NOVEMBER 6, 2019 – 10 AM
Dear SLATERSVILLE Friends,
CHRISTIAN
After a wonderful first screening of SLATERSVILLE-In-Progress on Friday night, we have a second sequence in the works that will show at Rhode Island College on the morning of Wednesday, November 6 at 10AM. However, this event will be very different from other SLATERSVILLE film events.
This past summer I was invited by Dr. Silvia Oliveira of RIC’s Portuguese Studies Department to show ALZIRA’S STORY, an hour-long documentary I directed on the life of my late grandmother back in 2000 (the same year I graduated from RIC as a Film Studies major). This event was to be at Gaige Hall Room 200 and created for their students. I was honored to be asked by Dr. Oliveira to accepted.
In our planning discussions, Dr. Oliveira and I discussed my current project SLATERSVILLE. I told her about a sequence I was editing called “Portuguese Alley,” which tells the story of the Holy Ghost Society in Forestdale, the neighboring village to Slatersville.
I also told her we were planning to interview Manuel Pedroso, a man who will be turning 100 next month who STILL manages the Friends Market on Brook Street in Providence.
Since everyone we interviewed for this part of the story only spoke English, I really wanted to hear what Portuguese sounds like in the film. This was an important factor, much like our interviewing of Anne Conway , speaking in French at the Museum of Work & Culture (filmed in May 2017), will be important for our French-Canadian sequence.
Although my family had known of Mr. Pedroso since the 1940’s, I learned through another source that he was present for the very early days of the Forestdale festival. He spoke Portuguese, which is what “Portuguese Alley” needed, and recalled events. So on October 8 of this year, we finally interviewed him on camera, with thanks to Orlando M. Mateus (President, Rhode Island Day of Portugal 2018-2019) .
Dr. Oliveira also sent us a Portuguese Studies student, Joshua Abreu, to translate the interview in post-production. Joshua worked with our RIC Film Studies intern Connor Morley in creating the subtitles. Great work by the both of them!
Since ALZIRA’S STORY is a very early work of mine, I proposed the idea of showing something current. So I brought up the idea of showing “Portuguese Alley” as a work-in-progress to open ALZIRA’S STORY. This idea was met with great excitement and support!!
Unlike the 45 minutes shown at the Congregational Church on Friday night, “Portuguese Alley” will only run in the 5-10 minute range. Then ALZIRA’S STORY will follow. That older film and the documentary work on my own Portuguese roots will be the main focus of the morning.
The public is welcome to attend. However, because the RIC event takes place on a weekday morning, rest assured we will show this sequence again on the In-Progress tour when it resumes in February.
As part of RIC’s publicity, O Journal’s reporter Lurdes DaSilva reached out to interview me and write this story. Thank you, Ms. DaSilva!!
English:
Portuguese:
https://www.heraldnews.com/news/20191024/cineasta-luso-americano-mestre-na-arte-de-contar-histrias
With that said, I must return to the editing room…
Thank you!!
Christian de Rezendes
Filmmaker and Founder,
Breaking Branches Pictures Est. 1996
Award Winning Storytelling
401.651.1839
www.breakingbranchespictures.com
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