Here is content that uses cookies. To view them, you must accept them in the Cookies config

Synopsis

What is a revolution for? A revolution highlights other possibilities for life.

That is the premise on which this short film is based. It delves into the history and the colonial roots of one of the last great European revolutions that started on 25 April 1974 in Portugal and reflects on its end on 25 November 1975.

What can we learn from that 19-month period and from its so-called ‘Revolutionary Process in Progress’? What images does this popular revolution that began as a military coup d’état leave us with?

This audiovisual essay, constructed with some of the most important cinematographic works on the 25 April, including archive material from television and the film cooperatives that emerged in the heat of the revolutionary process, is a reflection on the political force of images, on the legacy they leave us, and on the role of archives, film, the media and representation in general in our contemporary struggles.

The revolution (is) probable also speaks to us of the fragile document status of images as “proof” and about the real possibility of learning from history from the present.

Teaser

Teaser with version of Grándola Vila Morena

Here is content that uses cookies. To view them, you must accept them in the Cookies config

María Villanueva Alonso studied classical guitar at the Higher Conservatory of Music in Vigo and Audiovisual Communication at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She then moved from Spain to Switzerland, where she did an MA in Music Performance at the Bern University of the Arts, and afterwards to Lisbon where she received a degree in jazz singing at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. Since 2021 she has been teaching guitar at the Manuel Quiroga conservatory in Pontevedra.

Her recent artistic activities include the Duo 2028, presented at festivals such as the Quincena Musical de Donosti; the recording of the album “Fonte Grande” (2020), financed by the production company Jazz ao Centro Clube (JACC); the performative action “Carta aberta” (2021), commissioned by the Diputación de Pontevedra and the collaboration with Jaime Velasco Ayensa, where she provides the voice for his music album that will be released in the coming months.

Technical details

The revolution (is) probable

is a visual essay by Lee Douglas, María Ruido and Paula Barreiro López.

2022 / 30 mins / Video HD and 16mm. transferred

Script and direction: Lee Douglas, María Ruido y Paula Barreiro López

Image editing and post-production: Enrique Piñuel / Playtime Audiovisuales

Cinematography: Paulo Catrica

Camera assistant: Lee Douglas

Music:
Grândola Vila Morena (1971) by José Afonso
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (1971) by Gil Scott-Heron
Liberdade (1974) by Sérgio Godinho

Sound post-production: Ricardo Guerreiro

With extracts of the films:

Bom Povo Português (1980) by Rui Simões (production Rui Simões and Cooperativa Virver)

Deus, Patria, Autoridade (1975) by Rui Simões

Nascer, Viver, Morrer em Paradinha, Moimento da Beira (1975) by José Nascimento and Cinequipa

Caminhos da Liberdade (1975) by Cinequipa

A Luta do Povo: Alfabetização em Santa Catarina (1976) by Grupo Zero and coordinated by Solveig Nordlund

Gestos e Fragmentos (1982) by Alberto Seixas Santos

A Lei de Terra (1977) by Alberto Seixas Santos, Solveig Nordlund and Grupo Zero

A Linha Vermelha (2011) by José Filipe Costa (with excerpts of Torre Bela (1975) by Thomas Harlan)

Entrevista a Agustín García Calvo e Isabel Escudero en la Puerta del Sol (2011) by La Noche Tuerta

Subtitles: Enrique Piñuel and Eloïse Mahieux

Traductions of the subtitles (subtitles in Spanish, Portuguese, English and French): Filipa Falcato, Lee Douglas and Clara Padovani.

Production: Research project “Modernidad(es) Descentralizada(s): arte, política y contracultura en el eje transatlántico durante la Guerra Fría (Parte 2)” (HAR2017-82755-P)

This film is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie-Slowdowska-Curie grant agreement No 895197, which supports the project “Militant Imaginaries, Colonial Memories: The Visual and Material Traces of Revolution and Return in Contemporary Portugal”, and

Résistance(s) Partisane(s): Culture visuelle, imaginaires collectifs et mémoire révolutionnaire/Partisan Resistance(s): Visual culture, collective imagination and revolutionary memory” (Initiative d’excellence de l’Université Grenoble Alpes, ANR-15-IDEX-02).