SAVANNA AND THE MOUNTAIN

Covas do Barroso is a village near Bostofrio, where my father was born and where I made my first film, Bostofrio, où le ciel rejoint la terre. This geographical and emotional proximity led me to stay attentive to the news since 2018 regarding unclear business dealings aimed at the eventual development of a mining operation in the region, by Savannah Resources, a multinational listed on the London Stock Exchange. To understand the characteristics of a mining operation with the potential to irreversibly alter a mountainous landscape of over 500 hectares, I spoke with geographers, architects, engineers, and, of course, with the people who survive there. It was mainly for the people and the ancestral activities that flourish in Covas do Barroso that I decided to join the fight to defend this way of life. Cinema has a responsibility of involvement that I cannot escape. In my films, I seek to stand alongside people, without being guided by economic or speculative policies of those who do not know or live in the territory.