From Intimate Space to the Creation of the Real: An Interview with Rui Simões

Abstract

Rui Simões has one of the longest careers in Portuguese documentary cinema. As a starting point to this interview, some of his documentary films were chosen, namely Ilha da Cova da Moura (2010), Kolá San Jon é Festa di Kau Berdi (2011) and Alto Bairro (2014), with the purpose of revealing the anthropological vision of the director, based on a permanent search of authenticity and the construction of the ‘real’, creating films that offer a new look at the other, regardless of them being an individual, a community, a place, a time or an event. The documentary filmmaker tries to relate to and generate empathy with the reality of the other, based on the assumption that every human being is endowed with sensitivities, beliefs, cultural traditions, and educational and sociopolitical contexts. In this sense, the interview asks to what extent Rui Simões manages to divest himself of his self as a creator of documentary cinema.