The documentary film “Lugar Sentido”, co-produced by Binaural Nodar, is part of the “short list” of the 11th edition of the ART & TUR – International Tourism Film Festival, and has been nominated for an award, which will only be announced at the awards ceremony.

The ART&TUR Festival will take place in Leiria, from 23 to 27 October, and will host more than 200 guests from all over the world. As part of the Festival, whose Programme will be announced shortly, the International Conference “Centro de Portugal no Cinema Mundial” (“Centro de Portugal in World Cinema”) will take place.

Lugar Sentido: Carvalhal de Vermilhas
A film by Cátia Rebelo and Luis Gomes da Costa

Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Parish of Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Municipality of Vouzela, Viseu Dão Lafões region, Portugal.

A rural community like any other, but at the same time special, unique, made of landscape, of past and memory, but also of reconstruction, possibility and novelty.

We arrived here more than three years ago. Here they opened their doors to us with courtesy, humility and welcome, so that we could collectively reflect on the senses of belonging existing in the community and question whether these senses can constitute an affirmation of the value of place and memory, counter to the cosmopolitan and global uprooting that happens more or less everywhere and that causes the characteristics of places to become increasingly levelled, through political, economic, educational and technological mechanisms.

Defending the differences that make up a land like Carvalhal de Vermilhas constitutes a complex and sensitive agenda of actions, memories and identities, which can be projected for posterity, making visible and shareable with the outside world the inhabitants’ love for their land, manifested by the very gradual transformation of the landscape, the structure of the houses and everyday habits themselves.

This film brought together a group of people originally from Carvalhal de Vermilhas so that they could express what they think of their land and what they value in it, underlying which was the hypothesis of creating the figure of the ambassador of the place.

This figure of ambassador of the place does not mean any entity endowed with special social importance, but rather those who know and want to share with the world what it means to love a land and to distil stories, places and events that can transform the tourist experience into a plural encounter that helps in understanding the uniqueness, the infinite nuances of the reality of a place.

We hope that this initiative can constitute a humble contribution to new opportunities in this village and in other villages of the region, which can be based on an intense, authentic and unformatted dialogue with the outside world.

Let us then give voice to those who taught us what it means to love Carvalhal de Vermilhas.

Credits:

A film by Cátia Rebelo and Luís Costa
An original idea by Cátia Rebelo
Interviews conducted by: Cátia Rebelo
Assistant director: Liliana Silva
Camera: Liliana Silva and Cátia Rebelo
Video editing: Luís Costa, Liliana Silva and Cátia Rebelo
Sound capture and mastering: Luís Costa
Opening text: Luís Costa
With the participation of the Grupo de Cantares de Carvalhal de Vermilhas
and residents of the village of Carvalhal de Vermilhas

©2017, a co-production by Binaural/Nodar and University of Cardiff, as part of the Susplace – Sustainable Place Shaping project (sustainableplaceshaping.net/), a European project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme.

Binaural/Nodar is a cultural entity funded by the Government of Portugal, through a biennial support contract.