Ler Cinema: short films by Pedro Neves in Paredes de Coura

Inn
An old guesthouse, located in the center of Porto, served for many years as a shelter for people with few possessions, prostitutes, and people passing through who made that place their more or less prolonged residence.

At the end of 2013, the tenant, who sublet the rooms, handed the key back to the owner. In the 14 rooms that make up the building, almost everything was left behind, from unmade beds to all kinds of objects, such as toys, posters, chairs and ladders, clothes and shoes in the closets. A diary written by a child and found on the premises reminds us of the kind of environment - dark and violent - that existed in the guesthouse. It essentially left memories that we project in time and space, echoes and sounds, images of the emptiness and abandonment of a space that is no longer inhabited. In this film, we return and immerse ourselves in the daily life of the guesthouse through images and sounds.

By Pedro Neves
Documentary, Short Film
Portugal / 20 min. DREAMS OF A REVOLUTION
The road to Inhaminga, in Mozambique, is populated by ghosts that wander in the darkness. The bullets fell silent almost half a century ago, but I can still hear their echo. I search for revolutions whose end I don't know. Along the way, I only find words that transcend time.

It has been almost 50 years since the April 1974 revolution freed Portugal from Europe's longest dictatorship. A year later, Mozambique became independent for the first time, after centuries of exploitation, torture, exploitation, and slavery. I was born less than three years after the April 1974 revolution into a family involved in it as in a love story that I made my own and that shaped the way I try to look at the world around me. When do revolutions end? Do revolutions end when they are betrayed? Or can I think of it as an infinite movement that continues without end, like dust waiting for the right moment to settle? Along the way, I search for ghosts, echoes, and words amidst the wind. When does a revolution end, after all?

By Pedro Neves
Documentary, Short Film
Portugal, Mozambique and France / 13 min.

THE BEACH
In today's society we are bombarded daily with images of beautiful, young bodies. Older bodies are hidden and forgotten as if they were imbued with negativity.

In this film we are confronted with these bodies, naked and happy, in the daily life of a beach in the Lisbon region. After all, aren't these bodies beautiful, cheerful, full of life? Why do we refuse to see ourselves in these bodies, if they are ultimately the testimony of a long and rich experience? In The Beach, the elderly return to active life, abandoning the spaces of suffering and loneliness, of contempt and disdain that they have sadly inhabited in contemporary societies. They have fun, play, swim, run. They become people again like everyone else.

By Pedro Neves
Documentary, Short Film
Portugal / 21 min.

COLD WATER
Disappointments help the feet enter the cold water. They are like indifferent whispers to the distorted music that echoes on the beach.
Disappointments make these people ask the heavens for what they cannot achieve on earth. How many are the dreams that one does not dare to dream?
By Pedro Neves
Documentary, Short Film
Portugal / 14 min.