Between the Scenes

In 'Os Fotocines', an intimate portrait of the war is built with those who lived it. This documentary feature film aims to investigate who were those, that in the Portuguese colonial war, lived with the simultaneous responsibility of fighting, defending their own lives and also, of permanently recording that same collective mission, through cameras and shooting, as well as screening.

The history of Portugal since the Republican revolution of 1910 to the revolutionary period following the military coup of April 24, 1974, recounted with a marxist perspective, using historic sound and film documents. The title refers to a trilogy of values proclaimed by Salazar, prime minister of Portugal in 1936.

Documentary about the old people living in the highest floors of old buildings with no lifts, in Lisbon.

Documentary about the life of the lyric singer Natália de Andrade.

Live concert of the Irmãos Catita and friends at the Ritz Club, in 1996, Very Sentimental Show. Includes bonus concerts: Cinearte 1993, and Queima das fitas Coimbra 1994. The roots of the Catitas' spirit are buried deep down the origin of time. Spread like Polibas around the World, starting from its own center of balance, elsewhere in the elevator of Grand Hotel Curia, raised by the "madrastas", a kind of so-called religious female-educator, spread amoung the Christian World, and whose main educational tool is the stick, the Catita brothers became early "stars" within the various orphanage they frequented, from French Polynésie to San Marino's Republic, through Casa Pia and the various holiday camps of the former New State, today refered to as Old State.

This documentary follows a group of habitants from Cova da Moura neighborhood into a journey to Cape Verde, to celebrate St. John festivities. Recovering the rituals and rhythms of these festivities, the cape verdean people living in that neighborhood near Lisbon, try to recover their roots and transmit it to their children.

Benjamin is trying to raise money through informal exchanges so that he can organize his son’s overdue birthday. Filimone is visiting his family between war missions, trying to be present at the growth of his three daughters. Eulália is a mother of six and gives birth to a new premature baby. Some days after, she has to come back to her job in a landfill.

With this trip, an intergenerational sharing begins: with Portugal present as a backdrop, the director and a little daughter wander as if in question, trying to understand the country of today.

Private Tango is the result of complicity between the interpreters and the camera. The movements initially choreographed adapt and reinvent themselves in an improvisation where the camera also becomes her interpreter.

Built in the New State to control the overseas students, the House of the Students of the Empire, situated in Lisbon with delegations in Coimbra and Porto, was fundamental in the fight for independence of the Portuguese colonies. Future leaders of the Liberation Movement, like Agostinho Neto and Amílcar Cabral, passed through this meeting point. The documentary The House restores the memories of the testimonies of the survivors of the House, fictionalizing in parallel excerpts of Pepetela´s “The Generations of Utopia”.

Fernando Lemo's world is fiercely stripped of any external logic, as Jorge de Sena once said. His artistic gesture blends with his own existence, where the poetic principle comes first. And with the light that insists to come through the half-closed door, the fear of life is vanquished in the battle fought with death. Thus, each word is born within another word and each image within another image. Out of how many knives is love made, the poet wonders?

Private Property is built of a thick matter from the mixture of cement, desire, past dreams, lies, lime, perverse games, pain, a hidden camera, water, passing time, blood and imminent danger.

Documentary about "Madrugada" show: On the eve of 25th of April, 1999, took place at Praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, the performance of "Madrugada", a creation of the Theatre O Bando, commissioned by the Lisbon city council to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the "April Revolution".

In Mozambique, Izidine, a young police inspector, is called to investigate the murder of Vasto Excelêncio, the director of a nursing home built within the walls of an old colonial slave fortress. He is shocked when all the elderly residents, as well as the head nurse, Marta, confess to the murder. Each one has motive, given Excelêncio’s abusive behavior. With only a week to solve the case, the detective slowly unravels truths about the murder, Mozambique's colonial past, and himself.

This work deals with seduction, fights, power games, surrender and rejection, fear, loneliness and eternal love.

Documentary by Rui Simões, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of Expo 98, one of the biggest exhibitions that Portugal hosted