Carla Bolito

Inspired by the work of Bertolt Brecht and filmed in Porto's former industrial slaughterhouse, A Santa Joana dos Matadouros is a meta-cinematic essay about the labor market in times of economic crisis in Europe. The film explores the possibilities of cinema in its relationship with theater and brings together a cast of professional actors, amateurs, renowned artists from various disciplines, and a group of unemployed residents of Vale de Campanhã.

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Alice, a recently widowed director, is alone on her grief after her daughter leaves home. Alice clings to the only structure she has, a fragile foundation at risk of collapsing: an essay film project, about first loves, dependent on funding. Suddenly we enter in another dimension, another place and without prior notice we are in the film conceived by the director.

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Organized like a dream, structured like a musical and with texts, both spoken and sung, that lead us to unexpected, chaotic and exciting situations, which try to grasp part of what the unattainable Alexandre O'Neill left us.

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In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..

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A typical day in Porto's Cathedral, between tourists and the local community. A peculiar group of women grabs our attention...

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Cinema and affections from life in images and what goes on outside the frame. 'Snapshots' of shootings and the present-day memory of directors, actors and technicians.

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Francisca, a beautiful 50-year-old widow, prepared a peaceful future for herself. In an unexpected outburst, she grabs an opportunity for change and embarks on a sailboat called ‘Hovering Over the Water’.

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The unbearable heat on the factory places us on the hottest summer days. A man who has been forced to leave everything behind tries to go to his daughter's birthday but receives threats from the court. In itself grows a wave of impatience, despair, violence. The violence not only of feelings but of things, materials, iron and metal, which deteriorate with time and the suffocating heat. In this industrial hell men merges with machines, they are near collapse.

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In Lisbon, Marcelo writes a novel, using the life of his own wife, Beatriz, as the main inspiration to the story. The creative process of the book takes a dangerous path, ultimately compromising the love they feel for each other.

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Short Portuguese film about history.

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Luís Mário Lopes wrote the solo A Boa Alma for Mónica Calle in 2015, based on the works of Bertolt Brecht marking the departure of Casa Conveniente from Cais do Sodré and their arrival in the new venue in zona J, Chelas. The original score is by JP Simões.

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In Lisbon 1950, John, 13, decides to invade the neighborhood of prostitutes, nobility and sailors, starting a new stage in his life. Today this neighborhood is reflected in a scattered public debate centered on its night life.

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Despite the hardship, there are those who fight and overcome... Marta is a single mother and a humble woman who’s doing her best to offer her two daughters, Susana e Beatriz, a good life. But when she finds out that her younger daughter has a rare and serious condition, everything changes in this family’s life. Susana decides to seek out Rodrigo, the child´s father and a wealthy man who can afford to pay the much needed surgery abroad. Even though he didn't even know he had a daughter, Rodrigo accepts to pay for the surgery on the condition that he’s granted custody. Marta is then faced with the greatest dilemma in her life: in order to save his daughter, she’ll have to give her up. Rodrigo will end up using Beatriz in an elaborate ploy to get closer to Marta. However, his cousin Gabriel’s return to Portugal will make things difficult for him, as Gabriel will fall in love with Marta, thus turning into Rodrigo's rival.

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Between February and July 1858, in the Massabielle cave, the Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a miserable little girl from Lourdes. A true revolution in the heart of the Second Empire that shakes the established order by his universal message of love and prayer.

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Life at 500 mph... Patrícia, Marta, Yara and Weza are flight attendants who share a close friendship travelling between Portugal and Luanda. Filled with humour, strength and hope, these four friends have each other’s back unconditionally, in their highs and lows. As they’re hitting 30, new concerns come up, which they put off, such as marriage, motherhood and their own careers. When confronted with their first big disappointments in their adult lives, they’ll start to question the way they saw their future play out up until then... And the men in their lives as well... Their odd work hours and the distance that separates them leave little room for them getting together so, when their days off match and their flight schedule permitting, they get together and up to speed with each other. When everything in their lives seems to be decided for them, they’ll end up realizing that each day can turn into a new start after all.

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A blind man who recovers his sight after an operation finds his life in chaos when he is rejected by the community to which he once belonged.

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Pele is a film about a young mulatto woman that in spite of being rich, beautiful and intelligent, feels discriminated because of the colour of her skin. The entire plot is in the early 70's, when Portugal had a dictatorial government, ultramarine territories and lots of racism in its society… Issues like racism, female condition and the spoilt lives of the high-society are the main themes of this movie

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During the war of in-dependency Evita moves from Lisbon to Mozambique to marry Luís. She slowly discovers how different and disturbing life is in a country of war and when her husband is send on a military mission she starts to fight loneliness. Over time she finds out more about her husband and Mozambique than she would have imagined in her peaceful European home. Racism, violence, injustice and fatalism make life unbearable...

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Short documentary about football (soccer) supporters in Portugal

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Nuno, a boy of nine, runs away from home on the night of the 24th of April 1974. He hides in a mysterious building that is being abandoned in great haste. People are running down the stairs, cars are leaving, finally Nuno and a dog are the only ones left. They become friends and fall asleep together. In the morning they wake up with screams from the street. Nuno thinks that it is his mother calling for him and runs to the window. The street its full of people, tanks and soldiers. It’s the 25th of April. And Nuno believes that it was his mother who made the revolution just to find him.

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The life of a couple flickers between February 14th and April 1st of the same year.

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Rui was raised in Mozambique in a small village at the frontier of a mysterious river. Son of Portuguese colonists, his best friend is Ana, a black girl godchild of his mother. At fourteen he is confronted with the tragic destruction of his childhood and has to learn to recognize two distinct realities - the European and the African.

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A 14-year-old kid, addicted to videogames, goes with his parents to a shopping mall and separates from them to go to a game store called UTOPYA. He doesn't come back. His parents get in despair, and his father tries everything he can to bring him back.

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Ana lives in a little village by the sea, with her husband and daughter. He decides to leave for a few days. That seems to be the ideal solution, because Ana needs to finish a work she has been doing for a long time. But her concentration seems threatened when she starts doing her daily walks by the village and the beach: she saves a stranger from death in the sea, meets young Alexandre and Emilia, and her friend Vera turns up in her house. And then, everything changes…

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In 1983, little João Amaral Severo asks his father to go to the circus. His father, and army captain who had been recently widowed, refuses to take him under the pretext that the circus would draw his attention away from his studies. Ten years later João is a student in the Military College, and is tired of the harsh discipline imposed by his father and decides to join a travelling circus that stops in his hometown, Alcochete. From then on João, alone and free to live his life the way he wants, finds a world of magic, the love of Dolores (a young trapeze artist) and the family he never really had. Until a twist of fate turns João into a father...

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The film is set in Lisbon, and tells the story of a day in the life of Rita and Paulo, a Portuguese young couple of the 90's. The fast changing city around them makes them wish to break with all traditions and live the day the get married (only civil marriage) like it is an ordinary day.

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