Family films in Portugal
Almost every family has photographs. Almost none has a voice.
Family films and life stories, recorded in the living room of the people who tell them.
What a photograph doesn’t keep.
Two years on, you can still see someone’s face. You can no longer hear how they laughed, or how they said your name.
The voice
The pause before the funny part. The accent of a village that no longer speaks that way.
The hands
They say what people are too shy to put into words.
The home
The yard, the garage, the kitchen as it is today. Houses get sold; this one stays on film.
“My mother will never agree to this.”
What almost every son or daughter tells us in the first conversation.
Everyone says no at first, and then they talk for four hours. Not because we convinced them: nobody had ever really asked them, with time to listen to the answer.
One conversation, one afternoon, one film.
A conversation
Half an hour to understand who the film is for and what you are afraid of losing. The person who calls us is rarely the person who will be filmed.
An afternoon
Two of us, in their living room, with the light that is already there. Two to three hours, with breaks and coffee, and no clock to watch.
A film
15 to 40 minutes, in short chapters to share with the family. The full interview is kept, including everything that didn’t make the cut.
We never bring a fixed list of questions, and nothing goes into the film without the approval of the person filmed.
Where to begin.
Most families start with one grandparent and come back later for the others.
A life
One person, from the very beginning. It is the work families come back to most.
A couple
The two of them telling the same story and disagreeing on the details. Nothing is better on film.
A family day
A golden anniversary, an eightieth birthday, a christening. The one day everyone is in the same place.
The archive
Photographs, letters, Super 8 and VHS, restored and edited into a film people will actually watch.
A film, ten years later.
Uncle Manel and Aunt Maria talking about the film Pedro made for them at fourteen, with their grandson in the yard.
How it all beganIf the person is very old or unwell.
Tell us in your first message.
We rearrange our calendar, and it is the only case with no waiting list.
Tell us your family’s story.
A few lines are enough. You don’t need to have decided anything, or to have spoken to the person yet.