This chapter argues that under certain conditions, a filmmaker can be considered an intellectual and film itself an intellectual enterprise. In specific historical contexts, a filmmaker performs an intellectual role when articulating and communicating ideas and visions in the conscious attempt to influence public discourse. As in the case with other crafts, this complicates the boundaries between the intellectual and the professional, the expressive artist and the activist. Interpreting the “intellectual” as a performative role calls attention to social context as much as to formal qualifications. The argument proceeds as follows: step one defines the intellectual, step two specifies the historical context, step three illustrates this through the example of the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.