doclisboa 2007

programme > october 24

programme day-by-day

18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28

october 24 - wednesday

24 Oct. 14.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
20 Oct. 20.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
The mall [CI]
Yonatan Ben Efrat
12´ Israel 2006

Hundreds of illegal Palestinan workers live underground in the parking lot of an unfinished, abandoned shopping mall near Tel Aviv. They have no light, water or toilets, and the air is foul. By day they seek work in the “slave market” at a large intersection. Their six floors of hell enable them to live invisibly in Israel.

24 Oct. 14.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
20 Oct. 20.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
These Girls [CI]
Tahani Tached
66´ Egypt 2006

“These Girls” takes the viewer deep into the universe of adolescent girls living on the streets of Cairo, a universe of violence and oppression, as well as freedom. They are women and thus twice marginalised. Their existence, their lives and adopted codes defy social models. Their days are full of perils, be it the police shake downs or kidnapping by their fellow street dwellers. Whether they are women, children, mothers, or all that at the same time, they can't but live in the present. We catch a glimpse of the child within them in the dances, laughs and acrobatics, as well as in the fights that sometimes occur.

24 Oct. 16.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
23 Oct. 16.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Betrayed Women [making of] [P]
Miguel Marques
54´ Portugal 2007

Maria José Silva is a unique figure of contemporary Portuguese culture: she’s a director, a writer, an actress and a singer, and she has been making amateur cinema for twenty years in Oporto, where she lives. This documentary joins her during the shooting of her latest film, “Mulheres Traídas”, a film about infidelity seen from a feminine perspective, and a meditation on the way fiction can mirror a social reality.

La petite fille et le chien vont au bal de la reine [P]

24 Oct. 18.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
23 Oct. 14.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
The Little Girl and the Dog Go the Queen's Ball [P]
Ana Margarida Fernandes Gil
18´ Portugal 2007

My four-year-old niece asked me a question. "Why do you want to make films, auntie?" I didn't know how to answer. She decided, then, to make a request. I took her seriously. And I entered a journey of discovery of small worlds, real and imaginary, looking for an answer.

24 Oct. 18.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
23 Oct. 14.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Jardim [P]
João Vladimiro
75´ Portugal 2007

I know that the trees don’t have eyes, that the water doesn’t have a mouth, and that stones don’t have ears. Still, we communicate. In this particular garden, long mute talks take place, like the two elders that, through their sheer presence, talk to each other about calmness, confort and sadness. Here, I witnessed the first steps of a child, the arrival of a mute duck and the falling leaves of the white poplar… (João Vladimiro)

24 Oct. 21.00 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
21 Oct. 22.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Cuba, An African Odyssey [I]
Jihan El Tahri
120´ France/UK 2006

Between 1961 and 1989, the African continent was one of the most important theatres of the Cold War. By uniting in a sort of “third bloc” they fought in the name of a new ideal: internationalism – the only weapon available that promised to guarantee national independence. Cuba had a preponderant role in this process by providing aid to young African revolutionaries like Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral or Agostinho Neto. From the tragicomic epic of Che Guevara in Congo to the triumph at the battle of Cuito Carnavale in Angola, Cuba, an African odyssey attempts to understand the world today through the saga of these internationalists who won every battle but finally lost the war.

24 Oct. 23.15 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
21 Oct. 14.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
At the datcha [CI]
Thierry Paladino
26´ Poland 2006

A warm portrait of a family spending a weekend outside the city. Despite the minimal comfort at their datcha, their happiness is purely visible. By mixing poetry and the absurd, Thierry Paladino offers entertaining comic situations. A burlesque, bucolic film takes its inspiration from the beginnings of the cinema and gradually reveals the filmmaker’s great tenderness for his characters.

24 Oct. 23.15 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
21 Oct. 14.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
SchoolScapes [CI]
David McDougall
77´ Australia 2007

Inspired by the cinema of Lumière and the ideas of the 20th century Indian thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti, MacDougall follows up his films about Doon School in northern India with this film about a famous progressive co-educational boarding school in South India, the Rishi Valley School. Krishnamurti taught that one should learn to observe the world more calmly and clearly. This was also how cinema began, and what excited its first audiences. “SchoolScapes” attempts to recapture the same freshness of observing the world in a series of scenes which each consist of a single shot. It is a film dedicated to the simple act of looking.

24 Oct. 14.15 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
20 Oct. 18.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
On Hitler's Highway
Lech Kowalski
81´ France/Poland 2002

A journey on the oldest highway in Poland built by Hitler, now a vital route to the west and were you can encounter outcasts and social destitutes fighting for their survival in a world far from the big cities. A young Bulgarian prostitute, a one legged man selling mushrooms, illegal Ukrainians hiding on a deserted Nuclear airbase, young people escaping the glare of modern society, a gypsy who remembers how he lost his father to the Holocaust…

24 Oct. 16.15 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
22 Oct. 18.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan [I]
Jean-Daniel Lafond
75´ Canada 2006

When in 2001 Iranian director Mohsen Makmalbaf’s feature film “Kandahar” was acclaimed in Cannes and shown around the world, the international press picked up on a surprising appearance. The film’s African-American “doctor” was in fact a man called David Belfield, wanted in the United States for murder, and now living in exile in Iran. In Washington D.C. in the summer of 1980, at the behest of Iranian intelligence, an African-American named David Belfield shot dead Ali Akbar Tabatabai, the former press attaché and representative of the Shah at the Iranian embassy. Tabatabai was thought to be involved in a plot to kill the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, and topple the new regime.

24 Oct. 18.15 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
20 Oct. 14.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
Born to Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie
Lech Kowalski
100´ USA 2001

Vinte anos depois de "D.O.A.", Lech Kowalski voltou ao punk rock. "Born to Lose" conta-nos a história da vida do seu amigo Johnny Thunders, destacado protagonista da cena punk da Nova Iorque dos anos setenta e oitenta e percursor do som que influenciaria bandas punk de todo mundo. Guitarrista e vocalista, tocou com os New York Dolls, os The Heartbreaker e a solo. Dizia-se que o seu abuso de drogas envergonharia o próprio William Burroughs. Morreu vítima de uma overdose em 1991, em circunstâncias ainda não inteiramente esclarecidas. Uma personagem singular cuja vida ninguém poderia ter retratado melhor do que Kowalski.

24 Oct. 20.45 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
19 Oct. 18.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
The Boot Factory
Lech Kowalski
87´ France/Poland 2000

The life of a group of young Polish punkers in Cracow and their small business making leather boots. Kowalski films the work and leisure of three friends – Lukasz, Piotr and Wojclech – divided among hard music, wild parties, and capitalist commercial strategies. They are caught at a critical moment of their lives, in the grip of problems with alcohol and drugs, quarrels with their girlfriends, and children to look after.

24 Oct. 22.45 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
News from Home [DF]
Chantal Akerman
85´ France/Belgium/RFA 1976

New York City plays its busy, noisy self for the camera as Akerman's voice on the soundtrack reads concerned letters from her mother in Belgium.

20 Oct. 14.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 14.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
Three comrades [I]
Masha Novikova
99´ Holland 2006

Ruslan, Ramzan and Islam were three Chechens that led ordinary lives in Grozny in the early 1990s. When the war began, their lives were changed for ever. Ruslan was arrested in Groznyy and executed by Russian soldiers. A couple years later, Ramzan was also shot to death by a Russian plane. Islam, who worked as a doctor during the war, was framed for drug possession and fled the country. Today, he lives in the Netherlands. In “Three Comrades”, Russian director Masha Novikova incorporates impressive archival footage (often shot by Ramzan, who was a cameraman) to document how Chechnya was forced to its knees, and how much the population of this Caucasian province has suffered.

21 Oct. 23.00 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 16.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
Umbrella [CI]
Du Haibin
100´ China 2007

Director Du Haibin uses the umbrella, always present because of China’s adverse climate, as a metaphor for the sense of unprotection Chinese workers are presently experiencing. The design for modernization is all geared towards benefiting the cities, while sacrificing interests of the countryside. The 20 years of reform in fact marginalized rural society. Although the government made gestures to assist the countryside, China has become a place where a huge wealth gap exists between a few rich people, and a growing number of poor.

22 Oct. 23.00 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 18.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
A Father's Music [CI]
Igor Heitzmann
105´ Germany 2007

Shortly after the Wall came down, the Austrian conductor Otmar Suitner ended his long-standing career at the State Opera in East Berlin. Parkinson syndrome was causing his hands to tremble. A conductor who had achieved world fame at Bayreuth could not control the baton. Music disappeared from his daily life. But the fall of the Wall brought something new: changes to his family life. For decades Suitner had two private lives, one with his wife in East Berlin, the other one with his mistress and their son, Igor, in the west of the divided city. In “A Father's Music” Igor Heitzmann tells the story of a rapprochement: with his father, the distant conductor; with a vanished country, the German Democratic Republic; with the exceptional paths of his parents’ lives; and with music.

22 Oct. 14.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 21.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
Some Kind of Sadness [CI]
Juan Alejandro Ramírez
41´ Peru 2006

“Some Kind of Sadness” is a lyrical meditation on an assortment of social, and psychological, conditions in contemporary Peru. Ramirez brackets the work with images of the unhappy faces of mixed-race Peruvian football players who defeated Austria in overtime in the 1936 Berlin Olympics—only to have the game annulled in an overtly racist decision. The proud athletes left rather than submit to a rematch. The photographs are a point of departure for Ramirez to explore a culture and an economy that has made sadness a way of life for his countrymen.

22 Oct. 14.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 21.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
It's always late for freedom [CI]
Mehrdad Oskouei
52´ Iran 2006

Through a fine portrait of four teenagers detained in a reformatory in Teheran, Mehrdad Oskouei depicts the profound distress experienced by a lost generation undermined by the serious socio-economic problems affecting Iranian society. The reasons for sentencing these teenage boys who have hardly left childhood are alarming – consumption of hard drugs, assault and battery, theft, possession of false identification papers. A striking portrait of a wounded childhood.

24 Oct. 23.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 1)
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Sydney Pollack
83' USA 2005

Director Sydney Pollack has made his first feature length documentary on the acclaimed architect Frank O. Gehry. The two men have been friends for many years, and Pollack completed the film over a period of five years, starting in 2000. Frank Gehry loves to sketch. It is the beginning of his architectural process from which emerge buildings unlike any others in the architectural world. Beginning with Gehry's own original sketches for each major project, Pollack's film explores Gehry's process of turning these evanescent, abstract drawings into tangible, three-dimensional form: finished buildings of titanium and glass, concrete and steel, wood and stone.

22 Oct. 16.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 14.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Monte Gordo´s Beach [P]
Sofia Trincão and Óscar Clemente
30´ Portugal 2006

On the beach at Monte Gordo (Algarve, Portugal) in the shadow of holiday apartment buildings, a small fishing community still persists. This documentary records the activities at the beach during a full year, from a lonely winter beach, to the busy summer with the beach full of sun shades. Through the voices of those who live from the sea, we see the changes that this last generation of Portuguese fishermen are undergoing. We go fishing with “God Protects Me” the last traditional wooden boat used on this beach. “People come to the beach and say – Oh… the fresh fish from Monte Gordo! …But the fishing boats …where are they?!…Not a single one! – They are marketing things that disappeared years ago!” says a fisherman.

22 Oct. 16.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 14.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
People of the Sea [P]
Dânia Filipa Ferreira Lucas
33´ Portugal 2006

Surrounded by troubled waters, but never doubting their faith, the “people of the sea” struggle for each man’s survival, hoping that tomorrow will again bring them their daily bread. Dividing their time between their home and their boat, they are absent husbands and fathers, who are afraid, and have trouble expressing themselves. With silent and focussed gazes, they define the sea as a mysterious force. They wrinkle and observe the bow breaking the majestic waves, raising their harsh hands to ask the Virgin Mary’s protection.

26 Oct. 16.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 16.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Encontros [P]
Pierre-Marie Goulet
105´ Portugal/France 2006

1957: a group of peasants from Peroguarda, in the Alentejo, travels to sing in Oporto. The poet António Reis, director to be of “Trás-os-Montes”, listens to their chants. Seduced by them, he heads to Peroguarda with a tape recorder. 1959: Michel Giacometti, a musicologist of Corsican ascent, starts a 30-year research. He soon discovers Peroguarda. 1965: in Oporto, young poet Manuel António Pina and other aspiring young poets elect António Reis as their major reference. 1966: filmmaker Paulo Rocha shoots his second feature (“Mudar de Vida”) at Furadouro, setting the film’s plot amidst the fishermen that fascinated him during childhood. These and other people are part of an informal tribe whose members recognize each other when they meet.

19 Oct. 20.45 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
24 Oct. 18.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Jean Paul [I]
Francesco Uboldi
8´ Italie 2006

Baloum is a very remote and pristine village up in the mountains of Western Cameroon. Jean Paul was born and raised there. He's dying chained to a tree, victim of superstitions. He's been left without food and water for days. Jean, the man who is in charge of his custody, talks about a magical ring.

19 Oct. 20.45 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
24 Oct. 18.00 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
The Devil Came on Horseback [I]
Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern
85´ USA 2007

Using the exclusive photographs and first hand testimony of former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle, “The Devil Came on Horseback” takes the viewer on an emotionally charged journey into the heart of Darfur, Sudan, where an Arab run government is systematically executing a plan to rid the province of it’s black African citizens. As an official military observer, Steidle had access to parts of the country that no journalist could penetrate. He was unprepared for what he would witness and experience, including being fired upon, taken hostage, and being unable to intervene to save the lives of young children. Ultimately frustrated by the inaction of the international community, Steidle resigned and returned to the US to expose the images and stories of lives systematically destroyed.

26 Oct. 18.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 20.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Piccolo Lavoro [P]
António Nuno Júnior
18´ Portugal 2006

Director Pedro Costa and his editor work on the editing of a few extras for a DVD edition of his film "Onde Jaz o Teu Sorriso?".

Homens que São como Lugares Mal Situados [P]

26 Oct. 18.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 20.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Men who Are like Misplaced Places [P]
João Trabulo
21´ Portugal 2007

A man travels between two continents. His eyes take in the memory in an uncertain path.

26 Oct. 18.30 - Culturgest (Large Auditorium)
24 Oct. 20.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Blind Runner, An Artist Under Surveillance [P]
Luís Alves de Matos
57´ Portugal 2007

In this film an artist is placed under 24-hour surveillance. The continuous flow of images and sounds turns the viewer into an accomplice and a privileged witness of all his movements. We are led to ask ourselves not only why is this chase happening, but also about the meaning and nature of his work. Aren’t we all under surveillance? But who surveils who and what?

21 Oct. 20.45 - Culturgest (Small Auditorium)
24 Oct. 22.30 - Cinema Londres (Room 2)
Ironeaters [CI]
Shaheen Dill-Riaz's
85´ Germany 2007

The playground of director Shaheen Dill-Riaz's youth was the erstwhile white beaches of Chittagong in Bangladesh. Today the area is a graveyard for ships where thousands of workers, his old friends included, work on the wrecks with primitive tools, salvaging raw materials. "When you are hungry, you can eat anything", says Karim, the director's former schoolmate, "even when it is iron." While the Western media report of the destruction of the environment and dangerous working conditions, for the so-called '”iron-eaters” the most important thing is to survive.

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