Between-places II

Black Gaze – Showcase of Black Cinema in Portugal

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In this screening, we continue to reflect on the idea of ‘between-places’ through the work of filmmakers Denise Fernandes and Vanessa Fernandes.

The ‘between-places’ condition experienced by people who are simultaneously European and African is reflected vividly in the works they produce.

In ‘Si Destino’ (2016), by Vanessa Fernandes, Awa’s story develops due to the influence exerted by her family, in Guinea-Bissau, over her father, in Lisbon. Awa’s future is put at risk because of laws issued in her parents’ native land. The film also deals with the transitory nature of invisible powers and laws that spawn in silence.

Denise Fernandes, the daughter of Cape Verdean immigrants, who was born in Lisbon and grew up in Switzerland, tells, in her short film ‘Nha Mila’ (2020), the story of a stopover at Portela airport by a woman in transit from a European country to Cape Verde. The action of the film follows Mila’s visit to the outlying neighbourhood where members of her family live, although this story evokes not just a single journey, but a collective experience of diaspora, in which the ‘between’ becomes a fertile space of subjectiveness, as well as of vulnerability and destitution.


Biographies


Programme

19:30 / 'Nha Mila', by Denise Fernandes

Portugal, Switzerland, 2020, 17’44’’FictionIn Creole and Portuguese, with English subtitlesM/12
After being away from her native land for 14 years, Salomé travels to Santiago Island, Cape Verde, to see her brother, whose life is hanging by a thread. During a stopover at Lisbon airport, Águeda, a cleaner, recognises her as Mila, her old childhood friend. Águeda invites Salomé to spend her waiting time at her home, with the women of her family. As Salomé struggles to break the painful bond with her land, the spirit of the neighbourhood takes her back to the essence that was once a part of her.

19:50 / 'Si destinu', by Vanessa Fernandes

Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, 2016, 22’FictionIn Guinea-Bissau Creole, with English subtitlesM/12
After losing her mother and sister in an accident in Guinea Bissau, Awa moves to Portugal with her father, Abdulay, who decides to remarry. The question of Awa’s ‘purification’, now that she is 11, is raised when Fatumata, the bride's grandmother, enters their lives. This film deals with the decision that must be made regarding Female Genital Mutilation, conveyed through a child’s psychological and emotional confrontation, and questions the condition of African women.

20:15 / Talk

Kitty FurtadoPocas PascoalVanessa Fernandes

21:05 / Closing

Duration: 95 min.

Credits

‘Nha Mila’, by Denise Fernandes

Script and directing

Denise Fernandes

Production

Sandro Aguilar
Luis Urbano
O Som e a Fúria
Elda Guidinetti
Ventura Film

Cast

Yaya Correia
Maria Sanches
Cleo Tavares
Lourença Semedo

Script

Denise Fernandes

Editing

Pedro Marques

Photography

Marta Simões

Sound

Miguel Moraes Cabral 
António Porém Pires

‘Si destino’, by Vanessa Fernandes

Script and directing

Vanessa Fernandes 

Cast

Núria Silva
Karyna Silva Gomes
Cipriano Oquiniame
Mercedes Sani
Arnaldo Baldé
Larisa Baldé
Gabriela Matos 

Extras

Armando Pinho
Lino Butiam Có
Ansumane Biai
Vanessa Fernandes
Fatumata Sani
Ana Margarida Reis
Maria Emilia Cardoso
Adalgisa Évora
Ivanilda Veiga
Bacar Ansu 

Production

Vanessa Fernandes and Marisa Freitas, Taluma Filmes

Director of photography

Jan Kleinpeter  

Camera

Ivo Costa 

Art direction

Sérgio Carvalho 

Original soundtrack

Bilan, Projecto Hip Hop Baton 

Audio recording

Ricardo Alves 

Assistant director

Ricardo Queirós 
Miguel Veiga 

Costume designer

Adalgisa Évora
Beatriz Arrojado
Marisa Freitas 

Make-up

Adalgisa Évora 

Illustration

Cipriano Oquiniame 

Sound editing

Paulo das Cavernas 

Mastering

Miguel Moreiras 

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.

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