Utopia Film Festival

About

Utopia Festival celebrates a decade as the showcase for Portuguese spoken film in the UK. This autumn season, Julião Sarmento, Solveig Nordlund, Pedro Nevesand Ricardo Vieira Lisboawill be attending the festival to discuss their work. The tagline Other Voices - New Perspectivesreflects an eclectic programme, wide-ranging in its selection of innovative Portuguese moving image. The season opens with João Salavizaand Renée Nader Messora’s The Dead and the Others, which takes us on a journey through the Amazon rainforest and serves as the pretext for an open debate with the authors of the recently launched book Spirit of Amazon: The Indigenous Tribes of the Xingu, expertsSueand Patrick Cunningham. The Portuguese Audiovisual essay will be in the spotlight with two sessions, one on new talent and the other focused on the work of veteran experimentalist Ricardo Vieira Lisboa, with the presence of the director. The environment will again take centre stage with Pedro Neves’ tale of displacement and urban sustainability Tarrafal, followed by a Q&A with the director. After this, the festival will turn to two days on the topic of censorship in Portuguese contemporary image, with several presentations and debates with international specialists and the screening of José Filipe Costa’s Pleasure, Comrades!, a film which, forty-five years since the Portuguese revolution, finally sheds light on the sexual politics around this major political event, together a unique look on the censored memories of colonialism, in the shape of short film Granny (Muidumbe) by Raquel Schefer. Crowning this two-day bill is a screening of Julião Sarmento’s groundbreaking films, rounded off by a conversation with the artist. Solveig Nordlund’s sci-fi films Low-Flying Aircraft and Journey to Orion, both based on works by J.G Ballard, will be screened in Scotland with the presence of the director. And previously in the spring, the festival held an event on the relationships between film practise and theory, with a conference and the screening of three films: Apparition(with the presence of renown filmmaker and producer Fernando Vendrell); an insight into the Brazilian justice system, with the compelling The Case of J., by José Filipe Costa(also with the presence of the director); and an earlier focus on sustainability and the environment, withJoão Mário Grilo’s Your Land. The festival will also continue its work with schools, with two free short film sessions for teenage audiences. There’s little time to celebrate the milestone of reaching a decade, as we continue our journey trying to showcase the best and most compelling in Portuguese film and audiovisual production and attempt to steer the debate around Portuguese- spoken cinema the UK. 

SAT 30 NOV 12h00

Room B15, Birkbeck, University of London 

The Dead and the Others(12A*) + talk with Amazon indigenous people specialist Sue Cunningham and authorPatrick Cunningham

SAT 30 NOV 15h00 

Room B15, Birkbeck, University of London

New Portuguese Audiovisual Essays(12A*) presented by Catherine Grant

SAT 30 NOV 16h15

Room B15, Birkbeck, University of London

Haptic Films: video essays(15*) + Q&A with director Ricardo Vieira Lisboa

MON 02 DEC 18h30 

Royal Academy of Arts 

Tarrafal (12A*) + Q&A with Pedro Neves

WED 04 DEC 18h00 

Nash Lecture Theatre (K2.31), King’s College London 

A Pleasure, Comrades! + Granny (Muidumbe) (12A*) + Introduction by Raquel Schefer

FRI 06 DEC 18h00 

Bush House (SE) 2.09, King’s College London

Revolution and Subversion in Portuguese Video-Art 

Early works by Julião Sarmento

FRI 06 DEC 19h15 

Bush House Lecture Theatre 1, King´s College London

Julião Sarmento in conversation 

MON 09 DEC14h00 

St. John Bosco, Parkham St, Battersea

Insanium (12A*) + Q&A with director Rui Pedro Sousa

Winner of a short film of the year at CinEuphoria