Good Portuguese People is a documentary that delves into the lives of everyday individuals in Portugal, showcasing their goodness and resilience in the face of adversity. Through personal narratives and intimate interviews, the film offers a heartfelt portrayal of the Portuguese people and their vibrant culture.
In Lisbon 1950, John, 13, decides to invade the neighborhood of prostitutes, nobility and sailors, starting a new stage in his life. Today this neighborhood is reflected in a scattered public debate centered on its night life.
This documentary shows a peculiar vision about theatre in general and O Bando in particular, on the bases of João Brites' directing the showcase of “ENSAIO SOBRE A CEGUEIRA” (essay on blindness), written by José Saramago.
Fiction is never very far from reality. A young man, of Portuguese heritage, decides to do a PhD based on the documentary The Good People of Portugal, a work from 1980, also directed by Rui Simões. This opens the door to a parallel between the reality of the film we see and that of PREC, the moment of the studied documentary and the contemporary world, with the young Michel in between.
In greater Lisbon area, the name Cova da Moura has never been synonymous with well-being, education or prosperity. on the contrary, it has always been associated with the idea of violence, insecurity, danger or, at best, with lack of education and sheer poverty. Cova da Moura Island follows this neighbourhood's daily life, finding the cape verdean reflections in it and searching for the ways in which social exclusion is fought or perpetuated in the lives of its residents.
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.
Peruvian sculptor Silvia Westphalen reencounters friends, places and pieces of work in the company of the director Rui Simões
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.
Documentary by Rui Simões, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of Expo 98, one of the biggest exhibitions that Portugal hosted
The story of a homeless man and his journey.
A documentary filmed during the shooting of Os Maias - (Alguns) episódios da vida romântica, the cinematic adaptation directed by João Botelho of the homonymous novel by Eça de Queirós. Following the cast in and out of scenes of the period film In-Between Scenes takes on its role as an extension to the history of the Maias family, exposing the lies of cinema, moving in between reality and fiction.
40 years later, Rui Simões returns to São Pedro da Cova to exhibit the photographs he took during the directing of São Pedro da Cova's films. From this reencounter a new message to the centralised powers: now it's toxic waste that is threatening people's health. 40 years later. From coal to waste, the fight goes on.
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”.
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.
Documentary about the Therapeutic Theatre Group of Julio de Matos' Psychiatric Hospital.
100,000 Portuguese young men left for war in the countrie's former colonies. In the same period, 100,000 fled the country so as to not be part of that war. What was the former's role in shaping Portugal?
The paths of pain are populated by men and women of all ages, suffering from lack of affection, lack of money, mental problems, alcoholism and drug addiction, or they are simply people who have come to Portugal in search of a life that is a little better. On the other side of this path there is a veritable anthill of volunteers, social welfare workers and different technical assistants who construct and maintain support structures, some of them thinking of better days, and others institutionalising this help without believing that the phenomenon can be cured.
How would you react if you couldn't see? In rehearsing the theatrical adaptation of "Blindness", by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, the company "O Bando" made the experience. The actors lived 24 hours blindfolded in an abandoned hospital. How would you react if you could see again?
Frei Gualter is sent by S. Francisco de Assis to Guimarães around 1213. The devotion to this franciscan friar started to rise and in 1577 the brotherhood of S. Gualter is created. The Gualterianas are celebrated since 1906, the new way of celebration in honor of their patron.