Private Project

Factory Lunch

In a working-class town on the outskirts of Lisbon, former garment workers from two once-major factories reunite each year for a “factory lunch.” Filmed at one of these gatherings, Factory Lunch is a six-minute film about memory and solidarity, exploring what remains after factory closures, especially for the women whose lives were shaped by the rise and collapse of foreign corporate industries in the region.

Portuguese title: Almoço da Fábrica. Portuguese-language version available.

  • Liliana Gil
    Director
  • Catarina David
    Director of Photography
    Não Consegues Criar O Mundo Duas Vezes (Co-director, 2017)
  • Tobias Zuniga-Shaw
    Editor
    La Esperanza (Producer, 2026); The Space Between (Director, 2026); ESL: More Than a Language (Producer, 2025)
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Almoço da Fábrica
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 54 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 28, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Portugal, United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Portugal
  • Language:
    English, Portuguese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Liliana Gil

Liliana Gil is a Portuguese anthropologist and filmmaker based in the United States. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from The New School and is Assistant Professor of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University. Her multimodal practice brings together ethnography, feminist and postcolonial studies of technology, and personal storytelling.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Factory Lunch grows out of my long-term ethnographic interests in technology, skill, labor, and knowledge production outside conventional sites of expertise. Expanding my scholarly practice through filmmaking, this project allows me to explore how reunions can function as living archives of women’s stories, social memory, and industrial history.

The film is also close to me personally. My mother was a shop-floor worker at one of the garment factories featured in the film, and she occasionally appears in the footage. She helped me access the annual “almoço da fábrica” (factory lunch), an event where former workers continue to gather decades after the factories closed. I also knew several of the women through my hometown, either as my mother's long-term friends and acquaintances or as relatives of former schoolmates.

By bringing together ethnographic sensibility, personal connection, and documentary form, I approach the film as a portrait of working-class women, their productive and affective lives, and the economic transformations of Lisbon's industrial periphery. My familiarity with this world shapes the film, prompting me to ask how to film a community I know well with care and accountability, while retaining a critical analytical eye.