María Barea began her career as a film producer in the 1970s alongside Cusco filmmaker Luis Figueroa and Bolivian Jorge Sanjinés, from whom she learned the craft. In the same decade, she and Figueroa founded Pukara Cine, a production company that produced films such as *Los Perros Hambrientos* (1976) and *Yawar Fiesta* (1979). In 1982, she co-founded Grupo Chaski with Stefan Kaspar, Alejandro Legaspi, Fernando Barreto, and Fernando Espinoza. Later, together with Micha Torres, she founded Warmi Cine y Video, the first collective of women filmmakers in Peru. Her films, which blend documentary and fiction, reflect her commitment to and the connection she has cultivated with women from grassroots organizations, domestic workers, peasant women, and factory workers. His audiovisual work began to be preserved in 2022 thanks to the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (San Sebastián) and the encouragement of the National Competition of Audiovisual Preservation Projects-DAFO-Ministry of Culture of Peru.
