By the mid 1960s most of Africa was independent but Portugal clung to her overseas territories driving independence movements to  resort to  guerrilla warfare.

Behind the Lines was shot in 1970 with the co-operation of the Mozambican liberation movement, FRELIMO, and was the first sync sound documentary on  FRELIMO’s struggle. Filmed with the guerrillas in a liberated area of Niassa province, the film  focuses on the organization of civilian life: mobilization,  governance, agricultural production, health and education.   Archive footage is used to situate the war within the wider context of Portuguese colonialism and South African Apartheid.   Shown on TV in Scandinavia, Holland and Eastern Europe and widely at meetings in  UK, USA and elsewhere, it helped make the struggle known.

Length 50 minutes.

Directed by Margaret Dickinson

Produced with help from the British solidarity movement, CFMAG.

Digital restoration of 2010.  Docanema retrospective 2010; Doclisboa 2011; Cinema du Réel 2012.

The event is co-organised with the group CITCOM – Cidadania, Comparatismo, Crítica, Modernidade, (Pós)Colonialismo / CEC FLUL.