Senhora Aparecida

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

In the Portuguese village of Senhora Aparecida, an industrial area near Oporto, the annual festival that takes place every 15th of August is being prepared. The biers that reach fifteen meters high and which are carried by 70 men are being erected and decorated. The penitents order the coffins that will carry them, in a procession, to the chapel as is the secular tradition. The Portuguese film crew arrives with the intention of filming this spectacular festival. However, another dramatic story is about to unfold and the filmmakers are there to document events as they happen.

A new, young priest arrives to take over their parish and he has his own ideas about how religion should be practiced in the town. He is "modern" (in one scene we can see his desk top computer in the background). He wants to put an end to the coffins procession. Conflict is inevitable. Strikingly filmed with a sense of tension which captured the drama inherent in the situation, Senhora Aparecida has been singled out for attention at many international film festivals.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Prize European Massimo Troisi: Best Film in Culture and Tradition from Portugal, 2000

Honorable Mention, Festival Internacional de Documentário, Loures, Portugal, 1995

Cinéma du Réel, Paris, Centro George Pompidou 1995

Gottingen International Film Festival, Germany 1996

5th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, University of Kent, 1996

First Prize, VII Rassegna Internazionale di Documentari Etnografici, em Nuoro, Italy, 1996

American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Film Festival, NY 1996

Award of Excellency, Society for Visual Anthropology/American Antropological Association Film Festival, San Francisco, 1996

University of California Film Festival, 1997

3ª Mostra Internacional do Filme Etnográfico, Museu de Folclore, Rio de Janeiro

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The Architect and the Old Village

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:31:00 GMT

The Architect and the Old Village
Buy Now: $320.00

Álvaro Siza Vieira, a famous visionary Portuguese architect, is called to coordinate the rehabilitation of the monuments and architectonic heritage of Cidade Velha (Old Village) in Santiago, one of the African islands of Cape Verde. This project creates great expectations among the local population, who envisages it as a way of improving their quality of life. The film explores the relationship and the conflict between these two worlds, two cultures, with different ideas of what modernity and progress mean.

The film reflects with humor the idea that tradition is a new value of the modern era, the relationship between the people of Cidade Velha and the team and finally, the role of Siza who in his calm and timid manner, manages to understand and incorporate all conflicts and questions by planning, deciding, imagining and, above all, by drawing intensively.

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Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Costa, Catarina Alves / All Films

Senhora Aparecida

The Architect and the Old Village