Documentaries Discover Algarve

There’s a lost city somewhere near Tavira – one that was one of busiest in the whole of the western Mediterranean.

It’s a story that goes back more than one and a half thousand years, and one which José Manuel S. Lopes, 55, a professional with vast cinema and audiovisual experience, will be bringing once more to the fore.

We’re talking of the documentary «Balsa, Memória Flutuante» (Balsa, a Floating Memory), scheduled to be screened on 24th February on RTP2.

Living between Lisbon and Tavira since 2004, Lopes filmed this documentary in the Sotavento Algarve between April and September last year.

The idea behind it is that “the remains of this city have been destroyed over time”, he says – and his motives are various, but point principally at the greatest problem: “the collective disinterest for memory”.

Indeed, Lopes intends to pursue this theme.

One of his next film projects for 2010 is to discover the truth behind “tuna fishing, which marked the life of the region until it disappeared, and which curiously in Spain continues to be a lucrative activity”, he told our newspaper.

Concern to register details which time has slowly condemned to extinction is also shared by Marco Vilela, 31, in charge of «Juicylime» media production company, based for the last three years in Albufeira.

In the spring, his team will start filming a 52-minute documentary on the lower banks of the Guadiana.

“It’s basically a sociological approach. On the banks of this river, houses continue to tumble down, old people die. We want to show the importance that the Guadiana had in people’s lives, and discover whether it still has any”, he said.

The film will also have an academic slant, with collaboration by lecturers Cláudia Torres and Conceição Lopes from the University of Coimbra. Financed by «Juicylime», it’ll be broadcast on public television (RTP) – but beforehand, Vilela plans a series of private showings in the villages and little towns along the river.

However, it’s not just the past that motivates documentaries.

Current issues are also in the cameramen’s sights.

An example is the film «A Ilha» by Carlos Fraga, 57 - a production by «LivreMeio Produções Lda», a firm that started up in Faro in 2007, alongside Helena Madeira.

Making its début in April, also on RTP2 – a channel that chooses many of these productions for their excellence – it shows the concerns of the community of the so-called “Ilha de Faro”.

The challenge was taken up by young cultural producer Mauro Amaral, from Faro.

Here, the principal problem to show in 54 minutes of film is the “disquiet” that people feel about POLIS (the Programme for Urban Requalification and Environmental Development of Towns) in Ria Formosa.

Today, many houses are at risk of demolition – which would cause huge alterations in the lives of these people.

For the future, Fraga admits to having two more documentaries in the pipeline – one dedicated to “an Algarvian character that lives in Estói and tries to touch the very hearts of the public” and the other about a “pioneer in therapeutic theatre in Portugal and Europe”.

Without doubt, the coastline– with its physical and human landscapes – seems to inspire an inexhaustible line-up of ideas.

Sofia Trincão, 44, has brought glory to the Sotavento Algarve with her documentaries on its fishermen.

Her last programme, «Praia Monte Gordo», filmed in 2005 and 2006, won prizes in four international film festivals – in Spain, the Slovak Republic and Turkey.

The film showed a year in the life of the last wooden fishing boat in action.

Since 2001, Trincão has filmed in collaboration with Spanish director Óscar Clemente. Still this year, the pair would like to make a new documentary on the island of Culatra, off Faro.

“It’s a very interesting community. The fish-nurseries of Ria Formosa are their orchards. There is a fisherwoman there who is the master of a boat – and other things in the life of this village – like the celebration of Our Lady of the Navigators, on the first weekend of August, where there’s a procession of small fishing boats, with a band and everything”, she told us.

Despite having won all sorts of prizes, and seeing her work recognised with interest abroad, Trincão will have to go out and physically find financing for her new project.

The ocean is the natural environment of «Mar de Histórias», the production company run by Carlos Vaz and Alexandra Trinidade, which has been going for the last 10 years.

It’s currently completing the Portuguese participation in an international documentary on fishing nets lost on the bottom of the sea, and how they act as deadly traps – contributing to the depletion of a number of ecosystems.

The idea came from European researchers who took part in a study on the dilemma. In Portugal, the “Centro Ciências do Mar” at the University of the Algarve and the fishing authority IPIMAR were involved.

Also in collaboration with biologists from the Algarve, «Mar de Histórias» is filming a project that has so far taken four years.

It’s called «Biomares» and is a study that transplanted seaweed from other parts of coastal Portugal to Portinho da Arrábida (Setúbal) after it had been all but destroyed by commercial fishing and pleasure boats.

Very soon, the work of these Portuguese scientists will be showed on channels like «Discovery».

Another project on the cards is a documentary on the reconstruction of natural habitats where the first Iberian Lynx will be set free from the new reproduction centre near Silves.

And, on an international level, there’s the début of «Vizinhos – Turquia: O Outro lado da Europe» (Neighbours – Turkey: the other side of Europe) a 51-minute documentary by Vico Ughetto, João Romão and Maral Jefroudi.

Vico, 39, born in Mozambique but living in the Algarve for more than 25 years, has seen his work financed in total by RTP.

He’s a candidate for one of Al-Jazheera’s TV film documentary festivals.

We should also say that during our investigations we learnt of other smaller projects underway - all of them equally of interest.

Such is the case of the documentary on abandoned animals in the Algarve – a “serious problem”, according to film-cameraman Eric Jaspers, 46.

This Dutch professional intends to produce a DVD making people aware of the situation, to be distributed throughout the Algarve’s schools.

And finally, Ana Medeira spoke with us about a series of documentaries she’s finalising with the In-loco association of São Brás de Alportel.

The idea is to show stories that are positive examples of the integration of immigrants into society. To be released as a DVD, this will be invaluable to institutions that support and deal with this kind of situation.

An interesting example is the “Brazilian blacksmith” who travels the length of the Algarve and, who knows, one day may have stories of his own stories to tell…