Doclisboa 2022

Angolan-Portuguese Mónica de Miranda’s The Island is a project with a double life - as an installation piece as well as a film - and originally commissioned as part of an exhibition exploring “Afrodiasporic lives and colonial pasts” at the Autograph Gallery in London. “I have two versions of the film, one for the installation and a visual arts context and one for cinema viewing,” the artist/filmmaker tells BDE.

The sense of laid-back cool that infuses the music of the band Cymande is very much reflected in this engagingly straight-forward documentary that traces the history of the band and details the influence their work had on musicians who came after them, especially in the world of hip-hop where tracks often 20 years old were sampled by major players.

Spanish director Alejandro Vázquez San Miguel profiles his beloved grandparents, who hail from a background steeped in cinema. “It is incredible the life they have had, it fills me with pride and admiration. For me they are undoubtedly a mirror in which to look at myself every day, but not only for their past, but for how they carry that past in the present,” he tells BDE.

Nebulae, the 6-day industry programme of Doclisboa, will lift off Tuesday October 11. “Nebulae shapes itself as a welcoming and informal space that encourages new collaborations and offers training, networking, access to market circuits for new projects, tools and knowledge about innovative tendencies and alternative production models in the domain of non-fiction cinema,” says programme chief Glenda Balucani.

A survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide, the story of Aurora Mardiganin is the harrowing true story of a teenager who, after seeing her family murdered, embarked on a remarkable journey that involved incarceration within a Turkish harem and escape to the US. Her story was eventually re-told in a silent Hollywood film. That she re-lived that story as star of the film makes it all the more chilling. Armenian Academy Award Int'l Feature submission.

The Portuguese doc fest celebrates the past two decades with a special edition and opening/closing sessions held simultaneously in the cities of Lisbon and Porto. The festival closes October 15 with a screening of Love Lights by Acácio de Almeida and Marie Carré, described as “a declaration of love to photography and cinema.”

At the Lisbon awards ceremony held October 13, Clara Jost’s ‘Lettre à Eric Pauwels - ou a Florista e o Cônsul’ picked up the DAFilms awards, valued at €5000 in kind. The DAE Talent Encouragement Award was handed to Beyond Landscape by Etienne de France while te Pitch the Doc Award, given to a project from the guest country France, went to Under the Volcano by Sara Rastegar and Simone Pozzi.

The 2022 programme comprises 281 films, 47 of which are world premieres, and 44 Portuguese films. The 20th edition, running 6-16 October, is dedicated to Jean-Luc Godard. “A free and thought-provoking mind, committed and attentive filmmaker. We owe him the programme we present today and we celebrate his life in each screening,” say organisers.

The Nebulae project follows the journey of indigenous filmmaker Sueli Maxakali and her sister Maisa to Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil), in search of their father, the shaman Luis Kaiowá, from whom they were separated as children during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Co-director Roberto Romero discusses the project with Business Doc Europe.