On September 6 and 7, the Studio of the Calouste Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre will present a selection of eight short films developed within the scope of the advanced training course in Film and Television Directing, promoted in 2022 by the School of Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University in partnership with Gulbenkian Foundation
The course took place in Porto, at the facilities of the School of Arts, and was aimed at professionals and emerging filmmakers. Structured as an intensive artistic creation programme, it provided participants with direct contact with some of the most relevant names in contemporary cinema — including Céline Sciamma, Lucrecia Martel, Atom Egoyan, João Rui Guerra da Mata, and Mariana Gaivão — as well as technicians and professionals with extensive experience in cinema and television, such as Pedro Lopes, Nuno Artur Silva, Luís Urbano, Rui Poças, Graça Castanheira, and Teresa Paixão. The artistic direction of the course was led by Marco Martins and João Canijo.
The films resulting from this training process have been screened at national and international film festivals, and will now be presented to the Lisbon audience in a showcase that highlights the relevance of the work developed at the School of Arts in the field of cinematic training and creation.
Screenings
September 6 (Saturday), 4:00 pm
September 7 (Sunday), 4:00 pm
Location: Studio, Calouste Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre
Free admission
Tickets available on the day, starting 2 hours before the event. Maximum 2 tickets per person. No online reservation for Gulbenkian Card holders.
Short Film Synopses
Maria Henriqueta Was Here, by Nuno Pimentel
Portugal, 2023, Doc., 13:40, 12+
In 1872, the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II, travels to the city of Porto and stays at the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, owned by Maria Henriqueta de Mello Lemos e Alvelos.
In the present, the attempt to make a film about this episode turns into an invocation. Maria Henriqueta is with us. Memories, sounds, and sensations take over the screen and help build an emotional geography of our invisible protagonist. This is a phantasmagoria of the senses. A good haunting.
Happiness in a Pot, by Clara Jost
Portugal, 2023, Doc., 19:14, 12+
While cooking, Yaxuan notices that her pot produces a peculiar sound. This sound gives rise to a wandering around the ritual of food, which appears as a bridge between past and present.
Cleopatra & Antony, by Diego Bragà
Portugal, 2023, Fiction, 20:38, 18+
War. Cleopatra and Antony lock themselves in the mausoleum while Brazil is recolonized. The word colonization comes alive and nature reacts to the destruction of the Earth from the desire for immortality. On the brink of his death, Antony asks for a lullaby. In a funeral mating dance, two historical and tyrannical characters dream, in the middle of war, a non-binary politics of Love. In this decolonial and queer rewriting of Shakespeare's tragic play, Egypt is Brazil and Rome is Portugal.
Raw+Porous, by Ágata de Pinho
Portugal, 2025, Fiction, 20:00, 16+
Evoking the human, the organic, and the extraordinary, Raw+Porous is a story of obsessive love and a surreal entropy of surroundings between two people who surrender to absolute desire.
The Illusion Of An Everlasting Kiss, by Marta Sousa Ribeiro
Portugal, 2023, Fiction, 15:56, 12+
A November day in Porto, in a square where skaters jump down a flight of stairs. Three characters share a moment visually divided into three subjective planes, which, without dialogue, aim to characterize them emotionally. Facing the impossibility of accessing the other's subjectivity, the idea of shared love is questioned.
Summer Rains, by Mário Veloso
Portugal, 2023, Fiction, 15:00, 12+
Breaking the silence punctuated by late summer rains, a group of boys disturbs the matriarchal memory of an old room. Facing imminent danger, the older boys dispute leadership. As the afternoon advances, with the intensity of the rains and the heat rising inside the attic, they turn to violence. In the fragility of a wounded body, Chico, the youngest and most awkward, finds a tragic premonition of desire.
Gardunha, by Ana Vilela Costa
Portugal, 2023, Fiction, 17:42, 12+
M., an electronic music artist, is on the run. She seeks refuge in a rural area after a traumatic event we never get to know. The contrast between M. and her surroundings is clear. M. is a deeply urban person in a deeply rural environment.
The film shows about 48 hours in M.'s life. As she immerses herself in this reality, she is confronted with unexpected phenomena that her rational mind cannot understand, immediate encounters, somber and inexplicable sounds. The initial escape gives way to a transcendental journey where her worldview is challenged, culminating in an encounter with other worlds.
Dry Stone, by Luísa Mello
Portugal, 2023, Fiction, 24:43, 12+
A 60-year-old woman hypersensitive to electromagnetic waves lives isolated in the countryside. Her life changes when a 30-year-old nomadic woman decides to occupy the only nearby house. A relationship of proximity is built as a stone wall is erected between the houses. Dry Stone is a film with few words about human relationships and the various boundaries we build between ourselves and others. In confronting solitude and the strangeness of the other, the possibility of encounter arises.
