Exibição Exhibition

Selecção Outros Olhares – Curtas Metragens
Cinema Avenida
15/11/2020, 21:45

Reposição:
Cinema Avenida
08/12/2020, 20:30

Origem Origin

País de Origem Origin Country Portugal
País de Rodagem Filming Country Portugal

Metragem e Género Footage and Genre

Duração Runtime 00:21:00

Tipo de Projecto Project Type Documentary, Experimental, Short
Género Genre

Idioma e Legendagem Language and Subtitling

Língua Language Portuguese
Legendas Subtitles English

Painless labour Parto sem dor

Sinopse Original Original Sinopsis

Varria o chão do piso térreo de uma casa que tínhamos ocupado em Lisboa. Oiço bater à janela. Aproximo-me e vejo-te, na altura terias cerca de 80 anos. Estavas com um cabelo muito bem enrolado e vestida de branco, apoiada numa bengala. Penso de imediato que é uma vizinha que se vem queixar do barulho. Mas, de modo completamente desarmante, o que tu tens para me dizer é que estás muito feliz por nós estarmos aqui, na tua rua. Dizes que nos queres ajudar. Tens uma série de móveis numa cave que podemos ir buscar. Agradeço-te surpreendida pela tua generosidade e digo que vou falar de imediato com os meus amigos para irmos buscar as coisas. Retenho o número da porta da Avenida Santos Dumont, despeço-me e ponho a cabeça para dentro…Lembras-te, Cesina Bermudes?

Sinopse Internacional Sinopsis

I was sweeping the ground floor of a house that we occupied in Lisbon. I heard someone knocking on the window. Then I saw you. At the time you would be about 80 years. You had very well curled hair and you were all dressed in white, leaning on a cane. I remember thinking that you must be a neighbour complaining about the noise. But in a completely disarming way, what you have to tell me is that you’re very happy that we’re there on your neighbourhood. And that you want to help us. That you have furniture in a basement nearby that we can use. You offer to give lectures on gynecology and obstetrics, because it is your specialty. I thank you for being so generous and I go to talk to my friends right away so we can get those things. I memorize the door number of the Avenida Santos Dumont. I say goodbye and put my head back inside … Do you remember, Cesina Bermudes?

Mensagem do Realizador Director Statement
This film is born from the urge of producing new female narratives for a cinema that was systematically built as a privileged place for the reproduction of female stereotypes and the minorization of women’s role as a political and socially active element. In face with the degradation of the image of women in the late Middle Ages, it was produced and perpetuated in the European imaginary that the practice of witchcraft was linked to the feminine nature and, by extension, that every woman was a potential witch . Burned at the stake as demonic beings, this anti-feminine historical movement, beyond the heavy repression it inflicted, has discredited them over time, historically relating witches with an idea of hysteria, madness and quackery . The accusations of witchcraft were mostly associated with ancient practices of empirical medicine and fell violently on healers and midwives. What are the memories of this dark times? We look for the answer to this question in the life and action of Cesina Bermudes, a leading obstetrician who pioneered the introduction of painless labour in Portugal, as well as an important oppositionist to the “Estado Novo” fascist regime. And by this, blending the history of Cesina Bermudes with the history of the 20th century in Portugal. In the preparation of this film, the historical repérage was initially made by reading the numerous scientific texts written by Cesina Bermudes, as well as consulting historical documents in the national archives about the fascist period and conducting interviews with her former patients, colleagues or other people connected with her at some point in her life. The inevitable holes of an indirect story, the constant omissions about his personal life or the apparent ideological neutrality about his political activism, which emerged during the research related to this film, have revealed the path it should be taken: a conversation, which starts by a window and extends through an imagined intimacy. The images of a family trip are the background of this story, in the search for new and subtle poetics that can identify current protagonists for the achievements of Cesina Bermudes.

Biografia do Realizador Director Biography
Maria Mire Director of experimental films, she has worked collaboratively in several artistic collectives in the context of contemporary art. The artistic and research work she has been developing, since 2001, is mainly focused on the issues of perception of the moving image. She is currently a teacher and co-director of the Cinema / Moving Image Department of Ar.Co, in Lisbon. She concluded a PhD in Art and Design, at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, in 2016, with the following “Phantasmagorias: the moving image in the field of fine arts”.