DOCUMENTARIES
Constelações do Equador
May 30th 1967. Colonel Odemegwu Ojukwu unilaterally declares the independence of the state of Biafra from the Nigeria. The Nigerian federal government ruled by Yakubu Gowon leads a military offensive over Biafra to recover the region. Hostilities open way for large-scale war and the first post-colonial conflict in African soil. Saint Tome, at the time a Portuguese colony, is close to Biafra by air. Its geographic position permitted the establishment of an airlift which saved of hundreds of thousands of children from starvation. Fifty Yeats later, a phantom in San Tome wonders amidst what remains from this event considered the first civilian aid mechanism in the 20th century.
A Story from Africa
Following the 1885 Berlin Conference resolution on the partition of Africa, the Portuguese army uses a talented ensign to register the effective occupation of the territory conquered in 1907 to the Cuamato people, in the south of Angola. A Story from Africa enlivens this rarely seen photographic archive through the tragic tale of Calipalula, the Cuamato nobleman essential to the unfolding of events in this Portuguese pacification campaign.
Following the 1885 Berlin Conference resolution on the partition of Africa, the Portuguese army uses a talented ensign to register the effective occupation of the territory conquered in 1907 to the Cuamato people, in the south of Angola. A Story from Africa enlivens this rarely seen photographic archive through the tragic tale of Calipalula, the Cuamato nobleman essential to the unfolding of events in this Portuguese pacification campaign.
O Canto do Ossobó
In the middle of the Atlantic, off the equatorial western African coast lies Sao Tomé, a small archipelago discovered by Portuguese sailors. Originally unpopulated, the colony grew as a major slave trade platform between Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, while also growing as a main cocoa and coffee producer through plantations structures imported from Brazil called Roças. In 1876, slavery is abolished all over the Portuguese empire while labour at the plantations is replaced by a paid forced labour system that would last until the collapse of Portuguese colonial rule in 1974. Populated over the centuries by slaves and labourers from other Portuguese African colonies - Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde – San Tomeans inherited poverty and alienation, finding belonging solely in the legends of their ancestors. Song of Ossobó, the lamentation chant of the unrooted bird, is one of them. The film features today’s life in Roças Rio do Ouro and Água-Izé, which were among the largest cocoa plantations in São Tomé and Príncipe, combined with archive footage commissioned by the Salazar regime and personal family videos shot by the director’s father in visits to Sao Tome after immigrating to Portugal in the 70’s.
Escola de Cinema
Five film students share their motivations, inspirations, doubts and regrets about their future while working on each other’s’ film projects, in search for a relationship of each one’s life with the will to make films.
EM DESENVOLVIMENTO
Operação Schuman
EM DESENVOLVIMENTO
Político Thriller Drama Series – 10 Episodios 60’
No seguimento de ataque Europeu a um barco patrulha Turco na República Chipre Norte combinado secretamente entre altos oficiais da União Europeia apoiados por um magnata Russo dono de um império de gás natural, a actual Comissão mostra-se frágil estando sob pressão de vários grupos populistas bem sucedidos na Europa pós-Brexit. Enquanto que os burocratas do costume estabelecem comités e notas de protesto, uma improvável grupo de funcionários menores, liderados por uma comissária audaz e coerente com o seu mandato, colocam em risco as suas vidas enfrentando a teia de corrupção interna associada aos lobbies da energia.
Os Seis dias do Prestige
EM DESENVOLVIMENTO
Documental 90’
A pandemia revelou a intimidade entre o modo de vida contemporâneo e o transporte marítimo, responsável por mais de 90% do comércio mundial, enquanto que a guerra na Ucrânia está a mostrar que afinal a dependência da energia à base de hidrocarbonetos é devastadora apesar da crescente preocupação em tornar a economia sustentável e limpa. A economia do petróleo esconde-se em plena luz do dia, excepto quando algum desastre ganha magnitude suficiente para que se vejam as fissuras que o sustentam: esta é a história do Prestige e do que aprendemos, ou não, com o acidente marítimo mais mediatizado da história.