Eldorado XXI wins Porto/Post/Doc

by Vitor Pinto

05/12/2016 - Salomé Lamas’ second feature-length documentary has become the first Portuguese production to take home the festival’s top award

Eldorado XXI by Salomé Lamas

Salomé Lamas’ documentary Eldorado XXI [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was the big winner at the third edition of Porto/Post/Doc, which came to an end last night. This is the first time in three years that the gathering has crowned a local production with its Grand Prize.

Openly flirting with an ethnographic style, Eldorado XXI was shot in La Rinconada and Cerro Lunar in the Peruvian Andes – the highest permanent settlement in the world. The film had its world premiere at the latest Berlinale and will get local theatrical distribution in 2017. In the meantime, the 31-year-old director and visual artist (who also often exhibits her works in local and international art galleries) has directed a new film, Extinção, which is currently having the finishing touches put to it.

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The (all-female) official jury, composed of Leonor Teles, Joana Pimenta, Cornelia Lund and Isabel Capeloa Gil, gave a Special Mention to Those Who Jump [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a Danish production co-directed by Abou Bakar Sidibé, Estephan Wagner and Moritz Siebert. Abou Bakar Sidibé also won the Biberstein Gusmão Prize, which is given to emerging directors under 36. The film was shot in the Gourougou Mountains (a border region between Morocco and Melilla, a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa), where African migrants try their utmost to reach Europe.

Another Portuguese title, Ama-San [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by photographer-turned-director Cláudia Varejão, won the Teenage Prize, given out by a jury composed of students from a group of Porto high schools. Ama-San had already been awarded at the latest DocLisboa and is probably one of the most unexpectedly exciting and high-profile local productions of the year.

Nearly 100 films were programmed this year at Porto/Post/Doc, at an edition that featured a retrospective on Brazilian director Eryk Rocha and a focus on ethnographic and sensorial cinema. The dates for the next edition have already been announced as 29 November–3 December 2017.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Grand Prize
Eldorado XXI [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Salomé Lamas
Special Mention
Those Who Jump [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Abou Bakar Sidibé, Estephan Wagner and Moritz Siebert