Animation and personal archives come together for a collection of memories about the Portuguese colonial past that frees itself from the dominant narratives.
“This story is told by my maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather. There are thousands of other stories.” Divided into three parts — “Going to Mozambique”, narrated by the grandmother; “The War in Angola”, narrated by the grandfather; “The Return”, told by both —, Memories of Blackwood and Ivorystarts from testimonies and family archives to recover stories of the Portuguese dictatorship, war and colonial past, summoning the viewer’s reflection on the narratives inherited from Lusotropicalism and its traces in national identity. These are the memories of a generation seen and worked on by another that succeeds it, through animation techniques and different visual records (photographs, letters, collages), resulting in an object of great plastic richness. (Cláudia Marques)