It’s announced the full program for this year’s edition of Porto/Post/Doc. More than 99 films will be screened in Porto, between the 20th and 30th of November. In the year the festival returns to its normal format, with sessions in six venues of Porto, there is space for cinema, performance, parties and an extension to online that expands the presence of the event's contents throughout the country. Today we announce the 10 films that draw one of the most interesting international competitions of recent years, the inclusion of Moby Doc in the competitive lineup of Transmission, as well as the participants in the two cycles of conversations that the festival proposes: the Fórum do Real, which responds to the central theme of PPD'21 - Ideas to Postpone the End of the World, and the Call to Action, a conversation-action program that aims to involve the cinematographic and civil community around ideas and concrete actions to combat the urgent needs of our time.
Let's start with the return of Sergei Loznitsa to the alignment of national festivals with which will be the national debut of Babi Yar. Context. Using what is his main signature, Loznitsa gathers archival materials to immerse us in the atmosphere of the Ukraine occupied by the Nazi troops that in September 1941, when they perpetrated one of their biggest massacres. The latest film by Zhao Liang (winner of the grand prize of the second edition of Porto/Post/Doc in 2015) also arrives from Cannes. In I Am So Sorry, the director reflects on the consequences of nuclear energy for humans. Also premiering in our country, after playing at CPH:DOX, Gabi, Between Ages 8 and 13 directed by Engeli Broberg and The Last Shelter directed by Ousmane Samassekou. The first offers an intimate portrait of the difficulties and joys of a childhood freed from gender norms, the second a look at the interiors of the “House of Migrants”, a space that welcomes refugees on the border of the Sahel desert. Visions du Réel festival grand prize winner, Jessica Beshir's Faya Dayi takes us on a spiritual journey through the Harar region (where the director was born) immersed in the rituals around the khat plant, used in religious meditations and nowadays is Ethiopia's most profitable crop. Also featured at the French festival, Stefan Pavlović's first feature, Looking for Horses, is a delicate western, made of affection and complicity, painting, on the big screen, the connection between two friends: the director, who stutters, and a fisherman, deaf and blind in one eye. Eva Sommer received the award for best actress at the FIDMarseille festival for her performance in Beatrix, directed by Lilith Kraxner and Milena Czernovsky, a feature film that presents us with a physical and gestural portrait of a woman who spends much of the summer alone at home and whose universe has been compared to Chantal Akerman's cinema. Returning to the essays about history. Eles Transportan a Morte, directed by Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, is inhabited by characters who want to cheat death, in a film that urges us to reflect on the origins of the Western world: colonialist, slave-owning and resource exploiter. On November 3rd 1995, director Natalia Garayalde (then just 12 years old) accidentally recorded the explosion of the military munitions factory in Río Tercero. In Esquirlas, personal and national memories merge in what would become one of the most serious cases of corruption and arms trafficking in Argentina. Closing the line-up of proposals for this year's central competition with Salomé Jashi's Taming The Garden, which follows Georgia's former Prime Minister's extravagant hobby: building a garden where he collects century-old trees.
Already announced was the core program of this year's PPD. The title phrase of a book by Ailton Krenak, Ideas for Postponing the End of the World, marks the two cycles of conversations proposed by the festival. The usual Fórum do Real will be divided into three themes: Earth, Community and Freedom; and will feature, among others, Álvaro Domingues, Rob Hopkins and Selma Uamusse. New this year, the Call to Action debate cycle will be guided by two independent and activist journalism platforms, Gerador e Divergente, and will feature, among others, Ailton Krenak (indigenous leader and activist), Truls Lie (journalist and film critic at Modern Times Review), Marc Bauder (director of Who We Were), Ana Milhazes (Lixo Zero Portugal), Elsa Cerqueira (professor distinguished with the award for Best Teacher of the Year in 2021) and Constança Carvalho Homem (programmer of Queer Film Festival).
The 180 Media Laboratory takes place again this year, resulting from a partnership with Canal180, a space that proposes to open new horizons for old exhibition formats, through the development of a set of experimental actions. An artistic circuit, a performative television broadcast and a multidisciplinary performance are part of this year's program.
Closing the announcement with a special highlight for this year's Porto/Post/Doc special sessions. Premiering in Porto: Jane Par Charlotte, the film by Charlotte Gainsbourg about her mother, Arte da Memória, the latest film by Rodrigo Areias where he visits the creative process of Daniel Blaufuks, Pedro Bastos and José Rufino; Pato Pathos, film by Cunha Pimentel, about Portuguese enologist Luís Pato, Do Bairro, by Diogo Varela Silva, a feature about the life stories that still persist in the neighborhoods of Alfama and Mouraria, and the national premiere is Ljubomir Stanišić - Coração na Boca, a documentary about the life of the renowned Portuguese chef.
For this year's edition, the immersive cinema sessions at Planetário do Porto, the School Trip's family and children's spaces and the incursions into the new Spanish cinema proposed by the CineFiesta section will also be maintained. Already announced were the alignment of Transmission, a section of films about music, the focus on the work of Theo Anthony and Basir Mahmood, proposals for Portuguese cinema and new films by young directors coming out of national schools. In the field of performances and artistic crossover sessions, two proposals: a film-concert based on Maria do Mar, directed by Jorge Leitão Barros, with live music by the Orquestra Sinfonietta de Lisboa and the pianist Pedro Burmester, from an original score composed by Bernardo Sassetti, and As Filhas do Fogo, a audiovisual performance that joins by Pedro Costa and Os Músicos do Tejo.
Porto/Post/Doc takes place between 20th and 30th November at Teatro Municipal do Porto - Rivoli, Passos Manuel, Coliseu Porto Ageas, Casa Comum da Reitoria da Universidade Porto, Sala Estúdio Perpétuo and Planetário do Porto - Centro Ciência Viva.
SELECTION INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION 2021
Babi Yar. Context, Sergei Loznitsa, Netherlands, Ukraine, 2021, DOC, 121'
Beatrix, Lilith Kraxner, Milena Czernovsky, Austria, 2021, FIC, 95'
Eles Transportan a Morte, Helena Girón, Samuel M. Delgado, Spain, Colombia, 2021, FIC, 75'
Esquirlas, Natalia Garayalde, Argentina, 2020, DOC, 70'
Faya Dayi, Jessica Beshir, Etiópia, EUA, Katar, 2021, DOC, 120'
Gabi, Between Ages 8 and 13, Engeli Broberg, Sweden, Norway, 2021, DOC, 75'
I Am So Sorry, Zhao Liang, France, China, 2021, DOC, 100'
Looking for Horses, Stefan Pavlović, Netherland, Bosnia Herzegovina, France, 2021, DOC, 87'
Taming The Garden, Salomé Jashi, Switzerland, Germany, Georgia, 2021, DOC, 91'
The Last Shelter, Ousmane Samassekou, Mali, France, South Africa 2021, DOC, 85'