Liliana Navarra is a PHD candidate in cinema studies at the New University of Lisbon. She is currently writing a dissertation on Portuguese director João César Monteiro and his cinema; she is also the creator of the first official website dedicated to him: www.joaocesarmonteiro.net. She is also a freelance photographer and journalist involved in cinema and cultural studies. Her research interests include issues of visual art, photography, visual anthropology and documentary. She is a member of AIM (Association of Moving Image Researchers) and NECS – European Network for Cinema and Media Studies collaborates with some European film festivals and has organized some retrospectives about Italian cinema.
João Pedro Monteiro Gil
is the son of J. C. Monteiro and Margarida Gil. He was born in Lisbon in 1984. After uncompleted studies in philosophy, he attended a course in translation at Universidade Nova in Lisbon. He worked in sound recording on Monteiro’s Snow White (2000) and, as an actor, in God’s Comedy (1995). He worked also in Não me cortes o cabelo que o meu pai me penteou, a film directed by M. Gil.
COLLABORATORS:
Associação dos Artistas do Marco de Canaveses
The Marco Canaveses Artists Association was established in 2006.It is a nonprofit association that aims to stimulate general artistic activities, to disseminate them and provide services of a cultural nature. Our specific objectives are: a) install, organize, equip, manage and administer workshops where members can develop activities of artistic production and research; b) acquire, lease or produce material for the artistic activities of its members; c) disseminating the works of art produced by its members; d) organize activities for cultural events such as exhibitions, symposia, conferences, meetings, seminars or lectures; e) plan and deliver short courses on topics related to our goals and objectives.
Gregório Pereira Esteras
Was born in Torres Vedras, 1983. He frequented Informatics Engeneering degree at FCT-UNL. Former colaboteur of the magazine P.E.N.A., magazine of poetry and prose. His interests are in the areas of writing and science. Currently freelancer informatic, he writes poetry and prose, just for the fun of it.
Born in Porto (Portugal) in 1963. Lives in Vilarelho, Vila Boa de Quires. Degree in Plastic Arts – painting by the Faculdade de Belas Artes do Porto, in 1986. Animation Film Course by the Cooperativa ÁRVORE, in 1987, work with Abi Feijó, in Filmógrafo, Estúdio de Cinema de Animação do Porto. D.E.S.E. Superior Studies Diploma in Industrial Design by Escola Superior de Artes e Design, em 1994 .Represented in the Museum of Bienal de Cerveira, in the Museum of Chaves, in the collections of Banco de Portugal, of Associação Nacional dos Jovens Empresários, of Deutscher Orden , in the collection of Baviera BMW (Portugal) and in several private collections. Teaches “Design, Comunicação e Audiovisuais” the Course Profissional de Técnico de Multimédia in Escola Secundária de Marco de Canaveses .
obtained his bachelor’s degree at Università degli studi di Perugia with a thesis on visual anthropology in Chris Marker’s cinema. He is a freelance journalist and a writer. His interests are literature, cultural studies and media, writing articles and essays for magazines, websites, journals, books. He collaborates with Lucca Film Festival (Lucca, Italy) and, in the last two years, has taught cinema history in secondary schools in Italy.
Why a website dedicated to João César Monteiro?
A country like Portugal, with a meaningful cultural heritage, cannot but pay tribute to one of its most brilliant sons, one of the best Portuguese avant-garde directors of the 60’s, the Novo Cinema period: João César Monteiro.
Monteiro was a scandalous figure in Portuguese society and always able to engage both the media and audience, always ready to find scandal in everything he did. He was a remarkable presence in European cinema, the creator of a unique universe. This project must be considered an homage to him as an intellectual, writer, film-director: in short, as a great artist.
What are our aims?
Our goal is clear: we would like to create a website to introduce the life, thoughts and films of João César Monteiro to readers; a space where a kind of network and archive can naturally develop, based not only on his movies, but on texts which promote his status as a master of Portuguese cinema and lead to discussion, fresh ideas and academic research.
João Pedro Monteiro and Liliana Navarra, who are responsible for this project, know its final outcome will depend not only on the website, even if it proves meaningful and a success in itself, but on its stimulation of intensive work on João César Monteiro’s art.