Curtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival highlights, yet again, the crossing between cinema and music at the Stereo section, with concerts, film sessions and a music videos competition. In 2017, the festival hosts shows from Mão Morta, Capitão Fausto, Pega Monstro, Evols, Chassol and Atlantic Coast Orchestra.
In 8 july, the talented musicians Atlantic Coast Orchestra, directed by the maestro Luis Clemente, will interpret, live at Curtas Vila do Conde, a soundtrack written by the composer Andrew E. Simpson, for the classic silent film from Buster Keaton, The General (1926). The comedy accompanies Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) during the pursuit of a band of spies that hijacked his train, The General , with his bride Annabelle (Marion Mack) on board. Created in 2015, the Atlantic Coast Orchestra is an innovative project that gathers some of the best young professional musicians, developing a musical activity with high artistic standards.
On 12 july, the french Chassol presents himself for the first time with a surprising audiovisual show where he is going to present one of his most recent projects, Big Sun. Pianist, composer, arranger and music producer, Christophe Chassol has been getting the attention of the critics and conquering the admiration of musics like Franck Ocean, Flying Lotus, Solange and Thundercat. On his works, Chassol intends to "harmonize what is real", scoring life, the world and everything he finds and relates, on a technique that he named "ultrascore". His compositions articulate voices, music, sounds, and images, transforming them in singular audiovisual objects. On stage, images and recordings are combined with music, sort of an improvise where nothing is standard but everything flows naturally. The concert at Curtas Vila do Conde will be a multisense show and an unique opportunity to witness the musical genius of the frenchmen.
Capitão Fausto, one of the most acclaimed bands of the year, bring to Curtas Vila do Conde, on 14 of july, the album Os Capitão Fausto têm os dias contados, on an unique and original concert. At this show, the rock band from Lisbon presents itself on a special format, playing songs like Corazón, Amanhã Tou Melhor and Morro na Praia, while revisiting the moments that where on the creation of those songs through excerpts of the documentary Pontas Soltas. Directed by Ricardo Oliveira, the film, presented at Curtas Vila do Conde on a new version, follows the creative process and also the backtage of the recording of the third album of the group.
On the same year that mark the 25th anniversary of Mutantes S21, Mão Morta go up on stage of the Teatro Municipal, on saturday 15 july, to a complete presentation of the mythic album. Adolfo Lúxuria Canibal band returns to the festival where it performed nine years ago, for a concert that celebrates the record that placed Mão Morta on the radar of the portuguese rock. This concert will revisit all the songs from Mutantes S21 and a selection of other works from the band. Using as a premiss the special edition of the album that in 1992 was launched with a comic book, Mão Morta have invited 15 portuguese illustrators - Alex Gozblau, André Coelho, André Covas, Ângela Vieira, António Gonçalves, Esgar Acelerado, João Lemos, João Maio Pinto, José Carlos Costa, Marco Mendes, Marco Moura, Miguel Ogoshi, Raquel Costa, Sebastião Peixoto and Tiago Manuel - to create a work that points to each of the record theme. Over those illustrations, João Martinho Moura, Digital Art artist, will create a visual work, performing live with the band.
The Auditório Municipal of Vila do Conde - place that hosted the first 18th editions of Curtas Vila do Conde and where the festival returns in 2017 to mark the 25th anniversary - receives the bands Evols (9 july) and Pega Monstro (10 july) to presentation concerts of their new albuns Evols III and A Casa de Cima, respectively.
The price for the tickets of these shows cost between 5 and 14 euros and are for sale at Teatro Municipal of Vila do Conde and on Bilheteira Online. The holders of the festival's Free Pass have free access, except for the the concerts of Mão Morta and Capitão Fausto, for which they have a 50% discount. This general pass, for sale exclusively at the Curtas Vila do Conde website for 35 euros, assures also the acces to all film sessions.
On the Stereo section there will be presented, on 12 july, Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith, directed by Stuart Staples, the frontman from Tindersticks, band the sold out two shows at Curtas Vila do Conde in 2015. This film is a tribute to the pioneer work of F. Percy Smith, inventor and filmmaker from the early 20th century that developed cinematographic capture technics of the nature secrets on action. Using found footage from F. Percy Smith himself and using the musical experience of Stuart, the film creates a silent narrative that opens room to new readings on the original work of the British documentarian. The feature film has an original soundtrack from Tindersticks, in collaboration with Thomas Belhom and Christine Ott.
The Music Video Competition will present once again a selection of the best portuguese music videos, innovative on the art of combining music and cinema. Always trying to keep up with the evolution of the genres and the filmmaking way, dedicated on the latest years exclusively to national production, has screening works from some of the artists that stand out on the area, amonsgt them André Tentugal, Vasco Mendes, Paulo Furtado and Rodrigo Areias.
The 25th Curtas Vila do Conde, that runs between 8 and 16 of july, has the support of the MEDIA/Europa Criativa program, the Municipality of Vila do Conde, the Ministry of Culture, the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual and several other important partners to the organization of the festival.
Curtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival returns between 8 and 16 of July with a special edition: The 25th anniversary. To mark this date, the festival will present a commemorative program and returns to Auditório Municipal of Vila do Conde, place that witness the birth of the event in 1993.
Throughout these 25 years, Curtas Vila do Conde has been presenting an ecletic programming, screening the major tendencies of contemporary cinema, aiming, at the same time, to be a vanguard festival and also creating an intersection between cinema and other areas of art. In 2017, the festival is preparing a commemorative edition where it still insists on inventing the future, along with celebrating a quarter of a century of history.
One of the initiatives that is part of the 25th anniversary festivities is the presentation of a book that gathers 25 thought, memory and fiction texts, inspired on the experience of their authors at Curtas Vila do Conde. These 25 texts are from 25 individuals from areas such as cinema, music, journalism and literature: José Miguel Gaspar (journalist); Marcos Cruz (journalist), Pedro Marta Santos (writer and journalist); João Lopes (movie critic); Valter Hugo Mãe (writer); Manuela Azevedo (Clã); Eduardo Brito (screenwriter, director and photographer); Francisco Ferreira (movie critic); Inês Meneses (journalist); Inês Nadais (journalist); Jorge Mourinha (journalist); João Faria (designer); Ricardo Alexandre (journalist); Rodrigo Affreixo (journalist); Pedro Paixão (writer); Sabrina Marques (movie critic); Adolfo Luxúria Canibal (Mão Morta); Cláudia Marques Santos (journalist); Miguel Gomes (director); Paulo Furtado (The Legendary Tigerman); Rui Poças (photography director); Tiago Alves (journalist); Daniel Ribas (critic and cinema programmer); António Rodrigues (cinema programmer) e José Vieira Mendes (journalist).
Not just historical visions, these texts are also secrets and memories that intersect with the time at Vila do Conde from each author, as guests and participants of former editions of the festival. Some of those memories bring forth the Auditório Municipal, the place that hosted the first 18 editions of Curtas Vila do Conde and where the festival returns, in 2017. with special sessions, concerts, performances and a photographic exhibition.
Along with the presentation of the book, the 25 authors of each publication where invited to select a film, presented on a previous edition of Curtas Vila do Conde, for a lenghtly Carte Blanche. These choices will be sorted between several film sessions that will screen works from filmmakers like Manoel de Oliveira, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Maya Deren, Artavazd Pelechian, Chris Marker, Hal Hartley, Miguel Gomes, Matthias Müller, Man Ray, Gus Van Sant and João Pedro Rodrigues, amongst others.
As a preview to the festival, on the 1st of July, Curtas Vila do Conde presents at Cinemateca Portuguesa a special session with a selection of films that are part of this Carte Blanche.
The 25th edition of Curtas Vila do Conde program, that will be announced on the coming weeks, will have as a primary focus the short film competitions - Nationalm International, Experimental, Curtinhas (films to youngsters and children), Take One! (school films) and Music Videos -, a surprising selection of recent films that emerged from different countries. At the In Focus section, the filmography from an acclaimed filmmaker will be screened at the festival. The bold program will, yet again, bet on the intersection between cinema and music at the Stereo section, where moving images are reinterpreted by bands and musicians in live shows. At Solar - Cinematic Art Gallery, the cinema will be submitted into a gallery context, on a collective exhibition that opens during the festival. Thinking on the public education, Curtas Vila do Conde will promote yet again a film critic workshop and Curtinhas, a section dedicated to the younger audience, with films, ateliers and workshops. The debates with directors and agents of the audiovisual market will still be part of the festival week, providing a space for creative sharing. Also, the usual Panorama sections - Portuguese and European - will screen short films of recent production.
During nine days in July, the festival will be a meeting point between directors, producers, journalists, programmers, students and an enthusiastic audience, on an opportunity to see over 250 films from all around the world and to participate in meetings and debates about the industry with roughly 450 guests and professionals.
The 25th Curtas Vila do Conde has the support from MEDIA/Creative Europe, the municipality of Vila do Conde, from the Ministry of Culture, from the Cinema and Audiovisual Institute (ICA) and several partners, fundamental to the accomplishment of the festival.
Until 31 of May, registrations are open for the 2nd edition of the Curtas Vila do Conde's Film Criticism workshop, which will take place during the festival.
This workshop meets the need to educate new values of film criticism, allowing a dialogue between generations and a platform to develop a critical discussion of the films shown at Curtas Vila do Conde.
The workshop will consist of two phases: the first directed more to learning different modes of criticism and different models of film history (through masterclasses and talks); and the second, in tutorial mode, to follow the festival and the production of texts. This material produced by the participants will be published on the festival web platforms, as well as partners of the press (Público, À Pala de Walsh, A Cuarta Parede).
The workshop will be guided by tutors of the festival communication team and invited national and international press.
Applications are accepted until 31.05.2017
Maximum number of participants: 10
Price: 60 Euros
(Includes the Free-Pass that allows to see all sessions of the festival, except if indicated in the programme).
Programme
This is an intensive Workshop where participants are actively involved in the festival, viewing films and writing texts for publication. The Workshop starts on July 7 (Friday) and lasts until July 14 (following Friday), with daily tutorials sessions, film screenings, participation in debates and a daily masterclass with guests.
Tutors: Daniel Ribas e Paulo Cunha
Guest Speakers: Jorge Mourinha, Javier H. Estrada, Nicole Brenez, João Tabarra, Filipa César (among others).
Topics: film review and interviews techniques, modes of film criticism, contemporary cinema, experimental cinema, cinematic art).
The texts produced in the workshop will be published in the online platforms of the festival and other media partners.
Apply to the workshop in this form.
Pedro Neves Marques is a visual artist, director and writer; he lives between Lisbon and New York. He is the editor of the book, "The Forest and the School: Where to Sit at the Dinner Table?" (Archive Books, 2015), an anthology on anthropology and Brazilian Antropofagia, and the author of the fiction books "Morrer na América" (Abysmo Editora and Kunsthalle Lissabon, 2017) and "The Integration Process" (Atlas Projectos, 2012). Among other venues, he has exhibited at Contour8 Biennial of Moving Image (Mechelen), Fundación Botín (Santander), Sursock Art Museum (Beirut), e-flux (New York), Kadist Art Foundation (Paris), Sculpture Center (New York), Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador), EDP Foundation (Lisbon) and Serralves Museum for Contemporary Art (Oporto), as well as in DocLisboa Cinema Festival and Indie Lisboa International Film Festival. Together with artist Mariana Silva, he runs inhabitants, an online channel for exploratory video and documentary reporting.
The version, translated in English, of the book "Cinematic Lab- Solar, 10 Years" is available at Loja das Curtas (online and at Solar - Cinematic Art Gallery).
Published in 2016, "Cinematic Lab - Solar, 10 years” is a work that joins and pulls itself the purely experimental character of the gallery with the celebration of a decade of searching for new territories of the cinematic art. The book gathers a multitude of texts and interviews from and with some of the authors that contributed for Solar's history, as well as a portfolio of exhibitions and interventions that personify the project as a cinematic art laboratory. Price: 15,00 euros.
Curtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival has prepared a selection of short films to be presented next Thursday, March 16, at SACO - Contemporary Audiovisual Week of Oviedo, which will take place between March 10 and 19 in that Spanish city.
The session is composed by the films "Penúmbria" by Eduardo Brito, "Friends After Dark" by Rita Barbosa, "A Brief History of Princess X" by Gabriel Abrantes and "Small Town" by Diogo Costa Amarante, presented in world premiere at the portuguese competition of Curtas Vila do Conde in 2016, "It Would Piss me Off To Die So Yooooong..." by Filipe Abraches and "Fragments" by José Miguel Ribeiro screened in the "Portuguese Panorama" of the festival that same year.
Friday, March 17, Curtas Vila do Conde will be hosting one of the Spanish festival parties with a DJ Set of Curtas Sound System, a duo composed by Miguel Dias and Sérgio Gomes.
CURTAS VILA DO CONDE SOUNDSYSTEM
Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival has a strong tradition of music events beyond its core film programme, which can be explained for the festival’s desire for integration of other artistic forms related to cinema, but also for the personal music interests of its team members and programmers. In this particular case, the music proposed by Miguel Dias and Sérgio Gomes is also a good analogy of another important festival feature, the dialogue between history and cutting edge cinema, covering genres from obscure soul and deep funk classics to its electronic counterpoints such as ghetto-funk, glitch-hop and future beats.
Miguel Dias is a record collector interested in all shapes of jazz, soul, funk, latin and african music, specially from the 1960’s and 70’s. He’s also part of the Sete Magníficos, a collective of Porto DJs spinning classic 7" records.
Sérgio Gomes is a DJ since 1998. He has always shown an interest for contemporary and avant-garde electronic music. With its BREAKS lda. label he’s also a promoter of electronic music events in Portugal, and hosts a weekly radio show at RUM.
