Doclisboa '23

The new feature documentary Fire In The Mud unfolds in Unal, a rice producing village in Guinea-Bissau where the elders still have strong memories of the colonial war, lasting from 1963 to1974, in which the country fought for its independence from Portugal. But for the village’s youth, matters are somewhat different. “To them, the war was like a narrative from the past, like a fairy tale, a violent one, but really lost in the past,” Barroca tells BDE.

The project development lab will take place between October 19 and 25 during Nebulae, the industry programme of Doclisboa (Lisbon, 19-29 October). This year, 354 projects from 20 Ibero-American countries and Italy applied and 15 were selected (12 film projects and three research and criticism projects). Ten countries are represented and the projects are all at different stages of production.

In his new film, Nôs Dança (a world premiere earlier this week in Doclisboa’s Heartbeat section) Rui Lopes da Silva accompanies his friend, dancer and choreographer António Tavares, on an epic journey across the Cape Verde islands. “The idea of the film began at a New Year’s party at the house of a friend. During that night, we danced all the styles of dance of Cape Verde,” the director tells BDE.

Prolific Canadian filmmaker Olivier Godin’s documentary shows visual artist and choreographer Adam Kinner and his dancers at work recreating the 1957 ballet work Suite Canadienne. “I had never done a documentary before. I thought, OK, let’s try things,” Godin tells BDE of his freewheeling approach to the task. It helped that Kinner gave the director ‘carte blanche’ to approach the film in any way he saw fit.

Fest director Miguel Ribeiro talks to Business Doc Europe about the upcoming edition of Doclisboa which presents 250 films from 42 countries, including 35 world premieres and 39 Portuguese films. “We see documentary as a way to employ the tools of cinema to take us on a quest of discovery. And for this, you need to have freedom for production, and freedom to think, to question and to reflect.” The festival opens October 19 with Wang Bing's Man in Black and closes with Leonor Teles’ Baan.

“I started the film 20 years ago,” Ricardo Leite says of his feature documentary, whose full title reads ‘Lucefece: Where there is no vision, the people will perish.’ At film school, the director was part of a collective which made experimental shorts - and the new doc has links to the work he was doing then. “I saw this film was a way to find my own path, my own language, but still with references from the school.”

UK doccer Marc Isaacs talks to Business Doc Europe about his multi-layered new film set in the sleepy British town of Thaxted. It’s a film that involves ghosts and Morris dancing and a Chinese filmmaker visiting the town to find to the subject of her next film. “I was already thinking about Englishness, mythology and the way that the country over the last few years has desperately been trying to solidify some sense of itself,” Isaacs reflects.

In International Comp, the City of Lisbon Award went to la tierra los altares by Sofía Peypoch (Mexico). The RTP International Comp Jury Award was awarded to the Belgian production Terril, by Jorn Plucieniczak. In Portuguese Comp, the HBO Max Award for Best Film went to As Melusinas à Margem do Rio by Melanie Pereira, while the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores Award was handed to Memories of a Perfect Day by Davina-Maria El Khoury.

Producer and programmer Paula Astorga was unveiled October 29 as the new director of Doclisboa International Film Festival. Astorga directed Mexico’s National Cinematheque from 2010 to 2014, where she was in charge of its ‘complete renovation.’ Former director Miguel Ribeiro, who has worked at Lisboa for 11 years in various capacities, leaves to coordinate and program the cultural space Casa do Comum.