Rui Xavier
Camera
Biography
Rui Xavier is a filmmaker, cinematographer and visual artist living in Lisbon, Portugal. Born in Oporto, he completes his bachelors degree in Audiovisual Communication at the Oporto Politechnics where he grew an interest in photography and film. By 1996 continues his studies at the University of Wales, Cardiff doing a Post Graduation course in Journalism. In 1998 moves to London to work as a photographer for the London based British newspaper The Independent. In 1999 returns to Portugal and in 2000 is the founder of the photographers collective Kameraphoto and K Gallery which was to become the leading hub for artists working with photography in Portugal. in 2000 time starts to experiment with video making small documentaries. From 2006 Rui has worked as a cinematographer and filmmaker. In 2008, his debut fiction film Superfície (2008) was awarded a Special Mention by the Jury of the 58th Berlinale/ Berlin Film Festival. The film was made with the support of Gulbenkian Foundation Program for Creation and Creativity. Since 2010 Rui Xavier is an artist in residence in Ateliers Garagem in Lisbon and collaborates with German artist Candida Höfer, resulting in the film and book Silent Spaces. He also collaborated with Venezuelan artist Javier Tellez for some of his film installations like "La Cueva de Arthaud" for Documenta 13 in Kassel. As a cinematographer, he has had long standing collaboration with avant garde Portuguese director and producer Sandro Aguilar.
Known For
Ana was born in São Miguel, an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean ruled by religion and traditions. Growing up as the middle child of a family of three with her mother and grandmother. Early Ana realized that girls and boys were given different tasks. Through her friendship with Luis, her queer best friend who loves dresses as much as pants, Ana questions the world that is promised to her. When her friend Cloé arrives from Canada, bringing with her the glowing days of youth, Ana embarks on a journey that will take her beyond the horizon.
Wolf and Dog
Started in 2018, the project – comprised of 11 segments by filmmakers from all around the world – reflects on the intertwined relationship between human society and nature that is aggravated by climate change on multiple scales, hinting at possible solutions.
Interdependence
Welcome to Lisbon: there are mermaids by the Tagus and birds flying over the old city; there are mad scientists and singing fish; lost tourist guides and lost tourists; fado and sad guitars. What a weird city you may think - but no. Lisbon is about being different, sarcastic, welcoming to foreigners even in an economic crisis. Different directors became fascinated by our strangeness. We became fascinated by these directors. The city is never the same in these four episodes, here in Lisbon.
Here in Lisbon
Paulo works as night security in a deactivated industrial complex. He lost his daughter in dramatic circumstances, and no regrets would console him. He sleeps at Luisa's house and witnesses the repeated transgressions of an unstable neighbour. Everything threatens to crack.
Mariphasa
'In the course of my cleaning duties, I examined the belongings of each guest of the hotel and observed through the details, lives that will remain unknown', says the temporary Chambermaid in a large seaside hotel, which, unable to communicate, lives through a rigid methodology of analysis of the exterior and a ritualised quotidian. Until the uncontrollable comes to disrupts this dynamic. Hotel Royal is fragmented and incomplete mosaic of contemporary societies. It could be dubbed a film about the horrors of the soul, about voyeurs or simply about misfits.
Hotel Royal
Mateus Lagoa and his wife Irene will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary at a most luxurious resort on a tropical island, leaving their teenage son dangerously adrift. Before departure to paradise, during an unexpected night spent apart, the side effects of the vaccines strike them - fevers, fainting spells, shivers, hallucinations of all sorts. A melancholic mood creeps in and their world seems somehow fractured, capable of unsuspected and dangerous promises.
First Person Plural
According to the perpetual lunar calendar: 'When sparks catch a pot of water, it signifies wind. When the hills echo loudly and the sea generates great noise, it signifies tempestuous winds and storms at sea. When dense fog forms at dawn, it signals two days' serenity.' Let’s wait and see.
Signs of Stillness in Meaningless Things
A young adolescent, living with a swinger couple in a campsite, meets an emotionally unstable man and finds herself fascinated by his special powers.
Bunker
A portrait of a first relationship, previous to the external world, the one of the family. In a winter in Lisbon, father, mother, son and daughter trace the path of a day by themselves. A film that develops through characters who have for their antagonist life itself, with nothing (and everything) heroic about it.
Cold Day
Two young lovers, live in a tiny apartment, struggling everyday to find reasons to stay together. As they are incapable of living apart, they choose to live silently. Last winter they got lost in the mountains.
Wild Horses
A woman and two dogs inside a city house. She rediscovers herself in daily gestures and in the remembrance of whom has left. The sun blinds her, it becomes fierce, and like death, she cannot look it in the eye - only to the shadows around her
The City and The Sun
One must look into the tired eyes of those who hope one day to be able to communicate. Mother and daughter don't know how. Maybe the dog can help, but maybe he can't either.
Bad Blood
Oscar, a renowned hypnotherapist, uses the last moments in his hotel room to say goodbye to the vertiginous Mercedes and rid old Norberto of his bitterness.
Worth Your Weight in Gold
Spira comes home from a juvenile detention center and reconnects with his loved ones in Reboleira (Lisbon), a slum on the verge of being destroyed. Kikas makes it clear that he’s not welcome.
The End of the World
Silence is absolute and time dilates as we lose ourselves in an unpredictable space among non-existent places.
Infinito
“Black Gold” is a visually striking film directed by a Japanese filmmaker, blending a minimalist aesthetic with the natural beauty of rural India – a true visual feast for cinephiles. Every detail is crafted with precision, reflecting a uniquely Japanese perspective.
Black Gold
On a summer's day, a mother, daughter and granddaughter's care-free day trip comes to an abrupt end. Beautiful and restrained.
Luz da Manhã
No matter how calm the surface of the ocean appears to be, each time we cross the line that divides land and water we enter an unknown and unexpected world. Does our world remain the same when we come back on shore?
Surface
Before the assault, feel the weight of the body.
Dive: Approach And Exit
Before and after a kiss