For the 13th edition, FESTin’s mission remains the same: “Bring cinema in Portuguese to the whole world.” So says co-director Adriana Niemeyer by phone with PÚBLICO on the eve of the start of the film festival, which starts this Friday and runs until next week, ending on Wednesday the 14th at LX Factory at 7:00 pm, in Espaço Talante, inside the bookstore Ler Devagar , with a screening of four Brazilian short films chosen by Antonio Grassi, the actor in charge of the space, followed by a toast.
Niemeyer hopes that this publication “continues the work done, which should enable many people who do not have the opportunity to enter the commercial network.” This time around 40 Portuguese, Brazilian, Santoméan and Angolan films will be shown. Guests include Sandra Pimenta, Alexandra Lencastre, Halder Gomes, Maria Fernanda Candido or Chico Diaz.
On Saturday, the festival moves to Cinema São Jorge, among other spaces. It is on Avenida de Liberdade that day there is a session of short films, which includes Bye Byefrom Portuguese-French Christel Alves Meiraor HowAngolan Edgar Claudio, premiere I don’t know anything anymore, the Portuguese Luis Diogo, and the discovery itself. It will be a dedication to José Saramago presented by Sandra Pimenta and Alexandra Lencastre who will read poetry. “Unfortunately we did not receive our dates within Centenary of Saramago“, admits the director, who even so wanted to point it out.
A documentary film will also be screened at the opening. Through your eyes, Swiss-Brazilian descent Sonia Guggisberg. “This is the story of one Brazilian evangelist from the outskirts of Brasilia, who knows an Iraqi via the Internet. They spend two years talking day and night, in touch 24 hours a day, and decide to get to know each other,” says the festival director, explaining that the story takes incredible turns as it passes through the refugee camp in Lesvos🇧🇷 “Usually we don’t start with documentaries, it only happened once. [antes]”, – he adds. Then follows cocktail discoveries. The opening film will also be screened on Monday at Camões Auditorium in Liceu Camões.
There are several Brazilian films on Sunday, such as Second personThiago Luciano Solfrom Lo Politi, Monet RedHalder Gomes, or About the debate, Cayo Bluth. There will also be a documentary Belchior – Just a wild heartNatalia Diaz and Camilo Cavalcanti, director from Covilhã who is also the author History of eternity, a book that will be released during the screening of this documentary. We are talking about her feature film in 2015, which once won FESTin “and several other festivals,” says the director.
This launch is part of the program of the Conexões Festival, which also includes Tuesday at the Communications Museum, where the festival will take place this year from Monday to Wednesday, with sessions for children every morning at 10:30, a documentary look at them, about the female population of Brazilian prisons, followed by a discussion moderated by ISCSP Professor Dalia Costa and a remote presentation by directors Tatiana Sager and Renato Dornelles. Or on Wednesday there is a Portuguese-Brazilian short film, Independence begins in our languageFernando Galrito, and the Portuguese heritage debate in everyday life in Brazil after bicentenary of independence country, which is coordinated by Renato Faria, diplomat and professor of history, protocol specialist Joao Mikael and Réjan Lima, who works with immigrant associations.
There will be no formal closing, no party, all because of FIFA World Cup in Qatar🇧🇷 Among the films of the competition there will be winners, but the announcement of these names will take place online, on Thursday, with the publication of the results at 19:00. Parallel to the Lisbon Festival, the festival will also take place from Monday to Wednesday in Porto, at the Casa Comum, at the University of Porto, with focus on amazonshowing documentaries I am modern, I am IndianCarlos Eduardo Magalhaes, I’m nativeUlisses Rocha and Women, Ingrid Fadnes and Fabio Nascimento. “FESTin starts in Lisbon, but you don’t know where it ends. It takes place all over the world,” shares Adriana Niemeyer, who recalls that the festival has already passed through Timor, Sao Tome or Cape Verde.