24–12–2019
Some words from the new directors
It is a great honour to be entrusted to continue to develop a project whose growth we’ve witnessed, and accompanied, with tremendous enthusiasm. In 2020, Doclisboa will turn 18, and we watch it move towards that new stage with familiar affection.
We would like to thank the board of Apordoc and its members first. Apordoc is an uncommon association among its peers. It represents documentary film professionals, but also the audience. Anyone may become a member and join us in this day-to-day thinking. Its initiatives are testament to the plural and participatory nature of the association. This project keeps on treading its own path, based on that strength.
Doclisboa builds itself each day through the process of re-imagining the world. We do it alongside a team that is surely one of the most committed, resilient, generous and inspiring.
In recent years, we have worked alongside Cíntia Gil to construct the festival, testing ideas, taking risks and celebrating each new step. We thank Cíntia for the passion and freedom with which she has always defended Doclisboa.
Doclisboa has been establishing itself as a cultural landmark, both in Portugal and internationally, whilst always remaining a space of meeting and reflection. It has gathered a community, a network of people who make, think and look at cinema in a critical way, understanding its implication in the world, and its possibilities as a gesture of freedom. In such action, the festival welcomes directors, producers and teams, and seeks, together with them, to continue to work so that these gestures can remain free.
In 2020, October will continue to be a month of sharing with the public what we have built throughout the year. It is very special to know that we have a committed and participative audience in the cinemas along with us, alongside all the directors who visit us and the proposals we present. In the sessions of the Education Project, the rooms are filled with children and young people who claim this place to discuss cinema – which, as we know, is undoubtedly also a way of discussing ourselves and everything around us.
We will continue to develop an attentive program that both draws a map of contemporary cinema and also directs our gaze towards the past, in all of its plurality. Doclisboa will continue to be a platform for new filmmakers, which at the same time showcases archival films. At a time when the number of cinema theaters is shrinking, both locally in Lisbon and further afield, Doclisboa is obliged to rethink how to continue this work. But we will continue. It is in this dialogue between yesterday and today that Doclisboa will continue to assert itself as a place of resistance.
Nebulae, which was created in 2019, took its first steps as a moment within the festival dedicated to the development of the creation, production and dissemination of independent cinema. It is crucial that Doclisboa is not only a place where films are seen and thought, but also where their methods of production are discussed.
Doclisboa is more than eleven days in October. Throughout the year, the festival develops various activities: programme extensions, thematic screenings and other programs organized inside and outside Portugal.
We are aware of the huge responsibility of running this festival, but we will not do it alone. This is the work of a team. We will have colleagues and friends who have been with us over the years and with whom we will continue to work. A big and sincere thank you to you all – we want to meet you again and again, and to continue to imagine futures together.
Joana Gusmão, Joana Sousa, Miguel Ribeiro