ABSTRACT
On 12 February 2014, Rene Regina, a lay cinema actress, passed away at her home in Saladillo, a provincial town in the Pampas, about 180 km west of Buenos Aires. Her body was brought almost immediately to another town, 25 de Mayo, where she had relatives, and her death passed virtually unnoticed by the public in Saladillo, being mentioned only in passing in some online news portals. Regina lived perhaps in reclusion from her immediate neighbours and the surrounding community, yet her death prompted a swift reaction from ‘‘Cinema with Neighbours’’ (Cine con Vecinos, hereafter CCV), to which she had belonged, and for which she played lead roles in several features. This chapter explores the phenomenon of CCV, and the specific methods it uses to produce participatory cinema. CCV is independent cinema in that it is ‘‘independent’’ from the productions of commercial cinema or the film industry of Argentina, but it is traditional and mainstream in its genres and form.
