Event photos, trailer, posters and frames from the trilogy available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DmM9TPtWcRuPr_ZSfnc7e3RnUYzioHcX?usp=share_link
Press release February 9, 2023
Directed by Diogo Simão and photographed by Ana Monteiro, the trilogy was presented on the 23rd and 24th of January, during the Algarve Film Week, in the context of the 9th Monstrare – International Social Film Festival. Produced between 2018 and 2022, these short films allowed members of the cultural association and invited professionals to work with secondary school students in the municipalities of Loulé, Faro and Figueira da Foz.
The Internet killed Chester Bennington, Aunque es de noche and Sofia and Gajo do Fogo are the titles of the short films produced by Plutão de Verão – Cultural Association and presented during the 9th Monstrare – International Social Film Festival, last month January. On the 23rd and 24th, the Loulé Secondary School auditorium was filled with students, teachers and guests to participate in a Q&A with some elements of the technical and artistic teams of the trilogy, as well as with Gonçalo Almeida: guest director who showed and spoke about his award-winning short film A Rapariga de Saturno. This initiative was articulated together with the Municipality of Loulé, through the Loulé Film Office and the Cultural Project of the School, in order to reinforce the activities that are being developed within the scope of the National Plan for the Arts, the National Plan for Cinema and of the Biennial of Culture and Education 2023.
Plutão de Verão – Associação Cultural, based in the Algarve region, started this project in 2018 with the ShortWeek competition. “We challenged students from secondary schools in Loulé, Faro and, later, Figueira da Foz, to produce and present, as a group, a short film in one week.” – says Diogo Simão, artistic director of Plutão de Verão. “To prove it was possible, we produced The Internet Killed Chester Bennington with the same time and technical constraints as the participants. It was a successful bet: in total there were more than 300 subscribers who, a week after the opening ceremony, presented 50 short films. Some of these short films were screened at other festivals and many of their creators followed higher education in cinema or theatre, even outside their region of origin.”
With the support of several entities, including the three participating municipalities and the Portuguese Institute for Youth and Sports (IPDJ), prizes were awarded in the various categories of the contest. The jury brought together well-known theater and television faces (Salvador Nery, Anna Eremin, João de Brito, Catarina Perez, Igor Regalla, André Canário), award-winning directors (Bernardo Lopes, Justin Amorim, Flávio Ferreira, Rafael Almeida) and representatives of some entities who supported the project (Manuel Baptista, Maria da Graça Lobo, Isa Mestre).
“The amount of young talent we met and their willingness to continue making movies was contagious.” – admits Ana Monteiro, director of photography and co-founder of Plutão de Verão. “The production model that we adapted from the competition allowed us to be free of overthinking and to approach the cinematographic creation process in its purest form.”
The Internet killed Chester Bennington, starring Sara Mendes Vicente and with the participation of young actresses Alice Velez, Beatriz Gomes, dancer Beatriz Gonçalves and musician Nuno “Kabula” Esmael, was recorded between the municipalities of Olhão and Faro, having its creative process lasted a week. Synopsis: A disenchanted photography student returns to her hometown for a project, only to find a reality very strange and different from the one she knew.
Aunque es de noche was co-created by 5 young actors participating in ShortWeek (Constança Melo, Gabriel Riley, Margarida Lucas, Salomé Rita and Tiago Leal), in a process that dragged on over several months of confinement. “When we had confirmation of the filming location, we rehearsed all the action for a week at the Blackbox at LAMA Teatro. Miguel Martins Pessoa and Diana Bernedo, actors and directors from Janela Aberta Teatro, joined the process close to the recording dates and raised the bar during rehearsals. This short film was the first fiction film to be recorded entirely in the Salt Gema Mine in the municipality of Loulé, at a depth of 230 meters.” – confirms Diogo Simão. Synopsis: A group of boys and girls were raised inside a cave. This is the day when they all make irreversible decisions.
Sofia and the Fire Guy, the last film in the trilogy, was shot in two weeks in Figueira da Foz, with a technical and artistic team made up mostly of participants in the ShortWeek competition. The creation of the narrative was shared between the young Figueirense, Sofia Mendes, and the experienced actor Mauro Hermínio. Synopsis: When Sofia’s powers to control fire are revealed in a gruesome way, she sets out to find the man with the answers she’s been looking for.
However, the conclusion of this trilogy of short films does not seem to spell the end of the project for Plutão de Verão’s artistic director.“ ShortWeek proved to be more than a success from a creative and educational point of view. It is also an example of how to stimulate, among younger generations, collective critical dialogue, multidisciplinary collaboration, the use of techniques and artistic tools that perpetuate memory and disseminate the human, cultural and geographic potential of the territory.” – says the director from the Algarve. “The gentrification that has changed the face of the region and the “brain drain” (from local secondary education to higher education outside the region/country) are realities mirrored both in the scenarios and narratives of the trilogy that we presented, and in the path of the young people who participated in these productions. Every year we miss opportunities for the development of a regional artistic language that enhances our idiosyncrasies. Plutão de Verão will continue to work with public and private entities interested in reversing the situation. But if political decision-makers, at national and local levels, continue to alienate cultural agents and turn their backs on the strategic plans that they themselves define, this type of initiative becomes more than unsustainable: it becomes useless. We are always available to listen, but we need to be heard for any kind of serious and sustained action to be possible. Fortunately, in Loulé it is possible and the results are visible.” – concludes.
Biography Diogo Simão
Diogo Simão was born in Faro in 1994. He began his artistic career as an actor: he debuted in theater in 2010 and in cinema in 2014. Since then he has taken over directing, directing eight short films, screened at dozens of festivals and on Portuguese national television. He served as executive producer on a trilogy of documentaries directed by Ana Monteiro, filmed in Poland, Peru and Portugal.
With a degree in Communication Sciences from UAlg, Diogo is currently attending a postgraduate course in Creative Processes – UAlg/PUC-SP. He has attended courses at the National Film and Television School, HarvardX, MoMA and Ball State University. He was a guest trainer on several courses, namely within the scope of film festivals, the National Arts Plan in Portugal and BoCA 2021 – Bienal de Artes Contemporâneas.
He was part of the candidacy team for Faro to be the European Capital of Culture between 2019 and 2022, co-coordinating communication and public participation, namely the project to identify and promote young artists, “Geração Cápsula”. He is a programmer at the Young South Film Festival and artistic director of Plutão de Verão: a cultural association he founded in 2019 and through which he has collaborated in various cultural, participatory, training and solidarity projects.
Diogo was a programmer of the Shortcutz Faro film festival from 2015 to 2020 and creator/producer of the ShortWeek contest in Loulé, Faro and Figueira da Foz. In 2021 he wrote and directed a play, “Sara Sara”, and created “Retrospectiva de um Faro futuro”: a performance-reading of urban legends from the city of Faro, with the Roman temple of Milreu as a backdrop and original instrumentals of hip-hop as a soundtrack.
Biography Ana Monteiro
Born in Figueira da Foz, in 1996. Graduated in audiovisual courses at ISMT and ETIC. He complemented his studies with training courses taught by cinematographers Christian Berger (‘The White Ribbon & ‘Caché’) and Larry Smith (‘Eyes Wide Shut’ & ‘Only God Forgives’), a photography course with MoMA curator Sarah Meister and several masterclasses at FEST – New Directors | New Films Festival 2018-19. Ana made, between 2020 and 2022, a trilogy of documentaries in 3 different countries: Poland, Peru and Portugal.
Project coordinator at the international organization Piano&Coffee since 2015, Ana has produced music videos for artists from 3 continents. She was a producer and programmer at the Shortcutz Figueira da Foz film festival between 2017 and 2020, taking on the position of creative director and chief designer of the Young South Film Festival in 2020. She is also co-founder and creative director of Plutão de Verão, a cultural association that promotes participatory, training and solidarity projects.
In 2022, Ana was involved in the production and photography of the documentary episodes made for the Ethno USA project, curated and directed the videos of the first Sofar Sounds Faro and participated in the ‘Music For Human Rights’ project in Israel and Berlin.
summer pluto
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/plutaodeverao
Instagram page: @plutaodeverao
For more information contact:
plutaodeverao@gmail.com
+351 910 428 390