Catembe or complaint from the young censored soul | BUALA

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Catembe or complaint from the young censored soul

Filmed in 1965, Catembe, is a ctional documentary directed by Manuel Faria de Almeida about the everyday life in Loureno Marques. The most outstanding aspect of this lm is the fact that it represents the rst critical interpretation of the Portuguese colonial reality. After the original piece was censored with 103 cuts and obliteration of the censored parts the second version was banned. Only half of its 2400 original metres survived, which led to a reference in the Guinness Book of Records as the lm with most censored cuts in the history of cinema. Screened twice after the end of the dictatorship, Catembe is yet to be blossom in a post-colonial context.

Catembe - 7 dias em Loureno Marques

Maria do Carmo Piarra: How does a promising director deal with such harsh censorship, as was the case of Catembe? Faria de Almeida: A person becomes demoralized, bitter. If the lm had come out openly and spontaneously, I would have moved on to do another one, and then another one and would have continued. As it was, things were over in terms of feature lms. MCP: Is it the death of the author prior to his full disclosure? FA: Over time, I ended up doing documentaries. I lived of it. MCP: Tell me a little of Faria de Almeida as a Film Society buff and then as a lm student. How did the possibility to study abroad come about? What conditions were set by the Cinema Fund? FA: I was one of the founding partners of the Loureno Marques Film Society. We were lucky that censorship in Loureno Marques was very good We screened Battleship Potemkine, The Mother, during the Salazar regime. In 1958, 59, I began making amateur lms and at one point we wanted to know whether these were any good and worth anything. I sent three or four of my lms to festivals here in Portugal. Amazingly, the lms won the rst prize, second prize MCP: These were documentaries? FA: Yes, documentaries. Meanwhile, a good friend of mine went to Loureno Marques and was very enthusiastic about my eagerness to move beyond amateur lmmaking. Back in Portugal, he searched for ways on getting me a scholarship to study and do cinema. MCP: When was this? Late 50s? FA: Around 60, 61. Seems to be 1960.

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MCP: By that time, Csar Moreira Baptista was already heading the National Information Secretariat (NIS) and had started the policy of giving scholarships to educate FA: To educate young people. The London School accepted me. I went there after Fernando Lopes, of whom they had liked very much. We were three Portuguese in the course. One was self-funded, the other was supported by Gulbenkian Foundation. I had the scholarship from NIS. MCP: Under particular conditions FA: After the scholarship period, I had to be in Portugal at least three years MCP: How long did the course in England last? FA: Two years. MCP: You made two short lms. FA: Streets of Early Sorrow, which I never shared with the censorship, otherwise it would have been banned. It was about a black South African and the carnage in Sharpeville1, during apartheid. It was the one that the school sent to Amsterdam, where it won. Then, in the second year, I did another lm called Viviana which also had the music from Angola is ours. MCP: Also a short lm? FA: But with a story. Foolishly I asked them to send me the original material and I rearranged it to see if I could take something with a priest, something from Angola is ours, anyway, something of the kindI reworked it and it lost its soul. Despite this, I still tried to make it pass. It went to the censorship and was forbidden. MCP: What happened to these lms? Are they stored in the Portuguese Cinematheque? FA: No. Viviana is not at the Cinematheque. But I have it stored somewhere. I dont like how it turned out and preferred it as it was. I have the Streets of Early Sorrow saved. Actually, the gentleman that helped me get the scholarship I showed him the lm, in 16mm, at home and he said it was too leftist. He advised me not to show the lm. MCP: After the course, you had an invitation to the United States of America? FA: No, it was actually to work with Tony Richardson in England. Ah, and it was to work for the United Nations. MCP: You couldnt accept it because of your obligations towards NIS FA: To be in Portugal for three years. MCP: You also did a traineeship in France FA: It was at the Institut des Hautes tudes Cinmatographiques. Alfredo Tropa e a Teresa Olga were there, Alfredo doing the directors course and Teresa as a note-taker. They were in their last year and I participated in the last six months of that course. My objective was to work at the Cinematheque to be able to watch the lms, read the lm datasheets, and also learn a bit more. MCP: While you were in France, Antnio da Cunha Telles pushed for support and funding from the Cinema Fund for Catembe. How and when did the idea for the lm come about? And what inspired you to use Direct Cinema? FA: In England during that period, Direct Cinema was becoming very popular and we could see Dziga Vertov. Fernando Lopes ended up doing Belarmino in Direct Cinema. I dont know. I liked Alain Resnais, Chris Marker and Agns Varda very much. The Clio From 5 to 7, against the Algerian War. MCP: And Catembe, how does it take shape? In Paris? FA: Maybe, I have no idea. MCP: In those times, the NIS was encouraging lms that promoted the Ultramarine Provinces at the centre of the empire

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FA: That is where Cunha Telles role is important, who was one of the leaders in the Mocidade Portuguesa (Portuguese Youth Organisation from the dictatorship) He was trusted by the regime. If he proposed a lm on Loureno Marques by a lmmaker from Loureno Marques that had on top of this beneted from a Scholarship from the NIS, all seemed ne and acceptable. MCP: How long did the shooting of Catembe take? FA: Fifteen days, three weeks. MCP: When you were lming Catembe, did you feel that everything was going to work out ne? Were you excited? FA: I was excited and thought all was going ne. There was very limited funding, all was made under the minimum costs. Nothing was repeated. MCP: Why did you choose to edit photographs and sounds when you lm the lunch and siesta of the whites, in the rst Sunday? FA: I would say it was done for nancial reasons. Im not sure. We can hear the man eating, and after the curry, having his nap. MCP: Catembe is the other side of Maputo. In the original lm it was also a girl. In the censored version, she nearly disappears. She appears in three or four inarticulate sequences, without an obvious meaning in the lm. The ctional story of Catembe was completely reedited FA: Completely. The bars the Luso all that was cut MCP: What did Catembe mean to you? FA: Thats a good one. What a mischievous question I dont know. MCP: At what point to you really realise that the lm was not going to be screened? FA: When I receive the second letter from the censorship informing the its screening was not appropriate. It was over. I took the lm and sent it to the Cinematheque. MCP: When the Cinematheque organized in the 1980s the catalogue of the New Cinema cycle, it asked lmmakers from the movement to elect the ten most important Portuguese lms. You included Catembe in your list. Was it for its symbolic value? FA: Maybe. I dont remember that list anymore but I would think so. Its important not to forget. MCP: Catembe should be seen? FA: This version although short is still very interesting. When Dr. Flix Ribeiro was heading the Cinematheque he screened Catembe. In the previous day on the TV news hour, Carlos Pinto Coelho asked him something about Catembe and how people would know it was being screened, at the Cinematheque MCP: Did the room ll up? FA: Completely. Dr. Flix Ribeiro let people in until the room was bursting, everyone was sitting on the oor. MCP: Was there any debate after the screening? FA: I was ready for that. But I didnt take the initiative. I was a little blown away by watching the lm, and feeling that people had liked it. So many people, so many people I was a left a little out of words. And didnt take the initiative. I was sitting in the back MCP: Did you feel that people liked it? FA: Yes, and more. When I was in Macau (with RTP), I was told that Dr. Flix Ribeiro had once again screened the movie at the Cinematheque and my daughter who was at the time here in Portugal nishing her degree in Agronomy went, and told me it had gone very well. This was in 1984.

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MCP: Do you feel that due to this story you ended up not thriving as a ctional lmmaker? FA: Perhaps that was it. One cannot know.

1.

The Sharpeville Massacre took place on the 21 de March 1960, when South African police opened re on a crowd of black protesters.

Translation: Diana Costa

by Maria do Carmo Piarra Afroscreen | 16 May 2010 | mozambique
by MARIA DO CARMO PIARRA

Maria do Carmo Piarra. Journalist and author of "Salazar vai ao cinema." She's a doctoral student in Communication Sciences with research on the memorial lm of Portuguese colonialism during the dictatorship. She was a lm critic for the magazines Premiere, Sbado and Independente.

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