7 December 2016

A part of Utopia 2016 – 7th UK Portuguese Film Festival, this film was presented by festival Director and Birkbeck PhD student Érica Rodrigues. The work of film director Joana Pontes was selected by the British-Portuguese artist Paula Rego as the most relevant narrative in Portuguese moving image. The film was part of a series that encompassed 300 interviews, hundreds of documents, photos and films from both national and international archives, all composing an extraordinary docu-series about the evolution of Portuguese society throughout the 20th Century. In this particular episode, number thirteen, we were given privileged insight into the stories and rare family footage of individuals who in 1975 escaped the imminent civil war in Angola in fragile boats or through extremely dangerous roads. It also includes interviews with key protagonists of the Portuguese revolution and the decolonisation process. After the film, in a unique London event, the television editor Rui Branquinho gave audiences a broad overview of his technical aptitude with an insight into the creative process behind The Portuguese XX Century series.