by
Antonio Buscardini*
To discover a new movie, a new story, a new way of shooting is always a pleasure. I had the chance to attend, for the first time, the Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival. You might be wondering where is Melgaço. Melgaço is a Portuguese town located in the North of Portugal - close to the Spanish border. In fact, every morning, when I opened the curtains of my hotel room, I could see Spain from just 750 meters distance. The only thing dividing Melgaço and Spain is the beautiful landscape of vineyards. Melgaço is also the land of the famous - and delicious - vinho verde !
This festival, also known as FIlmes do Homem, takes place every August, in order to bring together the entire community of Melgaço. You have to know that Melgaço has over 5000 Portuguese emigrants leaving abroad (mainly in France, Belgium and Switzerland) who come back home in this period. This year it was the third edition where several film directors and producers from all around the world presented their work and exchanged best practices.
The man behind this festival is Manoel Batista, mayor of Melgaço. He has implemented this festival with the goal of bringing something unique to the region. He explained to me that the aim is not to have an massive festival but a smart one where the local community can benefit from this cultural attraction (the entrance is free), and filmmakers can work together and share their knowledge.
During this 6 days festival I had the chance to meet a lot of colleagues. One of the encounters was with Patricia Nogueira. This girl is a filmmaker and is today coordinating the Filmes do Homem Festival. “This festival is a space of meeting, sharing and questioning. We have also launch an award entitled “Jean Loup Passek” for the best exhibitions. This year’s topic is identity, memory and the border. Portugal has always been a country of emigrants so this topic fits well!” Cinema has always been an important medium of expression, allowing Diaspora’s community to share their identity, representing the feeling of displacement of globally dispersed families, their uprooting and stigmatization, while trying to establish themselves in new locations”.
Portugais de France, le choix impossible
Well, after this discussion, I saw a few documentaries about the emigration issue. There is one that really turns out to be a must see. I am talking about “Portugais de France: le choix impossible” - in other words, Portuguese from France: the impossible choice. Patrick Séraudie, a french man from Midi-Pyrénées, is the director of this movie. Patrick presented several stories of the Portuguese emigration to France from the 60’s until today.
In his exercise he tried to identify the common stories but most of all the common feelings. You can be a poor emigrant from the 60’s or a qualified emigrant from today but one thing you will always have in common: the saudade. The saudade is this very unique Portuguese word that could be translated as “missing someone” or just being “nostalgic” of something or someone. They all missed their family, land, and specially mothers.
In this documentary you can understand their lives in France: how do they integrate but also how they create a solid community. After this documentary I walked on the streets of Melgaço where I could see and meet those emigrants that were there for the summer. Boom, the same reality from the movie.
District Zero, a life inside a refugee camp
Another breathtaking documentary was the one directed by Pablo Iraburu from Spain. Pablo presented the story of Maamun Al Wadi. He is one of almost four million Syrian refugees who have fled the country in what the United Nations describes as the worst crisis of its kind in a generation.
He runs a small mobile-phone shop in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp, repairing handsets, charging batteries and restoring the only connections its inhabitants still have with Syria.
People from all over the camp come to his shop and it is through the content of their smartphones that the audience sees how much their lives have changed: from their old familiar daily routines to the horrors of war, destruction and flight.
“Presenting a snapshot of the day-to-day life of a refugee, we aim to show that behind every number and statistic about the refugee problem, there is a story to be told,” says Pablo Tosco, from Cordoba, Argentina, who directed the film with Pablo Iraburu and Jorge Fernández.
One of the most touching moments in the film is when Al Wadi decides to buy a printer for the camp’s residents to print out copies of their photographs.
The big winner: Behemoth
The movie Behemoth, brought by Zhao Liang, won the Jean Loup Passek Award. Behemoth is a beast mentioned in Job 40:15-24. In this part not only Behemoth is described but also the sea-monster Leviathan (also used by Thomas Hobbes master piece), to demonstrate to Job the futility of questioning God, who alone has created these beings and who alone can capture them. Both beasts are chaos monsters destroyed by the deity at the time of creation, although such a happening is not found in Genesis creation narrative.
For Zhao Liang the beast metaphor is about the abuse of workers in the coal mines in the Inner Mongolia. A few months ago, in an interview, Zhao explained why he chose Mongolia. “The coal mines in Inner Mongolia look like they are from outer space. It is such a visual stimulation. I think many Chinese people don't have the opportunity to see these things. That is where I found all the elements that I wanted for the film. Although the pollution in the Yangtze River is rather serious, it is more difficult to present it through visuals. You can only really rely on data and interviews [to communicate that], but I don't do films in that fashion” he said. (source Slat Magazine).
Other awards
The award for the best Portuguese documentary went to “A Toca do Lobo” directed by Catarina Mourao. The movie “Women in Silk” directed by Iris Zaky was awarded with second category of Jean Loup Passek Award.
*Antonio Buscardini is editor-in-chief of the Magazine of PressClub Brussels-Europe
By: N. Peter Kramer
