Africa-Press – Angola. The documentary “Para lá dos Meus Passos”, by director Kamy Lara, won the national category of the International Documentary Film Festival (DocLuanda), organized by Instituto Camões, in Luanda.
The first edition also awarded the film “Selfie”, by Italian director Agostino Ferrante, in the international category. Angolan director Poça Pascoal was awarded for presenting the opening film of the first edition, which took place from the 2nd to the 7th of this month, at auditorium “Pepetela”, of the Portuguese Cultural Center.
The awards were announced by historian and art critic Adriano Mixinge, preceded by considerations and thanks made by members of the organization Jorge António and Henrique Santos, Mukixe Produções Audiovisuais and CriaCom, respectively.
The film “Um Sopro no Quintal”, by Gretel Marín, won an Honorable Mention, for revealing, among other attributes, a social dimension on the empowerment of Angolan women, according to Adriano Mixinge, when justifying the decision of the national jury.
According to the Portuguese ambassador to Angola, Francisco Alegre, DocLuanda is an unprecedented project with a pedagogical orientation, in addition to the commitment to promote Portuguese-language cinema.
The diplomat recalled that the Portuguese Cultural Center aims to bring Portuguese and Angolans together, therefore, “we have always had a strong commitment to culture and art”, said Francisco Alegre, in the closing speech.
In the closing session, which was crowded unlike the days when the DocLuanda festival took place, the director Blandine presented a retrospective video of DocLuanda 2022, while the Companhia de Dança Contemporânea de Angola (CDCA) presented an excerpt from the next season’s play.
For six days, the festival screened 30 films of national and international production, spread over three sessions: national competition, international and non-competitive sessions. In the national competition, nine films were screened, and six in international competition, from Angola, Portugal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, South Africa and the United States. In the non-competitive sessions, documentaries from Angola, Brazil, Algeria, Guinea-Bissau and Portugal were shown.
Tribute to sound designer Gita Cerveira
The first edition of DocLuanda paid tribute to the Angolan filmmaker Gita Cerveira, sound designer, born in Luanda. In 1975, he joined the staff of Televisão Popular de Angola (TPA) where he trained with a team of French filmmakers directed by Antoine Bonfanti. In TPA’s film productions, he worked on films by Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, António Ole, João Jardim, Carlos Henriques and other first-generation directors.
To mark the tribute, Gita Cerveira chose the documentary “Canta Angola”, by French Ariel Bigault, which was shown on the 3rd, in a session marked by much applause due to the professional’s career, one of the most international in terms of film technicians in Angola.
In 1980, Gita Cerveira went to Paris, where she lived until 1996. She continued her professional training, which resulted in a new boost in her career internationally, which allowed her to work in Portugal, the United States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique. , Mauritius and Madagascar, with important professionals and backgrounds in the national and world cinema scene, such as Manoel de Oliveira, John Irwin, João César Monteiro, Alexander Arcadi, Manuel Pradal, João Ribeiro, João Botelho, Zezé Gamboa, Maria João Ganga, Orlando Fortunato, Sol de Carvalho, Raul Ruiz, Jf Ossang, Olivier Hermanus, khalo Matabane, Ramadan Suleman, Greta Schiller , Graig Gardener, Rea Rangaka, Jerome Pikwane, Lwazi Mvusi, Daniel Buckland, Fernando d’Almeida e Silva, Francisco Manso, João Canijo, Eduardo Geada, Ariel de Bigaut, Yara Costa, Mikael Marcimain among others.
He was nominated for Césars in France and other international awards in South Africa and Portugal. Gita Cerveira is still active and is the Angolan technician with the greatest filmography and international career.
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