The Indiscipline of Choosing. In 1995 Gus Van Sant had recently been recognised as an original, talented personality. He was known to have made a series of shorts and he came to Vila do Conde that year, as cool as certain passages of his films, with eleven shorts directed between 1982 and 1986: "My Friend", "Where’d She Go?", "Nightmare Typhoon", "My New Friend", "Switzerland", "Five Ways to Kill Yourself", "Ken Death Gets out of Jail", "Junior", "The Discipline of DE", "Flea Sings", "A Thanksgiving Prayer". They are films of the order of memories, essays, personal diaries or home movies, with two exceptions: "A Thanksgiving Prayer" and "The Discipline of DE" based on texts by William Burroughs, of whom Van Sant was close. However, some time later he prohibited the dissemination of his shorts. More than twenty years elapsed and at least one of these films regained permission to go into circulation: "The Discipline of DE", the first film he made after completing his studies. Burroughs’ text is a parody on self-control, hence an ironic narrative. A mix of military discipline and Zen detachment allow the character to perform household chores in a DE (do easy) way, with a clear mismatch between the pompous speech and the modesty of the aims. Perhaps "The Discipline of DE" is not as original as the shorts of Gus Van Sant’s diary, but it is more easily intelligible. A happy coincidence allowed it to be included in Curtas’ 1995 programme, another happy coincidence brings it once again to the festival in 2017. (António Rodrigues)