hop activists, begin to organize as a political force. As the movement progresses, state repression intensifies. A young labor leader with ties to Lumpen Crew is assassinated and the collective disbands. However, the group’s music and political commitment will mark an entire generation of young rebels.
Length: 52:00
Director: Francisco Núñez Capriles
Producer: Ana Fox-Hodess and Carlos Pino Hidalgo
Writer: Francisco Núñez Capriles
About the writer, director and producer:
FRANCISCO NÚÑEZ CAPRILES is a Chilean filmmaker and cultural worker based in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2016. With a filmmaker's eye and a historian´s awareness, Francisco´s work acutely explores memory, cultural heritage, human rights, and environmental struggles in marginalized communities. His most recent documentary feature film, Fantastic Negrito: Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, about the acclaimed Oakland-based musician, premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2022 and received the PAFF Executives' Best Documentary Feature award at the 31st Pan African Film Festival in February 2023. His first feature-length documentary, Underground Rumblings (Diálogos Subterráneos), which follows an influential collective of young political hip-hop artists in Chile during the 2011-2012 student protests, premiered in December 2021.
Key cast: Andi Ferrer AKA Portavoz, Michelle Parra AKA Michu MC, Pablo Parra AKA Funky Flu, José Antonio Palma AKA Réplika, Natalia Ruiz AKA Sátira
Looking for: sales agents, distributors, journalists, film festival directors, producers and buyers
Facebook: Francisco Nuñez
Instagram: @francisconunezcapriles, @dialogos_subterraneos
Website: francisconunezcapriles.com/dialogos-subterraneos-1
Funders: Self-funded
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
Our film is showing at the Hip Hop Cine Fest in Rome, May 1-14