Bringing together film projections, live performances, music, installations, and real-time image manipulation, the programme features national and international artists exploring new relationships between cinema, space, and audience.

The concept of Expanded Cinema emerged in the 1960s, associated with experimental filmmakers seeking to liberate cinema from the traditional context of the darkened theatre and create more immersive, participatory, and multidisciplinary experiences. Since then, these practices have occupied galleries, public spaces, and alternative exhibition contexts, establishing themselves as a privileged field for artistic experimentation.

This year, presentations will take place primarily at the open-air cinema space of Solar – Cinematic Art Gallery and at Casa do Xisto – Residence for Cinema and Visual Arts, offering a series of experiences that bring together moving images, performance, and sound creation.

One of the highlights of the programme is Onde o Gesto Cura, by artist and filmmaker Tânia Dinis. Developed from the Morada Aberta project, the work combines digital and analogue projections with expanded cinema techniques and live visual composition. Drawing on the artist’s memories and the stories of communities from Northern Portugal and Galicia, the piece constructs a poetic reflection on territory, labour, care, and the transmission of knowledge. Situated between documentary and fiction, the work engages with the experiences of women connected to the land and the sea, exploring themes of healing, resistance, and collective memory.

Also featured in the programme is Linhas de Bordadura, a creation by Francisca Dores and Henrik Ferrara. Through the transformation of contemporary agricultural landscapes, the project offers a visual reflection on monocultures and processes of territorial homogenisation, questioning how we relate to the landscape and to what disappears beyond the visible horizon.

The international dimension of the programme will be reinforced by the presence of Canadian filmmaker Charles-André Coderre, who will present Thunderland, As a Matter of Fact (Y’a matière au pays des éclairs). This audiovisual performance combines live 16mm film projections with soundscapes composed by Frédéric Boisclair, exploring the industrial imagination of the Shawinigan region in Quebec. Through archival footage and material filmed specifically for the project, the work revisits hydroelectric power stations, aluminium plants, and industrial complexes, reflecting on the collective memory associated with industrialisation.

The Expanded Cinema programme also extends to Casa do Xisto, which will host the tenth edition of its Xisto Lab 16mm, developed in partnership with Curtas Vila do Conde. Between July 17th and 23rd, artists and filmmakers from different countries will gather in the village of Macieira de Rates, in Barcelos, to develop 16mm films through artisanal and sustainable processes.

Led by Ricardo Leite, creator of the “Cinema Alchemy” technique, with assistance from Juliana Julieta and Andreia Bertini, the laboratory focuses on ecological film-processing methods using plants and coffee, as well as the creation of soundtracks from natural elements collected in the surrounding territory. The initiative promotes a collaborative model of learning and creation, reflecting Casa do Xisto’s philosophy as a space dedicated to artistic experimentation and more conscious, sustainable practices.

The results of this work will be presented to the public on July 22nd in a special open-air Expanded Cinema screening held in the gardens of Casa do Xisto and integrated into the festival’s official programme.

Through this diverse set of proposals, Curtas Vila do Conde reaffirms its commitment to the most innovative forms of contemporary cinema, transforming film projection into an expanded, sensory, and collective experience.