Over the course of nine days, two of them ‘inactive’ due to the restrictions for this weekend, resulting from the state of emergency in response to the pandemic, the event takes place mainly at the Teatro Municipal Rivoli, to which Passos Manuel and Planetário do Porto, which hosts special sessions. A photography exhibition is on display at The Cave gallery.
Nine works compete in the international section, from Portugal, France, South Africa, Laos, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Iraq.
“A Nossa Terra, O Nosso Altar” is the Portuguese representative, a documentary made by André Guiomar, which portrays the community of Bairro do Aleixo, in Porto, at first, in 2013, and then in 2019, portraying the slow process demolition of the towers and subsequent relocation.
The Brazilian Caco Ciocler has the contest “Partida“, in national debut, with Teboho Edkins portraying “the emerging relationship between China and Africa”, in a “western” documentary “, can be read in the synopsis of the film, shot in South Africa.
Kiyé Simon Luang presents “Goodbye Mister Wong“, while Yohei Yamakado filmed in France “Amor Omnia“, in which “a circle of friends practices the recitation of the text ‘Bucólicas’, by Virgílio.
With three debate sessions at the Forum do Real, the festival’s theme, “A Cidade do Além”, is also reflected in a section dedicated to it, with films by filmmakers like Pedro Costa, Chris Marquer and António Campos, who looks at the transformations of cinematographic representation of cities, and the very transformation of this concept, throughout the 20th century.
In the Cinema Falado section, Portuguese cinema has an ‘internal’ competition, between short and feature films, documentaries and fiction, by names like Paulo Abreu, the Angolan Fradique or the Brazilian Moara Passoni.
The Angolan film “Air Conditioning” debuts in Portugal, in a cycle that also includes, out of competition, the work “The Movement of Things”, by Manuel Serra, premiered in 1986 and which focuses on stories of everyday life and silence , in a northern village.
There are sessions for families, a cycle dedicated to Spanish cinema, another one for the first works of film school students, a ‘carte blanche’ given to the Galician director Eloy Domínguez Serén, who chose three Swedish films, and Transmission, dedicated to music.
In all, six prizes are awarded, one for a workshop, including one for Portuguese cinema, another for students and another for emerging authors.
The jury includes professors, researchers, curators and filmmakers António Preto, Erika Balsom and Ramiro Ledo Cordeiro, in the international competition, and Eduarda Neves, Inês Moreira and Sérgio Dias Branco, in the Cinema Falado section.
The opening of the festival, on Friday, falls to the North American Spike Lee, with the national premiere of a film about the album “American Utopia”, by David Byrne. The closing is for the award-winning works, after Sam Pollard’s “MLK / FBI” was shown, another 2020 work on the surveillance carried out by the FBI against activist Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tickets for in-room sessions cost five euros, subject to discounts, while for the ‘online’ version, which is available until December 12, the general pass costs 12 euros and each film, for individual purchase, charges from one euro.
