The depiction of cinema in Jornal Português: between foreign celebrities and António Lopes Ribeiro’s agenda

Abstract

Between 1938 and 1951 the Portuguese Society of Newsreels produced for the National Propaganda Secretariat, under António Lopes Ribeiro supervision, a national newsreel entitled Jornal Português. From a total of 101 editions, composed of 510 reports, this article is only concerned with 15 of those reports which relate to the way cinema was depicted. In particular those reports dealing with foreign film celebrities visiting Portugal, Portuguese film shootings, their premieres and award cerimonies. The propose of this article is to analyze in which way cinema was instrumentalized during the dictatorship (Estado Novo) as a way of internal propaganda, and in which way António Lopes Ribeiro used Jornal Português as a tool of self-promotion and self-preservation, taking advantage of his position as “regime’s filmmaker”.