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)