local worlds

Outros Bairros (Other neighbourhoods), 1999, by Kiluanje Liberdade, Vasco Pimentel and Inês Gonçalves
Portugal, 52’. Production: Filmes do Tejo
There are some boys and girls in Portugal who have no homeland. They are not Cape Verdeans because they’ve never been to Cape Verde. They are not Portuguese because the language and the customs are not those of their families. They do not want to be Portuguese, maybe they will want to be Cape Verdeans. Now they are from Pontinha, from Pedreira dos Húngaros, from Arrentela, from Miratejo, from Cova da Moura. They are from the “área”, from the “bairro”, they are “niggas”. They have their own borders, their own laws, their own language, hymns, ideas and unmistakable set of codes. They have created for the very first time in the 500-year old story of the stormy and close relationship between Portuguese and Africans an autonomous, assertive and avant-gardist culture in Portugal. And they are proud.

Oxalá Cresçam Pitangas. Histórias de Luanda (I Hope Pitangas will grow. Stories of Luanda), 2005, by Kiluanje Liberdade and Ondjaki
Angola, 62’. Production: Kiluanje Liberdade/KLIG and Ondjaki
Angola: 30 years of independence. 3 years of peace. Capital: Luanda. A city built to accommodate 600,000 currently has a population of 4 million. A melting pot of people from every province, living different realities in the same city. The people are the life of the city. Which people?
Along the film, rhythmical, dignified and coherent testimony is voiced by these ten main characters who reveal a universe inhabited by various generations, a web of complex social dynamics. Luanda has never before been filmed from such a human and realistic perspective: the conflict between the general population and the political sphere; the proliferation of the informal sector; the disillusions and aspirations; discussions about urban space and what the future holds for an Angola experiencing exponential growth.
The ten characters talk about their lives, about how each of them deals with their own particular reality, about the music that must never stop. A Luanda emerges where imagination and happiness are crucial survival tactics. Where the language changes and adapts to the creative needs of so many people speaking so many different tongues.

KILUANJE LIBERDADE  was born in Benguela (Angola), in 1976 and graduated in Communication and Culture Studies, in the area of Cultural Management, from the Lusófona University of Lisbon and in African Studies from the ISCTE, in Lisbon. The artist’s first work, O Rap é uma Arma (Rap is a weapon), 1996, won the award for Best Documentary Film, at the International Meetings of Malaposta. Liberdade’s most recent works include: Agora Luanda (Now Luanda), 2006, co-directed with Inês Gonçalves, Mãe Jú (Mother Jú) 2006-2007, documentary film/ installation, also co-directed with Inês Gonçalves; Oxalá Cresçam Pitangas. Histórias de Luanda (Hope Pitangas will Grow. Stories of Luanda), 2005, co-directed with the writer Ondjaki; and Outros Bairros (Other Neighborhoods), 1999, with Inês Gonçalves and Vasco Pimentel.

ONDJAKI was born in Luanda (Angola), in 1977 and graduated in Cultural Sociology from the ISCTE, Lisbon. Ondjaki is a fictional writer, a poet and a scriptwriter. He developed the concept and scripts for the mini-series Sede de Viver (Thirst for Life), Angola, TPA, 2004, and in the following year, directed and edited of the videos Essa Palavra Sonho (That Word Dream) e Faenas de Amor (Love Faenas), having been assistant director for the film As Cartas do Domador  (The Tamer’s Letters), by Tabajaras Ruas (Brazil). Ondjaki’s published books include: Actu Sanguíneu (poetry, awarded the António Jacinto prize – honorable mention), Momentos de Aqui (short-stories), O Assobiador, (novel), Há Prendisajens com o Xão (poetry), Bom Dia Camaradas (novel), Ynari: a menina das cinco tranças (children’s book), Quantas Madrugadas Tem a Noite (novel), E se Amanhã o Medo (short-stories, Sagrada Esperança Literary Prize). Co-directed with Kiluanje Liberdade, the film Oxalá Cresçam Pitangas. Histórias de Luanda  (Hope Pitangas Will Grow. Stories of Luanda), 2005.

INES GONCALVES was born in 1964, in Malaga, Spain and lives in Lisbon. She works for the press since 1986, having started working as a photographer with the  weekly newspaper O Independente, in 1988. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Mardir, Paris, Lisbon, Coimbra, Idanha-a-Nova, Toulose and Cape Verde and published in books such as Fotografias de Moda  (Fashion Photos), 1995, Obras do Metro – (Underground Construction Work), 1996, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), 1999, Goa: História de um Encontro e Imagens Médicas (Story of a Meeting and Medical Pictures), 2001. Outros Bairros - Other Neighborhoods (2000), a documentary film co-directed with Vasco Pimentel and Kiluanje Liberdade has been shown in several film festivals. She directed her first ‘short’ Inácio (2004) in the context of the Course for Documentary Documentary Film from the Varan Ateliers of the Calouste Gulbenkian program Criatividade e Criação Artística (Creativity and Artistic Creation), 2004. Pátria Incerta (Uncertain Homeland), 2006, was her second film (co-directed with Vasco Pimentel).

VASCO PIMENTEL was born in 1957, in Lisbon, and graduated from the High School of Theatre and Cinema in the National Conservatory. Since 1979, he has worked as assistant, sound director, sound mixer, picture and sound editor in more than a hundred Portuguese and foreign feature films, including films by João César Monteiro, Teresa Villaverde, Werner Schroetter and Robert Kramer. In 2002, he directed his first film, Outros Bairros (Other Neighborhoods), a documentary film co-directed with Kiluanje Liberdade and Inês Gonçalves. His second feature documentary, Pátria Incerta (Uncertain Homeland) was also co-directed with Inês Gonçalves.