António Campos

António Campos (29 May 1922 – 8 March 1999) was one of the pioneer filmmakers of visual anthropology in Portugal. Mainly using pure documentary techniques, he shot ethnographic films and tried docufiction. As well as in fictional films, he used the methods of direct cinema to portrait the life of ancient human communities (ethnofiction) of his country.
He started making films at the beginning of the sixties, at the same time as John Marshall (EU) and Michel Brault (Canada). Without knowing much about Jean Rouch, he followed his steps in an original way.
Biography
He integrated a troupe of theatre amateurs and worked at a state department office in Leiria. He got a subvention from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1961, where he worked between 1970 and 1976, to study cinema in London. He took part in the 20th Century Film Festival, in Kracow, Poland.
He was the delegate in Portugal for the International Federation of Art Film and a member of the International Union of Independent Filmmakers (UNICI).
He started making films as an amateur. He shot ethnographic films with 16 mm light cameras and with no scientific purposes, like some of his Portuguese fellows, such as António Reis, Ricardo Costa or Pedro Costa, this one using small mini dv cameras, some years later. After the Carnation Revolution, he directed some theatrical fictional features in 35 mm, all with a strong anthropologic content. He was one of the representatives of the Portuguese Cinema Novo (or Novo Cinema), inspired by the French New Wave.
His film Gente da Praia da Vieira (People of Praia da Vieira), 1976, is, together with Trás-os-Montes, by António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, and with Mau Tempo, Marés e Mudança (Changing Tides), by Ricardo Costa, one of the first docufictions of Portuguese cinema. Shot on the same year, these films, in the same genre, are preceded by Acto da Primavera (Act of Spring), 1962, by Manoel de Oliveira, and Ala-Arriba!, 1948, by José Leitão de Barros, a contemporary to Robert Flaherty. These films may also be classified as ethnofictions.
Filmography
Feature films
1971 – Vilarinho das Furnas
1974 – Falamos de Rio de Onor (We talk about Rio de Onor)
1975 – Gente da Praia da Vieira (People of Praia da Vieira)
1978 – Histórias Selvagens (Savage stories)
1992 – Terra Fria (Cold Land)
Short and middle-length films
1957 – O rio Liz
1958 – Um tesouro
1959 – O Senhor
1961 – A Almadraba Atuneira
1961 – Leiria 61
1962 – Debussy
1962 – Instrumentos musicais populares
1962 – Colóquio do Comité Internacional dos Museus de Instrumentos Musicais
1963 – Arte portuguesa contemporânea em Leiria
1964 – Arte portuguesa contemporânea em Évora
1964 – La fille mal gardée
1964 – Incêndio no auditório antigo da Fundação Caloute Gulbenkian
1964 – Instrumentos musicais portugueses II
1965 – 100 anos de pintura francesa
1965 – A invenção do amor
1965 – Ouros do Peru
1965 – Retratos das margens do rio Liz
1966 – Arte do índio brasileiro
1966 – Chagall – Breve a lua, lua cheia virá aparecer
1966 – Inauguração do hospital S. João de Deus – Montemor-o-Novo
1967 – Colagem
1967 – Construção do Centro de Biologia de Oeiras da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
1967 – Iniciação musical pelo método Orff
1968 – Art portugais à Paris
1968 – Arte portuguesa : do naturalismo aos nossos dias
1968 – Festa de Natal dos funcionários da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
1968 – O Principezinho
1962–1969 – Obras de construção da sede, do museu e do grande auditório da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
1970 – Raul Lino (not finished)
1971 – Arte francesa depois de 1951
1972 – Portugal e a Pérsia
1973 – Rodin
1974 – Museu Calouste Gulbenkian em Lisboa
1975 – A Festa
1976 – Paredes pintadas da revolução portuguesa
1976 – Protecção arquitetónica sob a coordenação do Conselho da Europa (inacabado)
1976 – 20º aniversário da morte de Calouste Gulgenkian
1976 – Ex-votos portugueses
1979 – Ti Miséria
1987 – À descoberta de Leiria
1993 – A Tremonha de Cristal (not finished)
Bibliography
António Campos – anthology about the films and life of António Campos (2000 – Cinemateca Portuguesa)
O Cais do Olhar by José de Matos-Cruz, Portuguese Cinematheque, 1999
See also
Cinema of Portugal
Cinema Novo
Docufiction
Visual anthropology
Ethnographic film
Salvage Ethnography
Ethnofiction
Direct cinema
Cine season in Paris (Cinémathèque Française, 2002 – in French)
List of directors associated with art film
External links
Portuguese film directors
1922 births
1999 deaths
People from Leiria