The 8th edition of Porto/Post/Doc presents two masterclasses, by Theo Anthony and Erika Balsom, at the invitation of Escola das Artes – Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

On the occasion of the retrospective dedicated to Theo Anthony's work, the American director will share with the general public his creative methods, his research processes and, based on his own practice, he will demonstrate how it is possible to define and develop an authorial voice in the universe of documentary cinema. The free entrance masterclass will take place on Wednesday, November 24th, at 4:30pm, at Auditório Ilídio Pinho at Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

Erika Balsom will be present at the event to give a masterclass entitled "Approaching James Benning", in connection with the screening of James Benning's "Ten Skies", part of the programme Ideas to Postpone the End of the World. 

James Benning has said that when he first started making films he was “like a folk artist.” He initially came to his medium with no formal training in art or cinema. What he did have were two degrees in mathematics, an education that critics often mention when accounting for the metric rigor of celebrated 16 mm films like Ten Skies and One Way Boogie Woogie. Benning loves rule-based systems—but not for their own sake. His formal precision has never been formalist; it is a way of sharpening the gaze and finding freedom in constraint. For some fifty years, the artist has chronicled American hegemony and counterhegemony, giving unconventional shape to histories of settlement, racial violence, land use, and unbelonging.

Erika Balsom is Reader in Film Studies at King’s College London. She is the author of four books including Ten Skies (2021). Her articles have appeared in journals including Screen, Cinema Journal, and Grey Room. She regularly writes criticism for publications like Artforum, 4Columns, and CinemaScope.

The free entrance masterclass will take place on Friday, November 26th, at 6:30pm, at Auditório Ilídio Pinho at Universidade Católica Portuguesa.