They are characters or universes that show us that it is possible to exist without being bound by conventions. Their lives, their imaginaries and the choices with which they dictate their experiences teach us other possibilities of being and practising the world. They speak to us of freedom and emancipation, without ever apologising for who they are.
With a contagious energy, Little Richard is the main character in Lisa Cortes’ documentary. A musical icon of intoxicating strength, but also a man of a thousand and one contradictions. Richard Wayne Penniman came to live out his sexuality publicly, with an exuberance rare for his time, but his religious side created the internal struggle of one who exists in the irrepressible will to express his core, but without ever allowing himself to be defined. The film will be shown only once, at Cinema São Jorge, at 7 pm, on April 30.
Paul B. Preciado wanted to make his biography, but Virginia Woolf anticipated it. Orlando, My Political Biography starts from Woolf’s character and brings the philosopher’s considerations about gender as a social and political construction to the big screen. The constant battle of transgender people told and filmed in the first person, which does not forget poetry and love as reasons to live and invent life. The film that sold out the Cinema Ideal in its single screening will be distributed in cinemas at the end of the year.
In the National Competition, Alexander David’s directorial debut imagines a world that is an island where apparently only children live. First Age invents a community that is ruled by strict precepts and where the loss of innocence is the awareness that there are other places besides that one. This unusual universe, lost in time, can be seen on April 2, at 9:30 pm, in Culturgest, or on May 3, at 5:45, in Cinema Ideal.
Amiko has a different way of looking at the world and that always puts her in confrontation with those around her, making her a peculiar young woman with her schoolmates and even with her family. Her frank and slightly eccentric way of looking at life contrasts with the decorum and composure of those around her, and will bring some challenges when her core is faced with tragedy. Yusuke Morii’s film, in its national premiere, is competing internationally and will play once again on May 2, at 4:45 pm, at Culturgest.
Black, transvestite, The Devil Queen is the boss of the marginal world in 1960s Rio de Janeiro. A cult object by António Carlos Fontoura, made in 1974, that mixes blood into glitter as the Queen’s dazzling dominance is disputed. Presented now in a restored copy, a year after the death of its protagonist Milton Gonçalves, the film surprises for its multifaceted characters that don’t fit into the usual patterns. It will be repeated on May 5, at 9:30 pm, at the Cinemateca Portuguesa.
