Arché Porto is a writing and artistic development laboratory for documentary-based film projects, organised by Porto/Post/Doc: Film & Media Festival in partnership with Apordoc.
From 20 to 25 November 2026, five Ibero-American projects take part in a mentoring programme dedicated to writing, narrative structure and the exploration of their cinematic proposals. Led by Tiago Hespanha, the laboratory combines work on the films with discussion among participants, a public presentation and one-to-one meetings with invited professionals.
The programme takes place as part of Porto Industry Days and is integrated into Arché, Apordoc’s space for development and creative thinking, created within the context of Doclisboa.
Writing and Development Laboratory
In 2026, the laboratory is mentored by filmmaker, producer and lecturer Tiago Hespanha. The sessions provide a space for reflection and experimentation, where participants can analyse their materials, deepen their directing and editing choices, and explore narrative and visual possibilities.
The mentor’s guidance and the discussion among filmmakers take into account the artistic singularity and development stage of each film. The selection brings together projects in development and editing, whose proposals move between documentary observation, fiction, performance and archive work.
Mentor · Tiago Hespanha
Tiago Hespanha was born in Coimbra in 1978. He holds a degree in Architecture, trained in documentary filmmaking at Ateliers Varan and completed a Master’s degree in Creative Documentary at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
He directed Campo (2019) and co-directed, with Frederico Lobo, Industrial Revolution (2014). A co-founder of Terratreme Filmes, he also works as a producer on films including Luísa Homem’s Suzanne Daveau (2019) and Pedro Pinho’s O Riso e a Faca (2025).
He has been part of the DocNomads teaching team since 2012 and a member of Ateliers Varan since 2014. His work combines filmmaking, production and education, including documentary directing, shooting supervision and mentoring films in development and editing.
Public Project Presentation
25 November · 10:00
Teatro Municipal do Porto — Rivoli · Room 2
Participants present their projects and share the ideas and questions developed during the laboratory, in a session open to film professionals and interested audiences.
|
CADA / Delving Into the Ruins Felipe Ríos Fuentes CHL · DOC · 90 min · Editing Production · Catalina Vergara · Globo Rojo Films During Chile’s dictatorship, the five members of the CADA collective turned poetry and art into instruments of resistance, releasing poems over the city and inscribing the call “NO+” in public space. Forty years later, Felipe Ríos Fuentes revisits their interventions and listens to the memories of those who sought to transform a country. Through testimonies, archive material and the filmmaker’s personal experience, the film asks what remains of that collective dream and how its traces run through Chilean history. |
|
Daddy, I Have Had to Kill Me Chloe Cazorla ESP · FIC · 17 min · Development Production · To be confirmed After learning about the suicide of two girls from her neighbourhood, thirteen-year-old Cecilia joins an online forum. Fascinated by the world she discovers, she grows close to another user and becomes involved in a relationship that leads her into a spiral of self-destruction. Blending fiction with the filmmaker’s digital diaries and personal records, the film revisits Tumblr culture between 2014 and 2017, portraying a generation of teenagers for whom the internet was a place of belonging, loneliness and the romanticisation of suffering. |
|
Guano and Guns Romea Muryn and Francisco Lobo CHL, PRT · DOC · 100 min · Development Production · Luís Costa and André Guiomar · Locument and Olhar de Ulisses On an island off the coast of Peru, a guard, an ornithologist and a worker share a territory with thousands of seabirds. During the guano extraction season, the film follows their routines and the rhythms of the ecosystem that sustains this resource. Attentive to labour, scientific research and the care knowledge passed down between generations, it seeks to build a counterpoint to the narratives of exploitation that have shaped the history of guano. |
|
Rafael João Paulo Miranda Maria FRA, BRA · DOC · 90 min · Early Development Production · Nabil Bellahsene and Paula Cosenza · Les Valseurs Bordeaux and Trema Rafael is twelve years old and autistic. His father, filmmaker João Paulo Miranda Maria, follows his gestures, silences and creative impulses, searching for a way to share an experience that words cannot always convey. By following his son’s rhythms and embracing his ways of transforming reality, the film creates a shared territory between them. An encounter between father and son that makes cinema a space of relationship and communication. |
|
Subject: Unclaimed File Alba Jaramillo PRI · DOC · 75 min · Development Production · Patricia Benabe · Rayuela Films In the archives of Puerto Rico, three actors embody people described in police surveillance files that were never claimed. Guided by the addresses and testimonies contained in these records, they leave the archive and travel across the island in search of the lives from which they originated. Through encounters, gaps and contradictions, the film combines archive, performance and fiction to question the construction of identities by the state, and the persistence of political persecution and the colonial past in the present. |
One-to-One Meetings
The programme includes individual meetings between participants and invited professionals, dedicated to the artistic and production needs of each project. These meetings provide an opportunity to explore development questions, identify collaborators and discuss possibilities for financing, co-production and circulation.
The schedule is prepared by the organisation, taking into account the projects’ needs and the interests of participating professionals.
Porto Industry Days Awards Ceremony
25 November · 20:00–20:45
Batalha Centro de Cinema · High Life Bar
Access
The laboratory sessions are reserved for selected participants and the professionals involved in mentoring the projects.
The project presentation is open to the public. Participation in one-to-one meetings requires advance scheduling by the organisation.
Contact
Arché Porto Coordination · Apordoc
Ana Viegas · Industry Coordinator
Organisation, Co-production, Supporters and Partners
Arché Porto is organised by Porto/Post/Doc: Film & Media Festival in partnership with Apordoc — Associação pelo Documentário.
Porto/Post/Doc: Film & Media Festival is co-produced with Ágora — Cultura e Desporto do Porto, Porto’s municipal culture and sports company. As part of this co-production, Arché Porto is supported by the Municipality of Porto and Filmaporto — Porto Film Commission.
Porto Industry Days is supported by Turismo de Portugal and Turismo do Porto e Norte, and has partnerships with FIDLab at FIDMarseille, Abycine Lanza and Ventura at Play-Doc.
Arché Porto’s partners are the DAE — Documentary Association of Europe and the Eurodoc network, with the collaboration of ECAM and Studio Visits.
Technical partners are MAD Studios and Sound Force Studio.
Institut français du Portugal · MaisFRANÇA 2026 — This operation is supported by the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères and the Institut français as part of the strategy to promote cultural and creative industries internationally through the PICC programme.
