“Ramiro”, by Manuel Mozos, will open Doclisboa’17. “Once There Was Brasília “, by Adirley Queirós, is the closing film. Sharon Lockhart is the artist ivited to the Passages section.
“Ramiro”, the latest film by Portuguese director Manuel Mozos, will be the opening session of the 15th edition of Doclisboa – International Film Festival. After “The Glory of Filmmaking in Portugal” in 2015 and “João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love The Things I Loved” (2014), the world premiere of “Ramiro” marks the return of Manuel Mozos to Doclisboa. The session takes place at Culturgest on October 19th.
Ramiro is a bookstore owner in Lisbon and a poet with perpetual creative block. He lives, somewhat frustrated, somewhat resigned, between his shop and the local tavern, accompanied by his dog, his faithful drinking companions and his neighbors – a pregnant teenager and her grandmother who is recovering from a stroke. He would gladly continue living this quiet and somewhat anachronistic routine if events worthy of a soap opera did not invade his bubble. An unmissable film from one of Portugal’s most important and charismatic directors.
Adirley Queirós’ “Once There Was Brasilia” will be the closing session of this year’s festival. Winner of the Signs of Life Special Mention at Locarno, “Once There Was Brasilia” also marks the return of a director to Doclisboa. Queirós’ “White Out, Black In” featured in Doclisboa’s International Competition in 2014, and in 2015 “A Cidade é Uma Só?” was included in Doclisboa’s Doc no Rio programme.
“Once There Was Brasilia” is a film offering a portrait of contemporary Brazilian reality. In a documentary tone, the film uses political-sci-fi to act out an analogy for the current scenario of crisis in Brazil, as a result of Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. In 1959, the intergalactic agent WA4 is arrested and launched into space. He receives a mission: to come to the Earth and kill the president on the day of Brasília’s inauguration. His ship is lost in time and instead lands in 2016 in Ceilândia. Only Andreia can help organise an army to kill the monsters that inhabit the National Congress today.
Sharon Lockhart is the artist invited to Passages, Doclisboa’s section arising from the coming together of two recent movements: the passage of film into museums and galleries and the inclusion of documentary practices within contemporary art. Curated by Pedro Lapa, this section is a co-production between Doclisboa and Museu Coleção Berardo, where the artist will mount an exhibition of her work. “Rudzienko”, the latest film by Lockhart, will also be screened within Doclisboa’s New Visions section.
Czech director Vera Chytilova will be the subject of one of the most complete ever retrospectives of her work. The retrospective is curated by Boris Nelepo, who collaborates once again with Doclisboa after 2015’s full retrospective of Zelimir Zilnik’s filmography.
Another America – The Unique Cinema of Quebec is Doclisboa’s thematic retrospective for 2017. Taking as its starting point Quebec’s fertile scene of experimentation in the 60s and 70s, this thematic retrospective will chart Quebec’s key role in the development of Direct Cinema and auteur-led documentary, and its legacy in contemporary film. The retrospective will screen films made between 1958 and 2017, by authors including Gilles Groulx, Claude Jutra, Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault, Anne-Claire Poirier, Robert Morin, Jeanne Crépeau, Sylvain L’Espérance and Alanis Obomsawin.
Doclisboa‘17 will run from 19-29 October.
