Framing reality at Porto/Post/Doc

Porto/Post/Doc: Film & Media Festival is a festival cinema of reality in Porto. The event kicks off on 23rd November and concludes on 1st December. The festival is hosted at Rivoli, Cinema Passos Manuel and Porto Planetarium.

The thematic area chosen is identity issues in contemporary society, from the non-binary gender condition to the current geological era, known as Anthropocene and the display of affection to be addressed at the "Forum do Real" [The Real Forum", free translation] and by a parallel film screening programme.

The "Fórum do Real" takes place between 27th and 29th November, at Cinema Passos Manuel, and presents three speakers' panels, namely, "Da Terra", to adress identity and territory; "Do Pensamento", to reflect upon the philosophical concept of identities; and "Das Imagens", to ponder on contemporary cinema and identity flows.

Participants to the Forum are: Álvaro Domingues (geoprapher), António Guerreiro (critic), Ben Rivers (director), Christiana Perschon (director), Daniel Ribas (researcher), Marie-José Mondzain (philosopher), Pedro Mexia (critic), Susana de Matos Viegas (antropologist), Valérie Massadian (director). Entrance is free.

The short and long film to be screened at Porto/Post/Doc includes films such as "Persona", by Ingmar Bergman, "Street of Shame", by Kenji Mizoguchi or "La Salamandre", by Alain Tanner.

Three short films by Swiss activist and director Carole Rossopoulos, will be displayed at the festival, as well as "Ghost Strata" and "Now, At Last!" by Ben Rivers, and presented by himself at the festival.

Gürcan Keltek (winner of the 2017 edition) is back with the short "Gulyabani", and Mohanad Yaqubi features the special session "Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory".

There will be a debate after the session with Gürcan Keltek and moderated by Nuno Lisboa, director and programmer of Doc's Kingdom.

The Porto/Post/Doc Festival brings the world in film with the usual International Competition and Competition Cinema Novo, featuring fiction that represents reality from Chile, Brazil, Spain, France, Germany and Japan.

The festival kicks off with the screening of the documentary "Marianne & Leonard: Words Of Love", by Nick Broomfield, in the scope of the programme Transmission, devoted to music and pop culture. This documentary chronicles the enduring love story between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse, Marianne Ihlen, from the early days in Greece to the time Leonard became famous. The screening is scheduled for 23rd November, at 9.30pm, at Rivoli.

Other highlights are the special documentaries directed by British Mike Christie and the national premiere of "Hansa Studios: By The Wall 1976-90", on the golden years of this famous German recording studio, and also "New Order: Decades" and "Suede: The Insatiable Ones", on the bands with the same name.

The programme also includes a retrospective of the work by the Lithuanian director Audrius Stonys, devoted to identities.

The official competition presents big titles such as "Por Deus Me Libro", the 2011 comedy, directed by Martín Duplaquet and written by Juan José Hurtado.

Throughout the week, the festival presents "Haut Les Filles", by François Armanet, a documentary on female figures of French rock music, with special appearances by Charlotte Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy and Vanessa Paradis; also, "Berlin Bouncer", by David Dietl, invites to journey through the clubbing culture of German capital city, Berlin, and director Stephen Nomura Schible brings "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda", on the life of this Japanese architect.

Moreover, the Porto/Post/Doc programme features a special section dedicated to Portuguese and Spanish language films.

The Transmission classification also screens the Portuguese film "Batida de Lisboa", by Rita Maia and Vasco Viana, a documentary shot in the outskirts of Lisbon to make known musicians and tunes from different places, such as Angola, São Tomé, Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau.

Directed this year and to be screened at Porto/Post/Doc are the films "Um Punk Chamado Ribas", by Paulo Miguel Antunes, and "Punk's Not Dread", by Tiago Afonso, both about two leading figures of the Portuguese Punk music scene.

In the meantime, Porto/Post/Doc has been addressed as a case study for "small big film festivals: the keys to find what makes you unique" at the San Sebastian Festival, which runs from 20 to 28 September, 2019, and is promoted by ICAA - Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts/ Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain.

The 2019 edition of Porto/Post/Doc relies on the support of Porto City Hall, the ICA - Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual- Ministry of Culture, and the CVRVV - Vinho Verde.

See here the full programme.