In 2020, at Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema, a project was born to convert to digital the sea of Portuguese cinema. The proposal was ambitious: to restore 10,000 minutes of cinema, between features and short films, whose theme was related to the sea, a connection that is also almost a love story because of the number of eras and genres it crosses.
With EEA Grants financial aid, the FILMar project has been preserving part of the Portuguese film heritage. A work that goes deep into the Cinemateca’s archives, to show us back the ways in which cinema has kept our memory throughout time. Protecting and then releasing these records that date back to 1896, allows a greater knowledge and a different understanding of our history and identity. The program has already recovered titles of filmmakers such as Leitão de Barros or José Fonseca e Costa.
Two years later, FILMar project will open the 19th edition of IndieLisboa, with António de Macedo and José Álvaro de Morais. For the first time in the festival’s history, the opening screening will show two restored copies. Albufeira, by António de Macedo, is a film of the sixties, of promotional nature. It aims to encourage tourism in the Algarve town that gives the film title its name, but without escaping the authorship of the man who was one of the founders of Portuguese New Cinema. From José Álvaro de Morais, Zéfiro, or one more proof of the director’s interest in Portugal’s History. A film that crosses the Tagus River and heads towards the Algarve, moving between documentary and fiction. FILMar project will continue until April 2024.
The opening ceremony will take place at Cinema São Jorge, on April 28th, at 7 pm. Tickets are on sale.
Back to its spring dates, IndieLisboa takes place from April 28th to May 8th, between Cinema São Jorge, Culturgest, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Cinema Ideal and Palácio Galveias Library.
