Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema 2025
Technology/Transformation
June 30th to July 4th
June 30th
9:30 pm, Film Screening + Q&A
The Artificial Humors + Les extraordinaires mésaventures de la jeune fille de pierre + A Brief History of Princess X, by Gabriel Abrantes
School of Arts, Ilídio Pinho Auditorium
Conversation at the end between Gabriel Abrantes and Nuno Crespo
The Artificial Humors
Fic, 2017, 29’
The Artificial Humors, is a film about humor, anthropology and artificial intelligence. It focuses on how humor is central to human relationships across, used as a form of social control, and one of the most complex forms of communication. The film was shot in Mato Grosso (Canarana and the Yawalapiti and Kamayura villages inside the Xingu Indigenous Park) and São Paulo.
Blending a certain Hollywood aesthetic with documentary approaches, the film tells the story of an indigenous girl who falls in love with a robot that is a rising stand up comedian in Brazil. Gabriel Abrantes' films address historical, political and social matters while discussing postcolonial, gender and identity issues. His works create layers of unlikely readings, altering traditional narratives and touch upon the absurd, folklore, humor and politics.
Les Extraordinaires Mésaventures de La Jeune Fille de Pierre
Ani/Fic, 2019, 20’
"Sometimes I wish I was someone else. A brawny bronze Hercules. Aphrodite stepping out of the bath. A stout little Hammurabi."
A Brief History of Princess X
Fic, 2016, 7’
A supercharged history of sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s infamous Princess X, a futuristic bronze phallus that is actually a bust portrait of Napoleon’s equally infamous great grand niece, Marie Bonaparte.
Gabriel Abrantes was born in North Carolina, USA, in 1984. His films have premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight and the Critics’ Week in Cannes, the Berlinale, the Locarno Film Festival, the Venice Biennale, and the Toronto International Film Festival. They have received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the Critics’ Week, the EFA Award at the Berlinale, the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, and the EDP Young Artist Award.
His work has been exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery and Tate Britain (London), the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the MIT List Visual Arts Center (Boston), Kunst Werke (Berlin), and the Serralves Museum (Porto). He participated in the 32nd São Paulo Biennial, the 2016 Tropical Biennial, and the 2014 Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement. His work has also been shown in retrospective screenings at the Lincoln Center (New York) and BAFICI (Buenos Aires).
He currently lives and works in Lisbon.
