Saramago: Documentos

Viva Portugal

October 1975 •German

Documentary on the Portugese Carnation Revolution and the following processes of self-organisation in military, factories, argicultural cooperatives and municipalities.

Amour de vivre

May 2010 •French

An account of the brief life of the writer Albert Camus (1913-1960), a Frenchman born in Algeria: his Spanish origin on the isle of Menorca, his childhood in Algiers, his literary career and his constant struggle against the pomposity of French bourgeois intellectuals, his communist commitment, his love for Spain and his opposition to the independence of Algeria, since it would cause the loss of his true home, his definitive estrangement.

O Regresso

April 1989 •Portuguese

"O Regresso" is a documentary featuring renowned Portuguese actor Ruy de Carvalho as he returns to Macau after a 10-year absence. Directed to mark the 10th anniversary of his visit, the film captures Ruy de Carvalho revisiting key locations across the city, reflecting on the cultural and social transformations that Macau underwent in the lead-up to its handover from Portuguese to Chinese administration in 1999. Blending personal memories with the evolving landscape, the documentary offers a nostalgic look at Macau's unique blend of Portuguese and Chinese heritage, seen through the eyes of one of Portugal’s most beloved actors.

Alvaro Cunhal

January 2005 •Portuguese

A personal biography of the leader of the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party) seen through the eyes of those who were close to him and those who studied his trajectory and thought.

One Voice

June 2016 •Portuguese

A documentary about portuguese punk/hardcore scene in Portugal.

The Genius and the Boys

June 2009 •English

D Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. He was a star of the scientific world. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. His adoptions were hailed as wonderful fatherly beneficence. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile. Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind like Gajdusek's lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations? (Storyville)

Três Realizadoras Portuguesas

March 2021 •Portuguese

A Aldeia mais Portuguesa de Portugal

Invalid date •Portuguese

Body-Buildings

March 2021 •Portuguese

A Terra Faz o Homem

October 2022 •Portuguese

As Pedras e o Tempo

March 1961 •Portuguese

Documentary short film on the city of Évora, Portugal. Usually regarded as the first film of the Portuguese New Wave.

Trash River

Invalid date •Portuguese

River Lis runs polluted through Leiria. It's been 50 years since the first pig farm was installed in the region. Since then, people have lived with the consequences of countless crimes against the environment and a shocking lack of justice. The children that remember when the water was clean, now grandparents, share their story of resistance and fight against pollution.

Alma Anciana

October 2024 •Portuguese

Three juxtaposing stories taking place in Portugal, Austria and Cuba create an intimate and poetic portrait of the daily lives and struggles of the elderly in an unstable world, seen through the eyes of their grandchildren.

10 de julho

July 2017 •French

I Invite You to My Execution

October 2019 •French

As Russian writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) thinks it is impossible that his novel Doctor Zhivago is published in the Soviet Union, because it supposedly shows a critical view of the October Revolution, he decides to smuggle several copies of the manuscript out of the country. It is first published in 1957 in Italia and the author receives the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, which has consequences.

Basin of Souls

October 2024 •Portuguese

Rua de Santa Catarina, a street that was formerly home to dozens of local businesses and hundreds of Porto residents, now sees a crowd of tourists attracted by the cheap, disposable amenities that are popping up everywhere at once. Gentrification has decontextualized Portuguese culture, rendering the landscape uncanny. The Basin Woman, a symbol of the female workers of the historic Bolhão Market, is chased down by seagulls in the midst of this transcendent chaos.

Tongóbriga (El espíritu de un lugar)

Invalid date •Spanish

Pérola do Atlântico

January 1937 •Portuguese

Short film narrating the luxuries of Madeira.

Retratação

October 2019 •English

Fernando Lemos, a Portuguese surrealist artist, fled from dictatorship to Brazil in 1952 searching for something better. The movie follows the last moments of his journey and the struggle for the preservation of his legacy, trying to fulfill his last great desire: to be a good dead man.

Pretty song

December 2015 •French

Fragments from a portrait of Jean-Louis Costes - sincere artist, versatile designer, poet of excess -, a man forever atoning his anguish through singing, performance, drawing and writing...