Cinema
Starting from the basic ideas of the Underconstruction project, the program of films “doc_underconstruction” consists of an eclectic range of documentaries, that approaches issues related to urbanism, experiences in community, utopias and ideologies, multiculturalism, cultural diversity and otherness. After each film, there will be conversation and interaction with the public.
Lúcia Marques
Elogio ao 1/2 (Praise to ½), 2006, by Pedro Sena Nunes
Portugal, 70’. Production: Vo’arte (commission by Faro – Cultural Capital’2005)
The 25th April slum of Meia Praia is situated between the beach and the railway that takes us into the town of Lagos. It all began as a group of huts that were improvised by the “indigenous” people of Meia-Praia, who came from Monte Gordo and whose simple wish was to survive to the golden dream that Lagos could not provide. After the 25th April Revolution and through the architecture plan “Serviço de Apoio Ambulatório Local” (S.A.A.L.), the huts were transformed into houses built by their own inhabitants. A lot of the political promises made thirty years ago are still waiting to be fulfilled. How does it feel to live at Meia-Praia today?
Lisboa Mistura (2008), da Associação Sons da Lusofonia, 156’
This is a new documentary from the 13 programs “Lisboa Mistura TV”. Lisboa Mistura hosts the sounds of the city, connecting with the arts and some related experiences. It is a reflection about the creative contemporary and is the result of the inevitable mixture made with the urgency and the melancholy of each culture and each one of us. It was thought as a place of observation and action in the city, to understand better the possible paths that are opened by mixtures, simple or complex, that take place all the time. Lisboa Mistura arises from the need to create a place of intercultural intervention where human creativity is viewed as a powerful instrument of communication, unity and clarification of our differences: many times, the “other” is us.
Lusofonia: a (r)evolution (2006) by the Red Bull Music Academy
Portugal, 60′, Production: Red Bull Music Academy
In Portugal, we can find a new generation of musicians, producers and DJs that, focused on aesthetic and technologic mutations in music, preserve the distinctive traits of the “cultura lusófona”, which they are a part of. This movement in music sums up five centuries of history and through it Lisbon stands out as a stage of different musical elements that are part of the “herança (heritage) lusófona” : coladeras mixed with jazz, kuduro beats with hip-hop, reggae and crioulo. Lusofonia, a revolution is a way of looking at the creative enthusiasm that characterizes the music production in Portugal at the present moment.
Outros Bairros (Other neighbourhoods), 1999, by Kiluanje Liberdade, Vasco Pimentel and Inês Gonçalves
Portugal, 52’. Production: Filmes do Tejo
There are some boys and girls in Portugal who have no homeland. They are not Cape Verdeans because they’ve never been to Cape Verde. They are not Portuguese because the language and the customs are not those of their families. They do not want to be Portuguese, maybe they will want to be Cape Verdeans. Now they are from Pontinha, from Pedreira dos Húngaros, from Arrentela, from Miratejo, from Cova da Moura. They are from the “área”, from the “bairro”, they are “niggas”. They have their own borders, their own laws, their own language, hymns, ideas and unmistakable set of codes. They have created for the very first time in the 500-year old story of the stormy and close relationship between Portuguese and Africans an autonomous, assertive and avant-gardist culture in Portugal. And they are proud.