Alternative Routes is a documentary by Rui Mota Pinto that reveals the musical diversity of a city, celebrating it and expanding its history through textual, sonic, and visual narratives that inspire new generations. It is a portrait of Viseu’s alternative music scene from the 80s and 90s, where musicians, radio broadcasters, programmers, and other music lovers are invited to confront their experiences throughout those decades.
Across the country, many garages were emptied of cars to be filled with drums, basses, guitars, and amplifiers in the 1980s and 1990s. Before studios, often with no one really knowing how to play very well and without a plan, many bands started and ended in garages. What mattered was playing. Each decade has its own sound. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was that of alternative rock and its many variations. This is the story of the garage bands of Viseu, many of them local in scope, several reaching national dimension. Major Alvega, Lucretia Divina, Bastardos do Cardeal, Dead Corporation, Funny Bunny are some of them. More than a film about bands, this is a film about freedom and the act of making things with friends. In Viseu or anywhere in the world. (Carlos Ramos)
