April session of the Cinema and Decolonisation Cycle to screen the documentary ‘Fogo no Lodo’ at the National Museum of Ethnology with free admission
The 2024/2025 season of the Cinema and Decolonisation Cycle has been running since November 2024, hosting cineclub-style sessions to explore the legacies and memories of decolonisation. The next session, scheduled for 5 April, will feature a screening of the documentary Fogo no Lodo (“Fire in the Mud”, Catarina Laranjeiro and Daniel Barroca, 2023, Portugal, 119 min), which has received in 2023 the Fundação INATEL Award at the Doclisboa – International Film Festival and in 2024 the Special Jury Award at the Apricot Tree Film Festival — wich is an international festival dedicated to etnographic documentaries, held in Armenia.
The film will be shown at 10:00 a.m. in the Auditorium of the National Museum of Ethnology (Avenida Ilha da Madeira Lisbon 1400-204), with free admission and subtitles in Portuguese. Following the film screening, a Q&A session will take place with guests invited by CEsA (TBC).
Synopsis – Fogo no Lodo (“Fire in the Mud”, Catarina Laranjeiro and Daniel Barroca, 2023, Portugal, 119 min)
Unal is a village of rice producers whose inhabitants played a crucial role in Guinea-Bissau’s liberation struggle against Portuguese colonialism. They were the first to engage in the armed uprising, mobilizing their ancestral spirits, the Irãs – the natural land-owners to whom they pay reverence – into the guerilla. Still today, every gesture of the rice cycle – from plowing to harvesting – is haunted by memories of the war. A trauma that is also inscribed in their present day rituals, bodies, landscapes, and techno music.
In the war’s aftermath, a group of soldiers got possessed by a messianic vision, “The Shadow”, that gave them the power to foresee the future and heal their communities with bush plants through
talismanic writings. “Fire in the Mud” takes a deeply immersive approach to a complex melting pot of religious forms and political turmoil within a diverse community claiming their future in contemporary Guinea-Bissau.
Credits
Directed by: Catarina Laranjeiro and Daniel Barroca
Assistant Directors: Mamassaliu Na M’Baatcha (Sada) and Julio Na M’Baatcha
Image and editing: Daniel Barroca
Sound engineer, sound designer and sound mixer: Dídio Pestana
Color grading: Gonçalo Ferreira
Graphic Design: Rui Silva
Executive Producer: Catarina Laranjeiro
Producers: Rui Ribeiro, Elsa Sertório and Ansgar Schaefer
Production Manager at Guinea-Bissau: Queba Quebi
Awards
[2023] Prémio Fundação INATEL, DocLisboa – Festival Internacional de Cinema
[2024] Special Jury Award, Apricot Tree Film Festival
Check out the Film Sheet
About the Cinema and Decolonisation Cycle
The sessions of the Cinema and Decolonisation Cycle will continue until June 2025, with screenings taking place in Auditorium 2 at ISEG (with the exception of the 5 April, which will be held at the National Museum of Ethnology). This initiative runs parallel to the exhibition Deconstructing Colonialism, Decolonising the Imagination, on display at the National Museum of Ethnology until 2 November.
Check out the programme below:
Decolonisation must be understood as an ongoing process, one that needs to be embraced and integrated into social, political, cultural, and personal dynamics. The project aims to create an open, dynamic space for sharing memories, narratives, dialogues, and reflections. It is coordinated by researcher Jessica Falconi (CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa) and curated by researcher and filmmaker Isabel Noronha (CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa) and filmmaker Camilo de Sousa.
Coordination: Jessica Falconi (CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa)
Curation: Isabel Noronha (CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa) and Camilo de Sousa
Scientific Consulting: Isabel Castro Henriques (CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa), Joana Pereira Leite (CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa), and Ana Mafalda Leite (CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa)
Collaboration: Luca Fazzini and João Moreira Silva
Support: CEsA/ISEG/ULisboa
Read more:
Fogo no Lodo (“Fire in the Mud”) – Kintop website
Ciclo de Cinema e Descolonização | Projeção do Filme “Fogo no Lodo” – ISEG website
Fogo no Lodo (“Fire in the Mud”) – Trailer on YouTube
Programme for the 2024/2025 season of the Cinema and Decolonisation Cycle, in parallel with the exhibition ‘Deconstructing Colonialism, Decolonizing the Imagination’
Author: CEsA Communication Team (comunicacao@cesa.iseg.ulisboa.pt)
Image: Reproduction/Kintop
