with Jorge Campos and Sérgio C. Andrade about the film Adeus, Até ao Meu Regresso (Portugal, 1974, 70'), by António-Pedro Vasconcelos.
X-RAYDOC proposes to analyze films whose importance is indisputable for the History of Documentary film-making in which the relationship with the other, in context, is highlighted as a structuring element. This relationship has consequences at different levels, from the outset in terms of narrative solutions shaped according to both ethical and aesthetic criteria. Hence, since the real – the documentary's raw material – is made up of change, the result of a multiplicity of combination declinations, practically infinite, inevitable in a cinema that challenges its time and who inhabits it. This is the gaze’s domain. Therefore, from a whole theory. There are documentaries that influenced the outcome of wars, led to the acquittal of those condemned to death, shed new light on acquisitions, denounced unsustainable situations, changed the lives of thousands of people. There are documentaries that have changed cinema itself. X-RAYDOC is part of this singularity, seeking to go further.
This is not one of António-Pedro Vasconcelos' better-known films. I dare say, however, that it is one of the most interesting. First broadcasted at Christmas in 1974 on RTP, in the same space where for years the so-called messages to the families of soldiers deployed in Africa were shown, Adeus, até ao meu regresso was the first Portuguese film to address the theme of the colonial war. Even if it had no additional merits, that alone would be enough to recommend it. However Adeus, até ao meu regresso goes beyond that. António-Pedro Vasconcelos went around the country looking for ex-combatants who were present during the Estado Novo Christmas programs on RTP. He found them in their villages, absorbed in everyday activities, and discovered stories whose dramatic depth allowed them to bring to the surface both the complexity of the present in 1974, and the war that killed thousands of young people. This was highlighted in several publications, including the Cahiers du Cinéma.
"Made for television in December 1974, ADEUS, ATÉ AO MEU REGRESSO (GOODBYE, UNTIL MY RETURN) adopts the expression used by Portuguese soldiers when, from the theater of war, they sent their Christmas messages to the metropolis, as it was also said at the time. There are impressive testimonies, such as that of a former combatant who recounts the difficulties experienced by soldiers in paying for the urns of their fallen colleagues, or the beautiful letter of another who, in 1965, described to his wife the meaninglessness of war. António Pedro Vasconcelos records the words of these soldiers who fought in Guinea, reflecting on the Portuguese colonial war when it was still a very present reality."
Source: Cinemateca
PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Santiago de Compostela, expert in Documentary Film, professor of Higher Education, journalist, filmmaker and cultural programmer. As a journalist he worked in the Press, Radio and Television, namely for RTP, where he spent 25 years. He directed several documentaries and he was Programmer responsible for the Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia area of Porto 2001 – European Capital of Culture, as well as the cycle of Photography and Documentary Cinema Images of Imagined Real from the Polytechnic Institute of Porto. He is coordinator of the blog Narrativas do Real.
Degree in Philosophy (University of Porto); secondary school teacher (1979-88). Professional journalist since 1988, with a career in O Primeiro de Janeiro (1988-89) and PÚBLICO (since 1989); collaborator at O Comércio do Porto, Expresso and Grande Reportagem; co-founder of the magazines Cinema Novo and A Grande Ilusão. Author of the books Porto in the History of Cinema (2002), Ao Correr do Tempo – Two Decades with Manoel de Oliveira (2008) and Serralves – 20 Years and Other Stories (2009). Author of the documentary Manoel de Oliveira, His Case (2007). Co-author of the Dictionary of Portuense Personalities of the 20th Century (2001) and As Casas da Música no Porto – Vols. I, II and III (2009-2011).
