Following the Portuguese government’s announcement 13 January of a renewed lockdown and suspension of cultural activities, Doclisboa has postponed its “So Many Stories Left Untold” programme, scheduled to take place 14-20 January and the fourth of six festival ‘moments’ running October 2020 to March 2021.
A festival statement released late January 13 reads: “This programme has been conceived as a set of films recalling invisible moments of our collective past and includes the world premiere of Visions of the Empire by Joana Pontes, the return of Paula Gaitán with the epic Light in the Tropics, as well as the screening of films by Radu Jude, Oleg Sentsov and Mohammad Malas, among others.
“In the context of Cinema of Urgency, ‘Cinema to Fight Racism’, a programme curated by the organization SOS Racismo, was due to take place at the symbolic Monument to the Discoveries, aiming to promote a more in-depth discussion of the racial issue in Portuguese society. This programme is an important contribution to a debate that must be permanent, for a world that can no longer be postponed.
“Since the early beginning of the pandemic situation, the festival has always emphasized the necessity and importance of the physical and collective experience of films that promote reflection and discussion about our world, and it is committed to rescheduling these sessions, and bringing these films to Lisbon, once circumstances allow it.
“The programme will continue to be debated in activities carried out on the festival’s social networks, in order to maintain the dialogue with the spectators throughout this period of suspension.
“Doclisboa looks forward to returning as soon as it is safe and possible to do so, to ensure that no stories are left untold,” the statement ends.
Three further festival ‘moments’ are scheduled for 4-10 February and then twice in March, during which audiences can (among other things) celebrate the mythical punk rock of the Portuguese band Mata-Ratos, and attend screenings of James Benning’s Grand Opera: An Historical Romance (recently restored by the Austrian Film Museum) and Frederick Wiseman’s City Hall (named by the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma magazine as the best film of 2020).
The 18th edition of Doclisboa continues after a year marked by many challenges, the festival underlines, and maintains a dialogue with all venues to ensure that all sessions are safely held. Above all, the festival serves to reaffirm the importance of cinema as a space of encounter and debate.
“Doclisboa first of all aims to be a place of encounter between audience and films that defy preconception and notions of documentary,” co-director Miguel Ribeiro told Business Doc Europe in early 2020. “Very curious and attentive audiences visit the festival every year, and it is through [subsequent] debates and collective reflections that Doclisboa can continuously evolve into a place where you can really rethink the relationship between cinema and the real.”
