For three decades, Chilean teacher and researcher Alicia Vega held an annual film workshop for children in the outskirts of Santiago de Chile and also in towns in central and southern Chile. This article focuses in the workshop carried out in 1987 in the neighborhood of Lo Hermida during Chile's dictatorial period which was recorded by the filmmaker Ignacio Ag & uuml;ero in the award-winning documentary Cien ni & ntilde;os esperando un tren (One hundred children waiting for a train) (1988). This research aims to explore the methodologies and materials used in classroom based on this film document and the final report of that particular workshop, preserved by the Alicia Vega Foundation. It seeks to recognize in them an approach to children from the horizontality and validation of their experiences as boys and girls coming from vulnerable environments. From this specific approach, we will examine elements common to all the workshops, incorporating the analysis of Vega's latest publication, Cuadernos de Alicia (Alicia's Notebooks) (2021), and Taller de cine para ni & ntilde;os (Children's Film Workshop) (2018). The analysis focuses on three areas: the relationship between childhood and cinema, the game and enjoyment as axes of the workshop, and the proposal of a counter-pedagogy that sustains the teaching method developed by Vega.