Lopes Barbosa

Born in O'Porto, Portugal, in 1944, his interest for films led him to be a member of Cine-Clube do Porto at 15-years-old. He knew how to make films in theory when he was conscripted to the Army, at 18; he was sent to Angola, then a Portuguese province, to serve in the colonial war, where he learned cinematography and the practical side of making low-budget war documentaries at the Departamento de Foto-cine dos Serviços Cartográficos do Exército. In 1967, having served his conscript time, he stayed in Luanda, working at a photography shop, and kept seeing more of the light Portuguese comedies which he disliked, and some American movies that he liked. He made the acquaintance of local poets such as Viriato da Cruz and António Jacinto. He discovered and adopted the concept of engaged art, where film contents and aesthetics would service the political aim of liberation for all men and the humanization of the working conditions of the work force. He wrote the pages of aesthetic and film review for the magazine "Noite e Dia" of Luanda, defending the trends of Italian neo-realism, French "nouvelle vague", and Brazilean Cinema Novo. Still in Luanda, Angola, he wrote and directed the super 8mm short O Regresso (1970), the dramatized biography of a young black amateur painter. One may see in it an echo of Mozambican artist Malangatana Valente Ngwenya, a painter and sculptor who had been arrested in 1966 by the secret police for political activities against the regime. In 1970, he was invited by Eurico Ferreira to join the film industry that was starting in Mozambique, and he moved to the other coast of Africa, into that other Portuguese province, more exposed to trade and cultural influences from neighbour English countries, namely Ian Smith's Republic of Rodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Afrikaner-dominated Union of South Africa. He started working for Somar Filmes, owned by the more independent producer Courinha Ramos who - backed by Shell funds and advertising - was keeping the weekly documentary series Visor Moçambicano since the late 1950s as a 10 minute journal on tourism, agricultural and industrial development, sports and social events, and enough coverage of the regime's political agenda to be on the good side of the censors. It is then that he starts his life project of a movie based on colonial relations and the start of a guerrilla movement. He did not ask for film permits, filming with interruptions over a year and a half under the cover of the documentaries he made for Somar Filmes. The producer was happy with the documentaries and did not ask to be shown the screenplay of the fiction film. All African actors and extras were chosen by Malangatana including convicts doing agricultural labour in a state farm, and no one was paid. Thus, Barbosa managed to conclude the film without pressures, and at a very low budget. Early 1972, interviewed by Plateia, a Lisbon film magazine, he summed his ideas thus: "The seventh art is a form of expression of materialism, the reality as I see it, and the films should be delivered like stomach punches to the viewers. Nowadays my definition of cinema is that it should be a guerrilla front, working in the most positive manner possible against tabu, devious morals, and the dominant but outdated, anachronistic ideas." The authorities (PIDE, the secret police of the regime) had been suspicious of the film project from early on, and even took in Lopes Barbosa and Malangatana Valente Ngwenya for questioning when they began filming. When the film negative left Filmlab (an associate company of Somar Filmes), the authorities advised Courinha Ramos that he should not dare present the film to the censors office. The menace seems to have been enough, for the producer would not risk his business based on the weekly documentaries. With all references to the film banned from the press, the producer Courinha Ramos dismissed the director from his company, and Lopes Barbosa returned immediately to Lisbon, fearing to be arrested. He found all doors closed to him in the film industry, survived on odd jobs, contracted tuberculosis and returned to his mother's home in O'Porto, for treatment. As late as December 8, 1973, the producer may have attempted to make good on his investment; that Saturday, Lisbon's weekly Expresso tried to publish a small news - illustrated with a photo of the young writer Luís Bernardo Honwana, who may have been their source - quoting the producer as having taken the decision "not to show the film in Mozambique, ever," which means he may have tried again to distribute the film. The piece was totally cut by the censors, and was published in a documentary book in 2009. The Portuguese coup of April 25, 1974, changed the political regime and talks in view of decolonization started. Lopes Barbosa fought again for the film of his life, and convinces Courinha Ramos to bring the film negative to Lisbon. In August 1974, two copies are developed at Tobis: a 35mm copy, that the producer took back with him to Mozambique, and is considered lost (as of February 2012); and a 16mm copy that remained with the director. Lopes Barbosa immediately promoted the film's showing at the Cine-Club do Porto. and the first public screening at the Escola Superior das Belas Artes do Porto. Finally, the producer announced the Mozambique avant-premiere to the Wednesday September 4, 1974, in one of the best theatre houses of Lourenço Marques, but fearing the film would set fire to an already unstable political situation, he canceled the showing - which did not prevent the right-wing attempt to take power in Mozambique the next Saturday, September 7, 1974. The director wanted his film to be shown in Mozambique, and went there shortly before Mozambique's independence day (June 25, 1975) to promote exhibitions at the Cine-Club de Lourenço Marques and at the Machava Prison (Matola, Maputo) with his own 16mm copy. His health deteriorated suddenly, and he returned to his home at O'Porto for psychoanalysis, in May 1975. For the school year 1976-1977 Lopes Barbosa works as camera operator for the RTP program Telescola, a daily TV educational and instructional show. After that he remains jobless, and his health keeps him from accepting a project in Mozambique when he is at last contacted by the new government of Mozambique. He ceded free of his charge his 16mm copy to the Instituto Nacional de Cinema de Moçambique, that showed the film widely across the new independent country. The 35mm copy, with Portuguese subtitles, is considered lost (as of February 2012).