From the Neighbourhood

Zé Pedro, the legendary guitar player of Xutos e Pontapés, is the greatest name in Portuguese rock ‘n’ roll. He was its main driving force, not only as the founding guitar player of the greatest Portuguese band ever, but also by promoting the genre as a music critic, radio broadcaster and owner of Johnny Guitar, a mythic club and concert hall in Lisbon where so many bands took their first steps.

Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, an ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-the-Cross-style tests.

A large, time-worn house sits on a towering, untouchable pedestal. Ressaca Bailada – Filme Concerto follows individuals as they navigate their relationship with freedom, unity, and isolation within this setting. Celebrating tradition while confronting and questioning it, all against a backdrop of music that shapes the journey.

A cabaret owner tries to keep his club from being taken over by the powers that be.

An American writer visits the old Portuguese town of Guimarães for a lecture on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. What would seem like a nice little trip goes terrible wrong when his own paranoia takes over the events that follow... or maybe not.

A study about memory, an example of obsession or a prison in itself. Rodrigo chooses to submerge himself in a memory, regardless of what got him there or what might happen. Within this dream Rodrigo is happy. When confronted by the memory itself we are left with a question, is this a cry of victory, or the acclamation of defeat?

This film celebrates the 70th anniversary of Celeste Rodrigues’ career as a fado singer. It is an intimate and sincere portrait of the artist, narrated in first person and driven by the fondness of the director, her grandson. The archive images reveal the modernity of her fado style. With 59 albums recorded, Amália’s younger sister, now 94, continues to sing and make fado a living force.

Lazarim’s shrovetide is one of the most genuine and ancient carnival celebrations in Portugal. O Diabo do Entrudo explores the fascinating caretos and their elaborate costumes, enabling not only an overview of the carnival celebrations, but also a reflexion on gender dynamics and on the continuation of ancient customs handed down between generations in an ancient Portuguese village. One highlights the way in which rituals and traditions remain alive and are passed on from generation to generation, providing an intimate and rich perspective on the social and cultural changes over time.

In the 1970s, Orlando Jesus was more than just a boxer: he embodied the tough spirit of Lisbon with its neighbourhood gyms, intense nights and marginal figures that shaped a generation. An intimate and imperfect portrait, where the camera captures the gestures and voices that still resist, preserving a time in the process of disappearance, the presence of Orlando Jesus and the Lisbon that shaped him.

It’s a story with many layers. It’s about the painter João Ayres (1921-2001), an artist in transit between Portugal and Africa who became forgotten in the narrative of Modern Art. It’s also a story about his family, who inherited a significant body of work. One of his grandchildren, Diogo Camilo Alves, the narrator, wants to make his grandfather’s art more accessible and has been fighting for its conservation and restoration. It’s also a story about the house that the painter built, where many of his works still reside and where his memory is very much alive.