The digital platform Palavras em movimento — Testemunho Vivo do Património Cinematográfico [Words on the Move – Living Witness of Film Heritage] was launched last week by Raquel Rato, coordinator of the project of the same name, whose first aim is to create a digital archive “that emerges as a systematization of memories and will serve as source material for research on Portuguese cinema”, reveals the IHC researcher.

With this first step, the project rescues the unofficial Portuguese cinematic history, by collecting memories from oral testimonies of the main actors of Portuguese cinema, from the 1960-1980s, thus valuing them. Raquel Rato also tells us that the project “brings together national and international researchers in the exchange of knowledge, creating institutional and cultural sharing networks, in the dissemination of Portuguese cinema and its authors”.

In the platform now inaugurated, users can access, among other materials, twelve interviews already published, among which are the directors António Pedro Vasconcelos and Lauro António, the producer António Cunha Telles, the actress Lia Gama, or the colourist Teresa Ferreira.

Speaking to Agência Lusa, the researcher explained that “it’s not just the question of record keeping. It’s the question of these people, some of them being forgotten in Portuguese cinema. Not all of them, but a lot of people don’t know who Manuel Faria de Almeida or Ricardo Costa are. This is to bring value to people and their ouvre.”

The project received funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and its team includes Brazilian Ana Carolina Maciel (State University of Campinas) and Portuguese Manuel Mozos (National Archive of Moving Image), Luís Trindade and Caterina Cucinotta (also IHC researchers) and Elsa Mendes (National Cinema Plan).