Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

Miguel is not a character, Miguel is the representation of uncertainty, discomfort, doubt. The story is guided through the reflection of a young man who seeks representation of his own universe in undefined spaces, people, moments and corporeities, like himself. Exposing an uncomfortable and doubtful body, which wanders between notions of presence and absence in order to find its own definitions and ways of existing, works as a discursive and expository political act of an invisible and undervalued reality.

Two boys who just left high school meet in a party and begin to grow a unique relationship.

Belo Horizonte, 2018. An encounter of bodies that share, each one in its own way, desires, stories, fears and existences, everything with the city in the background. Youngsters formed by different social experiences occupy the city and create their own life narratives.

Iroko is a black trans man and artist who has in his daily life the challenge of meeting society's expectations while trying to deal with his internal conflicts configured in fear, anxiety, panic crisis and depression.

A documentary about the rock n'roll musical wave in Northern Brazilian state of Amazonas during the 90's.

It is a hot summer in August 2016. In this ephemeral sea of unforeseen events, passions, changes, voids, escapes and deceits, Rodrigo – between his personal discoveries and uncertainties about the future – is surprised by the outbreak of a set of fires in Madeira Island. What will happen to him if the wind shifts?

A woman breaks up with her boyfriend. She wants to be alone in her apartment. Methodical and obsessed with organization, she has an scheduled time to cook, exercise and watch TV. However, some unusual events give her the impression that she is no longer alone at home.

Impressions from an afternoon of writing.

The story of an island populated by the weirdest people in the world, where nobody has a job. Pinduca, a Fakir, arrives to the island and becomes a magician, but also begins to lose his sanity.

Brazil and God were the motto. My God! How many Gods were there before? Between life and death, a stricken man elaborates the possibility to overcome. There's a chance to breakthrough by reconnecting with lost principles. This is part three of the "Brasil Profundo"

The short "Paginas Da Loucura", is a psychological horror made by the students of the Academia Internacional de Cinema in São Paulo. The script freely inspired by the short story “A função da Leitura I” by Eduardo Galeano, and tells the story of a young adult Lucia and her elderly uncle Eustácio, that keeps his sick wife suspiciously locked in a room. Her life will change forever when she finds a mysterious old book of evil.

Violeta returns to Brazil after 20 years in Spain. In the country where she was born, she has a meeting marked with a renewal of vows, her remaining family, a new identity and the strangeness of being back in a place that was never her own.

According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham was 100 when his son Isaac was born, and Sara, his wife, was no longer fertile. Isaac was one of three Israeli patriarchs, having died at the age of 180, after a peaceful life in Canaan, which would have been a lot shorter had his father sacrificed him on Mount Moriah as a young man. Fábio Silva revisits this precise famous biblical episode in “The Death of Isaac”, offering an alternative version in which matriarch Sara’s calls for divine intervention were not enough to make Abraham back down from his test of faith and obedience to God.

100 years of the biggest Portuguese sports institution, a century of glory in the world of sports.

Short film by Fernando Lopes, decisive figure of the Portuguese New Wave.

From the ocean, a volcanic island rises into steamy mist. The black rock of the earth stands in sharp contrast to the billowing vapor that hovers and drifts above the surface. A narrator describes how the island’s first inhabitants sought to explain the violent eruption by attributing the devastation to the wrath of angry gods. With breathtaking black-and-white cinematography, this poetic exploration considers the human relationship to this volatile land, where residents live alongside the looming threat of eruption with reverence, fear, and awe. A collection of scenes where dark and light miraculously coexist illuminates both the physical and spiritual landscapes of this extraordinary place, where life endures the perils of the natural world.

In 1927, Luís Wittnich Carrisso, professor at the Coimbra University, travels to Angola to study the local flora. Second episode of a series of 4 documentaries on the Botanical history of Portugal.

The history of the doctor Antonia Campos Xavier, better known as Doctor Baiana, specialized in necropsy of shot. Daughter of rural workers, she remained semi-literate until she was 20 years old.

On our face, the bread we knead, In our mouth, the bread we all are. The sun on the snowy night, From the cold spring to the warm bonfire. The earthworm searches for the earth-hole, The furze surrounds the white birch, In a spiraling life. The cold kept us warm, And a hundred bolts of lightning opened us, We leave sad, yet happy. In three days plus three, plus one that is all. We are three, plus three, plus three, plus three, plus three, plus three, minus one who we all are.

Glaxo Wellcome Anti-Tobacco Commissioned Film. (23 Sec. )

Three friends gather at the local bar, which is closing forever. As time goes by they remember moments of their lives that characterize them and the places they attend.

Nuno Bragança. Author of three novels: "A Noite e o Riso" (The Night and Laughter), "Directa" and "Square Tolstoi." A collection of short stories: "Estação" (Station). And a posthumous novella: "Do Fim do Mundo" (From the End of the World). Screenwriter of "Os Verdes Anos" (The Green Years), the inaugural film of Cinema Novo Português, and co-director, with Gérard Castello-Lopes and Fernando Lopes, of the film "Nacionalidade: Português" (Nationality: Portuguese). A Catholic from a conservative family, he was a member of MAR (Movimento de Acção Revolucionária). He joined the Revolutionary Brigades of Carlos Antunes and Isabel do Carmo while working at Portugal's permanent representation to the OECD. On February 7, 1985, he died at the age of 55 in a hotel room in Lisbon. Nuno Bragança, who was he?

A documentary of the familiar patchwork of more populous districts of Rio de Janeiro.

Documentary about the work and life of António Ole, one of the most notable contemporary artists from Angola.

This documentary portrays the life of young black LGBT+, their experiences and the journey of coming out as LGBT. It includes interviews that detail the daily struggle of growing up in a homophobic and racist society. The purpose is not only address the inherent discrimination among our society, but also highlight the prejudice within the gay community.

The ruins of an abandoned factory and the forgotten artefacts left behind appear in The Laboratory as a visible record of the passage of time and of a fatalistic degradation in which emptiness is an evident sign of the transformation of a utopia into dystopia. The inevitable ephemerality is also the centrepiece in On Remote Places, which, through a succession of desolate landscapes accompanied by a hypnotic soundtrack, evokes and suggests a contemplative sensory environment, around time.

After London Eyes Tour, comedian Rui Sinel de Cordes is back on stage with his seventh solo stand-up comedy show. It is called Memento Mori and, although the title refers to death, this is a show about life and what we make of it. The synopsis also says that "it is another original solo show by a comedian who is not good at writing synopses."

Everything came up with this defiant idea: what if a director followed the first person to come through the door of his house? Luís Vieira Campos did this and found Geni, a strong woman who dreamt of opening her own store at Centro Comercial de Cedofeita, a mythical place of Porto. Between advances and retreats, between the increasing opening of the director and his character, the film reveals the unique portrait of a woman, a neighbourhood - Cedofeita - and the improbable relationships we establish when we least expect it. Luís Vieira Campos proves, with Geni, that cinema is also the "neighbourhood" and its people.

Lesbian couple Teresa and Lena made national news in Portugal when they applied to get married. Leonor Areal's camera follows them, one amid scores of reporters' cameras, as they deal with the denial of their petition, and, more significantly, with the negative fallout the publicity generates. Though seeking equal rights, in the process of being recognizable public figures, the two women and their daughters instead find themselves facing even greater discrimination in housing, work, and school.

Eloísa invites her group of friends to dinner and to spend the night at her house, with the aim of introducing them to Alexandre. The arrival of this stranger threatens the supposed unity between them.