It's one of the themes that marks Porto's cultural life and day-to-day life: the future of the STOP Shopping Centre, a rehearsal and incubation space for Porto music for more than two decades. Directed by Jorge Quintela, Stop. Rehearsal rooms for a historical materialism explores the transformation of space over the decades, framing its history in the materialist critique proposed by Walter Benjamin in his Book of Passages. The film also follows the police eviction of the shopping centre in July 2023, when the rehearsal rooms were closed off. Since then, uncertainty has hung over the future of one of the last spaces of resistance in Porto's independent art scene.
Also making its national debut is Petra Costa's new film, Apocalypse in the Tropics, which will open Porto/Post/Doc on 22 November, 9.15 pm, at Batalha - Centro de Cinema. In this new feature film, the Brazilian director exposes the alarming intersection between religion and politics in Brazil, revealing how the evangelical movement played a crucial role in Jair Bolsonaro's rise to the presidency. The film offers an unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes of power, following figures such as President Lula, former President Bolsonaro and influential televangelist Silas Malafaia; showing the growing influence of religious leaders in Brazilian politics and how their view of the end times shapes their strategies and decisions.
Ernest Cole, a South African photographer, was the first to document and reveal the brutal realities of apartheid. His book, House of Bondage, published in 1967, vividly captured the injustices suffered by black South Africans under the regime of segregation. The images depicting forced labour, segregation and oppression drove Cole into exile. He was forced to flee to New York and then to Europe, where he died, unable to return to South Africa. In Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, Raoul Peck portrays Cole's emotional and artistic struggles, as well as his anger at the Western world's silence or complicity in the atrocities of apartheid. A story of courage and artistic dedication, where photography is seen as a tool of truth and resistance.
The special screenings of the 2024 edition of Porto/Post/Doc also include Ken Jacobs - From Orchard Street To The Museum Of Modern Art, a film that draws a portrait of one of the most impressive personalities in experimental cinema. New Yorker Ken Jacobs talks about his life and work through numerous excerpts from films and shows projected on screens since 1955.
Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa
Brazil, USA, Denmark, 2024, DOC, 110'
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, Raoul Peck
France, USA, 2023, DOC, 106'
TRAILER
Ken Jacobs - From Orchard Street To The Museum Of Modern Art, Fred Riedel
USA, 2024, DOC, 98'
Stop. Rehearsal rooms for a historical materialism, Jorge Quintela
Portugal, DOC, 20'
