Discoveries from Portugal World Cinema

Schrödinger's cat may have nothing to do with this. It doesn't matter if, inside the box, the cat is alive, dead or undead. It is a paradox. Still, a film about a Portuguese rock band can begin with an introduction to quantum physics, when some of these basic concepts are used as a starting point for the creative process. The director Ricardo Oliveira recorded the daydreams of recording the third album of originals by Capitão Fausto: Capitão Fausto Têm os Dias Contados. And when in one of the songs - “Corazón” - is heard at a certain point: “… Pontas soltas. Isso é comigo. E por isso queres também ser assim. Pontas soltas. Isso é comigo. Para estragar um disco tenho-me a mim…”, it is clear that the band of Tomás Wallenstein, Manuel Palha, Francisco Ferreira, Domingos Coimbra and Salvador Seabra reached the age of majority and tied such loose ends. More than a diary, it is an experience.

Rio de Janeiro, 45° C, crowded beaches: it’s the summer apocalypse! Daniel, 8 years old, is on holiday on the beach. Experimenting there various worlds, between fantasy and reality. One day, the sea is full of toxic seaweed. Is it the end of summer?

In the center of the rising Temple, the history, myth, ancestral and infrareal combine their rhythms into the cycle life of ritual cinema. Trance and shamanic visions arise into the ancient Teocalli.

A fisherman throws himself into unknown waters, where fish have long gone, wrapped in silent mystery. In this journey without return the landscape sometimes assumes the role of the other and the other soon reveals the reverse or a mirror of him self in the ineluctable solitude of the horizon.

A man has to sell the home he has spent such happy times in. His daughters have grown up and left. Reluctantly, he shows the house for some buyers: a young couple with a kid. When they arrive, in love and so happy, the house owner sees a reflection of himself years before. This unexpected glimpse of his past makes handing over somehow easier to bear…

A father's journey to save his son.

The human body in 5 parts.

Documentary on the Maldoror tour of Portuguese alternative rock band Mão Morta.

A film about rural houses in the interior of the Algarve, showing the relationship between the present and memories evoked in the intimacy of the home. Working architecture from the "social imaginary", focusing on how homes were and are lived.

Martian Whores is an unusual short film that transports us to a world far alternative.

A documentary about nightwatchers in Recife middle-class buildings.

In this love story, a young couple faces an uncertain future between Africa and Europe. When they reunite in Lisbon, sharing a house with other immigrants, farness and closeness will test their relationship.

Variations around the texts of the poet Al Berto (1948-1997). In Al Berto´s work, fiction and autobiography converge into a register of reciprocal contamination – as well as lyricism and narrativity. The poetry served Al Berto as a register and memory aid. Therefore, the view is so important in this work: the act of looking confuses itself here with the writings. Thefore, because Al Berto´s poetry is another way of looking, it calls, requests other images that complement the comprehension of the writings, or if they oppose it, then in this opposition, bring new meanings to the reading.

"Thoughts on the moon, feet on the road, eyes on others": António Coimbra de Matos revolutionized psychoanalysis.

A two parts making of documentary, following José Augusto Silva and his film crew during the shooting of a university short film called Castelo.

Bêka & Lemoine continue their Homo Urbanus series of films about various world cities and their inhabitants, this time exploring the humans of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital.

The "first Azorean film" (as the press called it at the time) was made in Angra do Heroísmo. It was an initiative of the company Foto-Cinema Açores, directed by António Luís Lourenço da Costa, a native of Terceira and better known as "photographer Lourenço". The film, called Documentário Terceirense, is an urban documentary about the city of Angra.

A vertical dance piece about the end of a relationship and the complexity of emotions involved in a breakup. Vertical dance is used as a metaphoric aesthetic where the dancer's relationship with gravity generates tension as they navigate the difficulties of dealing with change, the conflict between, the fear of falling and the desire to fly. The poetry of suspended intimacy and physicality is born, expressing the balance between closeness and isolation, the emptiness of the end and the struggle for acceptance. Negotiating this poetic reality, we return to being with the other in their absence through the ghosts of the past and the inability to listen. Listen is a vertical dance performance that explores the sense of vulnerability while negotiating with reality.

The reality that surrounds us is an intense and increasingly dense sensorial repetition. In this film, synchronization and desynchronization alternate in a mesmerizing way, in a textural atmosphere.

A screenwriter tries to write an idea for a film, but the writing cursor escapes the computer screen.

While they are preparing for their moving, Bruna and Giovanna remind some moments of their relationship.

A scientist has to put his own life on the line to prove that destiny doesn’t always lie in the future.

Somewhere between fiction and reality, a touching story questions the cause of things.

Olympic Favela portrays two families who are forced to give up their homes, and leave their favela communities near the construction site of the newly built Olympic Park as Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

In the course of a movie that deteriorates within itself, a woman is faced with the corruption of her cognitive system.

Documentary about the inspired Portuguese pianist and composer António de Lima Fragoso (1897-1918), who died at a very young age (21), victim of the Spanish flu. Includes some of his compositions, as well as several testimonials about his life and work.

A young woman lives a blend of reality and fantasy, actively participating in the games of the wealthy and carefree youth of São Paulo/Guarujá. In love with a Portuguese actor, she envisions a great romantic relationship.

On April 9, 1968, the Republican Nuno Simões (1894-1976) was honored by the Municipality of Famalicão, being assigned the insignia of the Great Officer of the Order of Benemerence. Two teams from Cultura Filmes, a Commercial Society of Cinematographic Productions in Lisbon, under the direction of Ricardo Malheiro, a cinematographic coverage of this event for the "Jornais Associados" of Brazil. They completed their work, various environments of the village and the municipality of Famalicão, and also some details of the "folates fair" - Tells us the newspaper "Estrela da Manhã" a few days after the event.

During the first world war, many women took over the factories as their men went to war. Carmo, a young and smart lady, fights her way through misery as she searches for a better life.

From 2000 to 2007, Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona worked on the staging of Euclides da Cunha's epic book, Os Sertões, which describes the 19th Century War of Canudos in the Brazilian "sertão," lead by Antônio Conselheiro. The final result was a pentalogy of plays. This forth play deals with the cause of the war, when a judge from Juazeiro stopped a shipment of wood that was paid for from being delivered for the construction of the New Church of Canudos. Three expeditions were sent by the National Army and defeated, the last one commanded by the famous Colonel Moreira César. The Army faced the humiliation of soldiers deserting and running away, and the impaling of Colonel Tamarindo. He ended up being the main character in a macabre installation on the road to Canudos, created by the Jagunços (thugs from the sertão) and the Mandrakes to intimidate new expeditions.

Through succeeding childhood photos, a girl begins to remember her personality, which in contrast to her sister’s, already strayed from assigned gender roles. The narration is addressed to her mother, as if attempting to establish a communication between different universes. The camera follows as the girl, now a teenager, enjoys herself accompanied by her friend and other night characters in the village, breaking gender and sexuality conventions, where the freedom of the body, and consequently of the soul, entails lightness.

This is an intriguing avant-garde look at what motivates the leisurely classes in Portugal, for better or worse, by director Manoel de Oliveira. Set in a spacious country home peopled with a wide-ranging cast of characters, the drama begins as the friends of a widow come to console her on the loss of her husband. But at one point, the widow goes upstairs, encounters her husband, and is faced with his accusations about the past. This event and others provide the means of revealing the petty, self-serving, egocentric, and romantic pursuits of the melange of people in the house. - Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A two-disc set with almost SIX HOURS of footage and special features. Featured artists and groups included: Hip Pickles, who put on an incredible set of percussion ensemble virtuosity; Nathaniel Townsey, with a very soulful trio; jazz drummer Matt Wilson and his trio; a burning set by Steve Smith and Vital Information; Mike Portnoy with his Beatles Tribute band and with Dream Theater; the brilliant percussionist Airto Moreira; an incredible drum duo from Holland called the Drumbassadors; great sets by NIck D'Virgilio and Antonio Sanchez, and capped by an amazingly funky set by Shawn Pelton and House of Diablo. Special DVD Features include, Mike Portnoy rehearsal footage, Stick Tricks with Steve Smith and the Drumbassadors, a Photo Gallery, and more.

The soccer field, a meeting point for playtime in the Lagarteiro neighborhood, becomes a stage for four children. Seated in the stands, they tell, act out, and participate in their own stories, in a constant game of humor and provocation. Developed from daily encounters at the end of the day, between the field and the Cercar-te Association in Lagarteiro, the film constructs a collective perspective of the children on the neighborhood, its places, and the time shared in community.