Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

The film tells the story of SAAL, Local Ambulatory Support Service (1974 - 1976), a movement launched after a revolution by a group of architects who responded to the struggle on the street by the poor residents who in the hot summer of 1974 shouted "Housing Yes! Tents ni! ".

Fiery affairs, devouring lust, disastrous jealousy, broken hearts, brutal longing, contempt, rancor, and indifference in lyrics that border on the kitsch and dazzlingly beautiful melodies – these are the exuberantly romantic songs written by Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963). They captivated choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras in the mid-eighties, and two decades later in 2004, GRUPO CORPO celebrated the all-time greatest genius of Cuban music, opening for the first time since 1992 an exception to the house rule that the dance company would only dance to soundtracks especially composed for them. The result is a 38-minute ballet simply called Lecuona, an infatuating sequence of pas-de-deux followed by a single ensemble number created by Rodrigo Pederneiras to twelve aching love songs and one Waltz by the famous composer of Siboney. Lecuona has a singular character among all the other ballets by GRUPO CORPO.

Three friends get together on a nice, warm weekend afternoon, but one of them refuses to take off his shoes. Why?

A flood brings the colonial past back to Caju. The film attempts to understand how the past of a neighborhood remains present in details.

"What was your dream when you were a little child?". That was the question I made to some of my closest friends in need for their truthful answers. Because for me there's no such thing that I am more passionate and amazed about than dreams.

Exposure is to live in a system. Exposure to vibrations. Exposure to vibrating particles. We expose our atmosphere to increased emissions, and it thins and thickens in all the wrong ways, exposing us in turn. We peel back systems and expose. It connotes something missing, a lack of protection. It alludes to a burning a radiation, a fire. A structure crumbles. A structure returns. Expōnēre is Latin for exposure. Expōnēre is Part 2, from the project Come Kingdom Come, which was Part 1. This is no longer about a future apocalyptic. Exponere is the present…imperative, and passive…in a language from the past. It is about survival. It’s about hanging on, to something, even in limbo.

"Women will not be allowed to practice sports incompatible with the conditions of their nature". The decree in force between 1941 and 1983 used to prohibit women from playing football. Decades later, women's football's struggle for space remains a challenge. In the midst of so many stories, “Made in Várzea” shows the lowland games played by women, following the daily lives of two players with very different lives, but with a passion for football as a common link. Yolanda, bus driver and Flávia, beautician, circumvent sexism using sport as a form of liberation.

Documentary exploring the life of the late, famous Portuguese musician, António Variações.

Short film released through the Gestos & Fragmentos platform during the COVID-19 quarantine.

A “non-stop party”, celebrated in night spots, meeting places, places where bodies mingle and people dance, an adventure in the immense loneliness of the world.

A trainee apprentice meets a girl during the crossing the Tagus crossing and they live an adventure of suspicious smiles, misunderstood sentences and occasional robberies.

Being spectators of our own evidence, so that all emotion can be called into question.

Short film based on sambas by Moreira da Silva and Jards Macalé, and on Macalé's arrest by the Brazilin military government in the 1970s, while he was touring with Moreira.

Portrait: Washing machine Man waits for clothes

A shy girl, visiting the park with her protective father, meets another energetic girl. Together they have a whole new adventure discovering things that will leave her forever changed.

The fire’s policy is not the body on flames. The fire’s policy always know what are the flames in a body. The flames are the fire’s policy.

In a scenery of increasing criminalization of marginalized cultural narratives in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), this documentary shows the point of view of an actual carioca Funk DJ about the political and social context in Brazil.

Sandro, a gypsy, travels with his group bringing the corpse of his late father.

Matheus, a young middle class boy goes through great heartbreak and makes several questions about his sexuality and his existence. All these doubts and questions eventually lead him to commit suicide.

In the closed door of a bathroom, a young woman trapped in her everyday life tries to find serenity, a lost time.

An orange journey, from the tree to the glass.

A documentary about how crazy the football fans could be. This sport is much more than 22 men and one ball.

On a winter afternoon. 20 year Henrique tries to call his sister without success. A boy in yellow has difficulties giving a birthday present to Henrique. Between past and present situations, Henrique searches for attention where it doesn't exist.

Telma and Luisa decide to shoot a videodance.

A sound and visual journey through the confusing projections of the protagonist's mind. He is aimless, flirts with suicide and needs help to rebuild his own existence.

Lisbon, 1940s. An accountant works in his office. Behind the desk, a large painting with the old portrait of a woman seems to upset the man.

Portrait of a tannery in Beira Alta and of its workers. The film follows the lives of Carla and Lúcia, the only female workers left after the departure of Patrícia, whose disappearance is the subject of much talk among the workers and serves as a metaphor for the future of the factory after the economic crisis that stormed the country.