How to travel the world in March without leaving Coimbra.
We all know something about geopolitical realities, but since the documentaries, which you will have a chance to see during the festival, add depth, we can see and try to understand the real struggle, and how others feel in their own realities around the world.
When you come to live in Coimbra, only with a suitcase and skills, you have two options. Count on what's already here, that your skills will be useful, and maybe you'll find your people, or you can create something that will bring your people to you. Two years after Leandro Cordeiro came to Coimbra, who holds many job titles in the film industry, had a bold idea.
Having worked more than 10 years in the Brazilian film industry, he was part of its vibrant community, but here he knew nobody. Instead of waddling his path in the new hometown, he decided to create a film festival to enter the Portuguese film industry through its backdoor. At that time there was only one festival in Portugal, in Lisbon. Solely focused on Portuguese cinema, they missed a huge opportunity. When Leandro noticed it, he aimed exactly there–he looked outwards, he searched for international nonfiction. "I have no appetite for fiction at all," he admits, "I think it is way easier to talk about human rights with documentaries." Since his degree in cinema studies at UNISUL University, he has worked almost only with documentaries: as a film director, sound engineer, and festival producer. After he finished listing the documentaries he worked on and its topics–music and culture, deforestation issues, and challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples–he explained that because Brazil is like a huge pot of diverse culture full of remarkable characters, it pressure-cooks unique stories, endlessly, stories that are better than fiction.
When I came to his studio–located between prison, military barracks, and a Christian foundation providing temporary shelter–to talk about the festival, he bent over a white cylinder resembling a kitchen-sized rubbish bin. The dehumidifier fits perfectly with the Yamaha studio monitors HS series and a white Arturia 61 MIDI controller on his desk. It reduces humidity from 85% to 60%, and that is good for the music equipment, he said proudly, "The air feels fresh now." He spends most of his working time in this basement, and he was busy with the leaflet design for this year's festival edition.
