Spirits, Shadows, Reflections
“Karlon, Russa, Ihjac: a rapper of Cape Verdean origin, a resident of the Aleixo neighborhood, and a young Krahô indigenous. By these meetings I believe today that another cinema is possible. Small families filming and filming. Crossed mise-en-scènes. Memories, resistances, pacts. Aesthetic, discursive and spiritual negotiations. The affections mobilized for the construction of a scene. The Ritual of Cinema.”
The director João Salaviza confronts his last three films (“Russa”, “High Cities of Bones”, “The Dead and the Others”), where he rehearses new ways of thinking, producing, and living Cinema. Participants are also invited to bring out sketches, ideas and maps for future films.
Biography
João Salaviza (1984, Lisbon) studied Cinema at the ESTC and the Universidad del Cine, Buenos Aires.
In 2018 he debuted “The Dead and the Others” (co-directed with Renée Nader Messora) at the Cannes Film Festival, receiving the Special Jury Prize – Un Certain Regard. The film was commercially released in several countries, highlighting France where it made more than 45,000 spectators.
“Mountain”, his first feature film, premiered at the Venice Film Festival (Critics’ Week) in 2015 after a short film trilogy of RAFA (Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2012); ARENA (Palme d’Or at Cannes 2009) and “Cerro Negro” (premiered in Rotterdam). His films have been the subject of several exhibitions and retrospective sessions at festivals, and at venues such as the Center Pompidou, Malba Buenos Aires, Barbican Center, Tabakalera, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, among others. His latest short films were released at the Berlin Film Festival: “High Cities of Bones” in 2017, and “Russa” (co-directed with Ricardo Alves Jr.) in 2018.
