A filmmaker, a philosopher, an historian and a programmer meet to challenge the stories that cities have imprinted over the decades on the film of cinema history: avant-garde aesthetic symphonies; fictional surrealism; black expressionism; political neo-realism or contemporary images that are remade in a slow cinema. We borrow the title from Jean-Luc Godard's work, replacing cinema with the city: it is the infinite relations between thinking, telling and intertwining the city and the cinema, that allow us to ask whether it is not cinema itself that makes the city?
Billy Woodberry (filmmaker)
Born in Dallas, Texas, Billy Woodberry is one of the founders of the L.A. Rebellion film movement. His first feature film, Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), is a pioneer and essential work of this movement, influenced by Italian neo-realism and the work of Third Cinema filmmakers. Woodberry’s films have been screened at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, Viennale, Rotterdam, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Harvard Film Archive, Camera Austria Symposium, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Tate Modern and Centre Pompidou.
Maria João Madeira (programmer)
Graduated from Universidade Nova de Lisboa with a degree in Communication Studies in 1992, after doing radio journalism. Works at Cinemateca Portuguesa-Museu do Cinema since 1993, and joined the programming team in 1998, developing activities of conception and organization of retrospectives and thematic cycles, production of texts and catalogues. She has published texts on cinema in several editions and has maintained a regular translation activity, mainly films.
Marie-José Mondzain (philosopher)
Marie-José Mondzain is a philosopher, research director at the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, and one of the greatest figures in contemporary thought. Considered a fundamental reference of contemporary thinking, Mondzain has contributed to the vital debate about the persuasive power of images, articulating the field of aesthetics with the greatest ethical concerns. Some of her titles include "L'image peut-elle tuer?" and "Homo-Spectator".
Pascale Cassagnau (art historian)
Pascale Cassagnau is a PhD in Art History and works as an art critic. She is in charge of audiovisual and new media contents at the CNAP (Ministry for Culture). She has been writing articles for Art Press for numerous years. She has written texts on Chris Burden, James Coleman, John Baldessari, Pierre Huyghe, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Matthieu Laurette in particular. Her research work is on new practices in cinema, especially the way they interact with contemporary creation.
Chair: Alexandra Martins and Luís Lima