Born in O'Porto, Portugal, in 1944, his interest for films led him to
be a member of Cine-Clube do Porto at 15-years-old. He knew how to make
films in theory when he was conscripted to the Army, at 18; he was sent
to Angola, then a Portuguese province, to serve in the colonial war,
where he learned cinematography and the practical side of making
low-budget war documentaries at the Departamento de Foto-cine dos
Serviços Cartográficos do Exército.
In 1967, having served his conscript time, he stayed in Luanda, working
at a photography shop, and kept seeing more of the light Portuguese
comedies which he disliked, and some American movies that he liked. He
made the acquaintance of local poets such as Viriato da Cruz and
António Jacinto. He discovered and adopted the concept of engaged art,
where film contents and aesthetics would service the political aim of
liberation for all men and the humanization of the working conditions
of the work force. He wrote the pages of aesthetic and film review for
the magazine "Noite e Dia" of Luanda, defending the trends of Italian
neo-realism, French "nouvelle vague", and Brazilean Cinema Novo.
Still in Luanda, Angola, he wrote and directed the super 8mm short O
Regresso (1970), the dramatized biography of a young black amateur
painter. One may see in it an echo of Mozambican artist
Malangatana Valente Ngwenya,
a painter and sculptor who had been arrested in 1966 by the secret
police for political activities against the regime.
In 1970, he was invited by
Eurico Ferreira to join the film
industry that was starting in Mozambique, and he moved to the other
coast of Africa, into that other Portuguese province, more exposed to
trade and cultural influences from neighbour English countries, namely
Ian Smith's Republic of Rodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Afrikaner-dominated
Union of South Africa.
He started working for Somar Filmes, owned by the more independent
producer Courinha Ramos who - backed by
Shell funds and advertising - was keeping the weekly documentary series
Visor Moçambicano since the late 1950s as a 10 minute journal on
tourism, agricultural and industrial development, sports and social
events, and enough coverage of the regime's political agenda to be on
the good side of the censors.
It is then that he starts his life project of a movie based on colonial
relations and the start of a guerrilla movement. He did not ask for
film permits, filming with interruptions over a year and a half under
the cover of the documentaries he made for Somar Filmes. The producer
was happy with the documentaries and did not ask to be shown the
screenplay of the fiction film. All African actors and extras were
chosen by Malangatana including convicts doing agricultural labour in a
state farm, and no one was paid. Thus, Barbosa managed to conclude the
film without pressures, and at a very low budget.
Early 1972, interviewed by Plateia, a Lisbon film magazine, he summed
his ideas thus: "The seventh art is a form of expression of
materialism, the reality as I see it, and the films should be delivered
like stomach punches to the viewers. Nowadays my definition of cinema
is that it should be a guerrilla front, working in the most positive
manner possible against tabu, devious morals, and the dominant but
outdated, anachronistic ideas."
The authorities (PIDE, the secret police of the regime) had been
suspicious of the film project from early on, and even took in Lopes
Barbosa and
Malangatana Valente Ngwenya
for questioning when they began filming. When the film negative left
Filmlab (an associate company of Somar Filmes), the authorities advised
Courinha Ramos that he should not dare present the film to the censors
office. The menace seems to have been enough, for the producer would
not risk his business based on the weekly documentaries. With all
references to the film banned from the press, the producer
Courinha Ramos dismissed the director
from his company, and Lopes Barbosa returned immediately to Lisbon,
fearing to be arrested. He found all doors closed to him in the film
industry, survived on odd jobs, contracted tuberculosis and returned to
his mother's home in O'Porto, for treatment.
As late as December 8, 1973, the producer may have attempted to make
good on his investment; that Saturday, Lisbon's weekly Expresso tried
to publish a small news - illustrated with a photo of the young writer
Luís Bernardo Honwana, who may
have been their source - quoting the producer as having taken the
decision "not to show the film in Mozambique, ever," which means he may
have tried again to distribute the film. The piece was totally cut by
the censors, and was published in a documentary book in 2009.
The Portuguese coup of April 25, 1974, changed the political regime and
talks in view of decolonization started. Lopes Barbosa fought again for
the film of his life, and convinces Courinha Ramos to bring the film
negative to Lisbon. In August 1974, two copies are developed at Tobis:
a 35mm copy, that the producer took back with him to Mozambique, and is
considered lost (as of February 2012); and a 16mm copy that remained
with the director.
Lopes Barbosa immediately promoted the film's showing at the Cine-Club
do Porto. and the first public screening at the Escola Superior das
Belas Artes do Porto.
Finally, the producer announced the Mozambique avant-premiere to the
Wednesday September 4, 1974, in one of the best theatre houses of
Lourenço Marques, but fearing the film would set fire to an already
unstable political situation, he canceled the showing - which did not
prevent the right-wing attempt to take power in Mozambique the next
Saturday, September 7, 1974. The director wanted his film to be shown
in Mozambique, and went there shortly before Mozambique's independence
day (June 25, 1975) to promote exhibitions at the Cine-Club de Lourenço
Marques and at the Machava Prison (Matola, Maputo) with his own 16mm
copy. His health deteriorated suddenly, and he returned to his home at
O'Porto for psychoanalysis, in May 1975.
For the school year 1976-1977 Lopes Barbosa works as camera operator
for the RTP program Telescola, a daily TV educational and instructional
show. After that he remains jobless, and his health keeps him from
accepting a project in Mozambique when he is at last contacted by the
new government of Mozambique. He ceded free of his charge his 16mm copy
to the Instituto Nacional de Cinema de Moçambique, that showed the film
widely across the new independent country. The 35mm copy, with
Portuguese subtitles, is considered lost (as of February 2012).
