A People’s Masquerade: The 15-M’s Cinematic Negotiations Around the Place and Time of ‘Real’ Democracy

Abstract The 15-M movement was inextricably linked to the iconic occupation of the Puerta del Sol, where a ‘real’ democracy was demanded. Yet the demand was not so much in response to years of democratic pretence as it was a negotiation around how a new democratic identity would be performed. It was the performance of a demos that negotiated its popular substance (the ‘we’ in ‘we the people’) in situ and, more critically, through filmic representation. Thus, films on the movement provide an opportunity to examine how popular authenticity was negotiated between the movement’s claims to realness and its ersatz other.