Pedro Costa

É Tudo Invenção Nossa

Pedro Costa

Pedro Costa first foray into filmmaking was a short-film co-produced for RTP within a series named “Cartas a Júlia.”

Wiara

Michał Biegański

Abel Ferrara, Pedro Costa

Six authorities of cinema describe their approach to transcendence, mysticism, spirituality and life after dead.

Où gît votre sourire enfoui?

Pedro Costa

Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet

Undaunted by a commission to make a film about his mentors and aesthetic exemplars, the filmmaking team of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Costa records with great sensitivity and insight the exacting process by which the two re-edit their film Sicilia!, discussing and arguing over each cut and its effect. Incorporating comments about the influence of figures as diverse as Chaplin and Eisenstein, about the ethical and aesthetic implications of film technique and such matters as rhythm, sound mixing, and acting. The film becomes a tour de force, immersing us in the mysteries of cinema as practiced by some of its greatest creators. Costa calls the film both his first comedy and his first love story.

Memories

Harun Farocki, Pedro Costa

Alfredo Mendes, José Alberto Silva

Previously focused on Asian directors, “Jeonju Digital Project 2007” takes a look at Europe. The Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, the German filmmaker Harun Farocki, and the French filmmaker Eugène Green participated in this project.

O Sangue

Pedro Costa

Pedro Hestnes, Nuno Ferreira

Nino, tough but sickly, and his older brother Vicente live in the country with their father. After their father disappears ― we’re never sure why ― murder is suggested. Vicente brings his girlfriend to the house, and a different kind of family is established as the three youngsters grow fiercely protective of each other. But their uncle grows suspicious about the fate of the missing father and forcibly kidnaps Nino, taking him away to the city and leaving Vicente to locate him there.

Ne change rien

Pedro Costa

Jeanne Balibar, Rodolphe Burger

One of the most important figures in contemporary cinema, Pedro Costa's celebrated music documentary is a mesmerizing portrait of French actress-turned-singer Jeanne Balibar, a transfixing, cigarette-smoking chanteuse with an intense devotion to her craft. Photographed in shimmering black-and-white and featuring a soundtrack of jazz-inflected pop songs, the film is a luminous exploration of the creative process.

In Vanda's Room

Pedro Costa

Vanda Duarte, Lena Duarte

An unflinching, fragmentary look at a handful of self-destructive, marginalized people, but taking as main focus the heroin-addicted Vanda Duarte.

Casa de Lava

Pedro Costa

Isaach De Bankolé, Inês de Medeiros

The film tells a story of Mariana, a nurse who leaves Lisbon to accompany an immigrant worker in a comatose sleep on his trip home to Cape Verde. The devoted Portuguese nurse took a journey only to find herself lost in abstract drama.

Horse Money

Pedro Costa

Ventura, Vitalina Varela

While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.

Colossal Youth

Pedro Costa

Ventura, Vanda Duarte

After the Portuguese government demolishes his slum and relocates him to a housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, 75-year-old Cape Verde immigrant Ventura wanders between his new and old homes, reconnecting with people from his past.

Tout refleurit: Pedro Costa, cinéaste

Aurélien Gerbault

Pedro Costa

With this movie, Aurélien Gerbault invites us to know the portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa and to witness the process of shooting of his movie Colossal Youth (2006). The nature of Costa's cinema is revealed to us: the criation of an intimate space in the hardness of reality.

O Nosso Homem

Pedro Costa

Lucinda Tavares, José Alberto Silva

O Nosso Homem (Our Man) is a short variation in the line of the trilogy Pedro Costa has devoted to the habitants of the Fontainhas quarter, which has been destroyed in the meantime. It can be considered as a sort of appendix to the third part, Juventude en Marcha (Colossal Youth), in which the hero, Ventura, reappears as one of the four characters of this dialogue of hopelessness.

Ossos

Pedro Costa

Mariya Lipkina, Vanda Duarte

After a suicidal teenage girl gives birth, she misguidedly entrusts her baby’s safety to the troubled, deadbeat father, whose violent actions take the viewer on a tour of the foreboding, crumbling shantytown in which they live.

6 Bagatelas

Pedro Costa, Thierry Lounas

Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet

Six unused scenes from Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? One of the more priceless of the “bagatelles” in this collection features a lounging Jean-Marie Straub who gives a non-stop disquisition on liberty and filmmaking while Danièle Huillet busies herself with laundry, and their dog Melchior frisks in and out of frame. —Cinematheque Ontario

Vitalina Varela

Pedro Costa

Vitalina Varela, Ventura

A Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.

Ne change rien

Pedro Costa

Jeanne Balibar

A short film showing a rehearsal and live performance by Jeanne Balibar. Costa would go on to make a feature-length documentary with the same title and subject matter in 2009.