For its 2026 edition, music once again takes centre stage at Porto/Post/Doc through two programmes that explore it as memory, community, confrontation and a way of life. The Transmission Competition brings together five documentaries spanning different geographies and moments in musical creation, while “The Future Is Punk” returns to the early decades of a movement that transformed music and culture, reflecting on the enduring power of its political and artistic energy fifty years later.
In the Transmission Competition, the history of music unfolds through individual journeys, archives and communities. “Elza”, by Eryk Rocha, draws on rare footage and conversations from the final years of Elza Soares’ life to explore more than seven decades of a career inseparable from Brazil’s social and cultural transformations. In “The Sailor's Life”, Paulo Miguel Antunes revisits João Aguardela through personal films, concert footage and testimonies, tracing the life of a musician who brought tradition and experimentation together in projects such as Sitiados, Megafone and A Naifa.
Musical creation also emerges as an act of affirmation and a collective experience. “Hex”, by Maja Holand, follows Nikoline, Victoria and Johanna as they form Witch Club Satan and make a pact to devote three years to awakening the world and themselves as witches, transforming black metal into a space for performance and confrontation. Meanwhile, “The Best Summer”, by Tamra Davis, revisits footage shot more than three decades ago, offering a fresh perspective on the Summersault tour and capturing the early years of influential acts such as Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Beck, Pavement and Bikini Kill. “Summer Tour”, by Mischa Richter, follows Jerry and Annie on Dead & Company's final tour, exploring Deadhead culture through a journey in which concerts, life on the road and a sense of belonging become intertwined.
A special programme for this year's edition, “The Future Is Punk” revisits the disruptive force that emerged in the late 1970s. Marking the movement's fiftieth anniversary, the programme approaches punk not as an object of nostalgia, but as a culture rooted in autonomy, challenging the establishment and the Do It Yourself ethos. Spanning music, visual arts, fashion and activism, this attitude has endured far beyond its original moment and continues to offer ways of rethinking creativity and resistance in the present.
The five films explore different geographies and moments in this history. “Punk in London”, by Wolfgang Büld, filmed as the movement was emerging, brings together concerts and interviews with bands including Sex Pistols, The Clash and X-Ray Spex. In “D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage”, Lech Kowalski follows the Sex Pistols' turbulent American tour, capturing the tensions between underground rebellion, media spectacle and commercial appropriation. Decades later, he returns to the memory of New York punk in “Hey! Is Dee Dee Home?”, through a conversation with Dee Dee Ramone about the Ramones, Johnny Thunders and Richard Hell.
The programme is completed by “Jubilee”, Derek Jarman's anarchic dystopian satire of a Britain in collapse, and “B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979–1989”, by Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck and Heiko Lange, which delves into West Berlin's underground scene through television archives, Super 8 footage and private recordings.
