PERPETUAL MOVEMENTS

FRIDAY 6 OCTOBER AT 13:15

Country Portugal Running Time 70 mins Format 35 mm Director/ DoP Edgar Pêra Producer João Pinto Sousa Editing Pedro Machado, Inês Henriques
Print Source Corda Seca, Rua do Limoeiro, 7, Segundo andar, 1100 – 308
Email info@cordaseca.com

Playing with THE COLE THAT NOBODY KNOWS 21 mins

This is a trademark Edgar Pêra documentary on the late Portuguese guitarist Carlos Paredes. Mixing archival footage and sound with interviews, 8mm ‘unsteady-cam’ recordings of Portugal’s landscape and optical mosaics to the extreme, to give us an iridescent portrayal of Paredes’ genius: the montage as relentless as the guitarist’s finger-work; the footage as compelling as the music is poignant. Pêra’s method is always dangerously close to baroque excess, but the remarkable music and Paredes’ unassuming demeanour burst through the hordes to give us a counterpoising gist, which keeps the act balanced and the film afloat.
A documentary of 17 movements, testimonies and Paredes’ guitar define a trajectory across decades, from the Portugal of the dictatorship to post-revolution. The Paredes’ concert in the Carlos Alberto auditorium, Oporto, in 1984, is the starting point for the unfolding of stories of imprisonment, resistance, success and amateurism, stories marked by reticence and passion. Through the testimony of friends and colleagues, we decode further the man and the music, the motivations which led to his compositions and his interpretative style. We discover the notoriety his music brought to the Portuguese guitar, raising it to the rank of an autonomous instrument and transforming it into a symbol of Portuguese music. ER

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