CONTRA-CAMPOS
CONTRA-CAMPOS
a film by Tiago Afonso and Jorge Quintela
The series “Improvisations/Collaborations”, a performing arts, cinema and visual arts programme, presented by the Serralves Foundation and involving various cultural partners, aims to provide a historical context to the role of improvisation and the spirit of collaboration amongst artists during the 20th century, that can be seen in artistic practises that sought out new values of freedom, democratic involvement and
spontaneity.
These values have been reflected and/or subject to discussion in the new creations and productions that have been specifically designed in the context of this series. These provide an impulse for the challenges posed to numerous artists and creators, enabling sharing and reciprocity between the contributions from each of the areas involved, including cross-breeding.
This new film by the filmmakers, Tiago Afonso and Jorge Quintela, is born from this process and the programming experience and particular observation of its constituent creative devices and contributions, occupying an undefined place between exteriority and inclusion.
CONTRA-CAMPOS and the challenges of a film directing partnership
The underlying motto of the “Improvisations/Collaborations” series underpins this endeavour. Two filmmakers combine their directing skills, undertaking to discover and accompany moments of experimentation and construction of this series, without recourse to pre-formatted recording devices.
CONTRA-CAMPOS is neither exhaustive, nor lies outside the adventure of the artists who have been filmed. It doesn’t only aim to profile modes of fraternity and freedom, that derive from an open attitude towards co-creation. It also fosters reflection, through seeking dialoguing points of view – via counterpoints – in relation to a relatively under-analysed “genre” within the history of the moving image: the recording of the process of artistic research and its presentation in the form of spectacular objects.
The filmmakers try to assume the improbable and utopian place of (highly) participative spectators. They thus trace an experience which also transformed them. However, unlike purely performance-based works, a film is an edited object and as such, attempts to embrace and encompass a questioning attitude, the internal questioning of oneself via oneself...
He provides intensive training, introducing cinematographic language or direct cinema (documentary). He frequently works with theatre companies such as the Braga Theatre Company, Teatro de Ferro amd Teatro Plástico. As a film programmer, he regularly organises film series and worked with the 5th Panorama of Portuguese Documentaries in 2011. He also organises video-installations, exhibited in Lisbon, Brussels, Coimbra, Braga and Porto. He is a professor in the Audiovisual Comunication and Multimedia course of the Universidade Lusófona, in Porto. Jorge Quintela Born in Porto in 1981. In 2003, he graduated in Photography and Audio-Visual Communication from the Escola Superior Artística do Porto. Since 2004 he has been working regularly in the world of cinema as a Director of Photography, for shorts and feature films. In 2003, he was invited to join the “Cinema Pobre” organization - a Film Training and Programming structure in the city of Porto. In 2004, he worked as a moving image instructor for the “Os Filhos de Lumière” association in various film workshops held throughout the country. Since 2005, he has worked with the “Olho de Vidro” Cinema Association, producing various films. Since 2009, he has worked as associate producer for the film production company, Bando à Parte”. In 2010, he directed a documentary about the musician the Legendary Tigerman, “On The Road To Femina”, which premiered in the IndieLisboa 2010 film festival. He also directed the film “Ausstieg”, which received an Honorary Mention in the experimental competition section of the Vila do Conde 2010 Short Film Festival.
