Catarina Vasconcelos
Directing
Biography
Catarina Vasconcelos was born in Lisbon, 1986. After graduating from Lisbon’s Fine Arts Academy, she moved to London where she pursued a MA at the Royal College of Art. Her final project, the short film “Metáfora ou a Tristeza Virada do Avesso” (Metaphor or Sadness inside out), was her first film. “Metáfora” premiered at Cinema du Reel in 2014 where it was awarded the prize for the Best International Short Film. The film was screened in various festivals such as RIDM - Montreal International Documentary Festival (Best international medium length award), DokLeipzig, Moscow International Film Festival and Doclisboa. Her first feature film, “A Metamorfose dos Pássaros” (The Metamorphosis of Birds”) had its premiere at the Encounters section at the Berlinale 2020.
Known For
Filmmaker Catarina Vasconcelos sifts through the memories of her ancestors. Her naval officer grandfather, Henrique, who married her grandmother, Beatriz, on her 21st birthday, spent extended periods at sea, leaving her with six children. This is the beginning of a generational saga.
The Metamorphosis of Birds
Portugal. 15th century. Monks build a wall around a forest to bar the entry of women. But in the world of the unseen, lit by their souls, women have made their kingdom of invisibility without walls.
Nocturne for a Forest
Alternating Super-8, digital footage and the correspondence with her brother, the filmmaker evokes their deceased mother and the Portuguese revolution, which she only gets to know through these diffracted memories.
Metaphor or Sadness Inside Out
Walking in Hyde Park, 'enframing' the park. Hiding Hyde Park in London.
Hiding the Park
How to be bring a city to another? How do you make a map of your favourite place? And how about the sea? To whom does the sea belong? It's in a series of experimentations with acetates and a overhead projector that I tried to create my world, a world where Lisbon and London fit in each other.
From Here
Maria Ana’s body began to disappear. Having dedicated all her life to restoring ancient paintings, Maria Ana is now faced with the impossibility of restoring her own body. Her cancer weighs heavily on her husband and children. On New Year's Eve, Maria Ana and Death meet for the first time. And from that day on, they establish an unusual friendship. There seems to be no one else that could appease Maria Ana’s concern: How to die well?