Catarina Alves Costa | Portugal, 2022, 72'
This story explores the mid-century archival films by German musician Margot Dias who documented life in the extreme north of Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony. The films are an unprecedented visual and sound records of the Makonde culture. Filmmaker Catarina Alves Costa brings these colour films and black and white photographs back to the community. Contemporary musicians, artists and a new generation reflect on these images and this period of colonial history. Alongside, we learn about Dias’ life and work in her own words.
Catarina Alves Costa is a director and anthropologist. She has directed several films like Margot (2022), Pedra e Cal (2016), Falamos de António Campos (2010), Nacional 206 (2009), O Arquiteto e a Cidade Velha (2004), Senhora Aparecida (1994) and was co-director of Um Ramadão em Lisboa (2019). She won several awards, namely Best Documentary at the Recife Ethnographic Film Festival, Critic’s award in Caminhos do Cinema Português, Planét Award in Bilan du Film Ethnographique (1999), and the Excellence Award of the Society for Visual Anthropology, USA, and the 1st prize at the VII Rassegna Internazionale di Documentari Etnografici in 1996. In 2022 she published the book Cinema e Povo.
