Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
About
Screening of "48"
Susana de Sousa Dias creates a living requiem from recently excavated photographs of Portuguese political prisoners taken by the Political Police (PIDE) during the Salazar dictatorship of 1926-1974. The hypnotizing sequence of faces – upon the remarkably sharp moments of their capture – flows eerily through an absorbing narrative arrangement, guided by the voices of the surviving prisoners and the very present ambient space around them. The subtle zooms, slow fades and heavy pauses isolate and vibrate the historical and emotional charge of the routine identification photos. Explaining their expressions at the moment of being photographed – often the result of complicated emotional states disguised by the “minimal gestures” of a repressed Portugal – lead to unexpected, poetic, horrific tales of the physical and psychological torture the survivors endured while in prison and the ubiquitous, insidious atmosphere of subjugation and surveillance while “free.”
Directed by Susana de Sousa Dias. Portugal 2009, digital video, b/w, 93 min. Portuguese with English subtitles.
Special event tickets (for in-person appearances) are $12. Tickets go on sale 45 minutes prior to show time. The HFA does not do advance ticket sales.
