IndieLisboa Lab is a workshop taught by Fernanda Polacow that will now have its 3rd edition in partnership with Projeto Paradiso.
This screenwriting workshop focuses on the development of projects with non-normative characters with the aim of continuing to foster dialog about inclusion and representation in cinema.
Selected projects for IndieLisboa Lab 2025:
Carolina Rebelo and Gonçalo Dias
A Summer All Full Moons
Synopsis
In the midst of a summer marked by unexplained phenomena, the routine of a small village is shaken when 12-year-old Carlos discovers a fossilized trilobite embedded in his skin after a dive in the municipal pool. The pool’s caretaker shuts down the facility and spreads photographs of the bizarre discovery throughout the village, throwing the community into a spiral of speculation and superstition. Caught between collective fascination and his own inner turmoil, Carlos becomes the obsession of Ana, a young woman with a strange attraction to fossils, who desperately seeks the identity of the boy in the images. As the village is engulfed in excavation fever, Carlos and Ana cross paths—two strangers with secrets yet to be confessed.
Laís Andrade
Ticket 13, Desk 5
Synopsis
Portugal, 2004. Yasmin, a 7-year-old Brazilian girl and her parents spend the day at the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service (SEF) to renew their visas. In a battle against the monster of bureaucracy, this family bonds with a new perception of the Portuguese immigration dream.
Kate Saragaço-Gomes
Rover
Synopsis
A young European woman hitchhikes across the vast, hot northeastern hinterland of Northeastern Brazil. She is running away from the confinement of European society and a life she never chose. For months she has wandered aimlessly in search of a place she doesn’t know really exists. Her faith in the journey is fading. The rides she catches connect her with extraordinary realities where fascination and alienation intertwine. One particularly exhausting day, after hours of walking by the side of the road, she accepts a ride from an older man, whose house she ends up staying in for the night. Her stay in this isolated house and the silent bond with this man transform her understanding of what it means to have a home.
Maria Novo
Loose Lips Sink Ships
Synopsis
Maria, a thirty-year-old young woman, has lived her entire life without a paternal figure, as her biological father chose not to acknowledge her as his daughter, leaving her caught among questions and fantasies. The film envisions fourteen first encounters between a father and a daughter who do not know each other.
Ricardo Branco
I’m a Space Bee
Synopsis
In the year 2024, a botanist who takes care of plants in one of the first colonies on Mars, longing for Earth, writes a letter to his mother in which he reflects on how he and his plants are adapting to the new planet.
Salomón Pérez
A Film of Memory
Synopsis
A Peruvian filmmaker moves to Portugal to start a family and faces the challenges of being a foreigner in a new place. Eager to make friends while waiting for his appointment at AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum), he reaches out to people, inviting them to participate in a “film about memory” that he is working on. Initially, he meets with the archivists of Lisbon’s video library and a university professor in neurology, hoping to gather insights on the subject of memory. However, these encounters soon lead to a series of moments where he forms bonds with a diverse range of people—from amateur football players and his partner’s grandmother to a senior citizens’ theater group and individuals obsessed with Lisbon’s air traffic.
Stephanie Ricci
I dread old age
Synopsis
Areta is 70 years old and has only one fear greater than death: being forgotten. After losing her keys in São Paulo’s obscure historic center, she embarks on a nocturnal underground journey in search of a 24-hour locksmith. As she gets lost in this strange urban maze, she finds her greatest fear in the city’s cracks.
Yasmin Thainá
The Telephones
Synopsis
Filomena and Solange, mother and daughter, have been separated for over 30 years. The only connection between them is the phone, where they try to rebuild, with each call, a lost intimacy. Solange, who no longer remembers what her mother looks like, uses these conversations to imagine what Filomena might be like, creating an idealized figure made of words and distant feelings. Solange’s imagination comes to life, and Filomena’s presence materializes in her memories and desires, bringing to the surface moments from the past and a longing for reunion. Together, they plan the best vacation of their lives, revisiting old memories and reflecting on the choices they made. However, what seemed to be a path toward reconciliation also reveals a sense of estrangement: both realize that time has changed them, and now they must understand each other again.
