A letter is read to us from someone who is about to embark on an adventure to the end of the world and to the beginning of love. How was this text constructed?
In a very organic and natural way, because the person who embarks on a one-way journey is me. I married Marisa in Lisbon and a week later Marisa left for Tasmania. I stayed in Portugal for another two and a half months, living in a limbo between a life that no longer belonged to me and a future of total uncertainty and unawareness. We always had the habit of exchanging small notes, memos, and letters where we shared ideas, feelings and wishes for love and fortune. The day Marisa returned to her country of origin, she left me a letter that I could never respond to, or at least in the way I knew. The text and the film themselves are my response to that letter, which includes the time window in which I am alone in Portugal until the day I arrive on the other side of the world.
A love story is contrasted with super 8 footage, a format that retains a certain timelessness, which could easily be part of archival material from a zoological exploration to a tropical country. How do you see this relationship that is created through the materiality of film?
It is necessary to demystify the use of film in this case. Although I can create a relationship between the format and an idea of memory and fate, the reason the film is in Super 8 is because I had to condense my whole life in a 20-kilo suitcase. The Super 8 camera was the only one I had with me, not even knowing if it was working. However, the idea of exploration comes from the fact that much of the fauna and flora is sighted for the first time and, therefore, filmed as well. The film has the constraint of not being able to point and wait for the right moment, or for one of these rare and elusive animals to emerge from the vegetation. There is an element of surprise and admiration, whilst I realize, little by little, that this is my new reality.
Friendship is an important element in this film, as it was in your previous film Cerro dos Pios (premiered and awarded at DocLisboa in 2019). In addition, you created a production cooperative, Bam Bam Cinema, with people close to you. How important is this network of affectations in your way of making cinema?
Friends are a point of sharing and balance, which gain an extra importance in autobiographical films and a huge intimate exposure – as is the case with my first films. Interhuman relationships become essential.
Paulo Carneiro and I have known each other for over a decade. It is a person who followed, in one way or another, several of these moments. Although we have different personalities, we have common ambitions and goals. Bam Bam Cinema was born from that connection. At the present time, we are four members spread over three continents, all with the same purpose of making cinema in a fairer way, of affinity, mutual help and collaboration, to us and to others.
