photography
films
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FOI COM O MAR
Director: Matilde César
Cinematography: Matilde César
Music: Ardemar & Flora Nolan
With: Amélia Ferreira César and Frederico FIgueira
Text: Written and narrated by Matilde César
Graphic Design: Júlia Mar
Festivals:
(2025) Indie Lisboa - International Film Festival [Portugal]
A film about distance, loss and the fragility of life symbolized through a garden that fell and a sea that swallowed it up.
“It went with the sea, her grandparents’ garden. It took with it so many moments of sharing, of family togetherness. It was there that everyone gathered and experienced family life outdoors, in that garden facing the sea. But nature is given to its whims and life has a fragility with which the strength of the sea is not always sympathetic. Gone was the garden with the sea and the photographs and memories of the moments remained. The collapse of the garden opened the way to thinking about loss and with it the time that is thought to last forever: on an island it is the sea that takes those who are no longer there, either because they have ceased to exist or because they have chosen to exist elsewhere. ‘It Went with the Sea’ is, after all, a poem dedicated to the director’s grandparents, her childhood, nature and the island of Madeira where all this intersects.”
- Margarida Moz - Indie Lisboa
EFÉMERO
Director: Matilde César
Sound: Flora Nolan
Participation of: Ana León, David Moreira, Glória Sousa, Joana Carvalho, João Vasconcelos, Maria Freitas, Teresa Teixeira and Tomás Mendes
Poem "EFÉMERO": Written and narrated by Matilde César
Location: Madeira Island and Lisbon
EFÉMERO (ephemeral) emerged as an escape of my own mind.
This project was born from the need to simply create, to do something for me while everything else I did was for others; it was born from a restlessness of not knowing why I was doing what I love to do the most.
Over the course of 7 months I was simply making images. Some appear in this video, some don't; some are still, some are moving, but all just have a visual ideal behind them.
This project reflects a state of mind that, although ephemeral, always comes back. A feeling of uncertainty and doubt; something in our core that we can't identify but remains there; a will to do something that always goes beyond what we are doing, as if everything else was insufficient.
This project is a love letter to nature, the one thing that has always comforted me even when I don't have it around; my refuge and eternal place of peace and solitude.
SUSPIRO
Final project for my Multimedia class at NYU Tisch.
Director: Matilde César
Sound: Flora Nolan
Participation of: Aneesa Julmice and Flora Nolan
Poem "Suspiro": Written and recited by Matilde César
Location: Coney Island, NYC
Suspiro is a film born from the longing to return home. After being 10 months away from Portugal, the desire of creating something that would connect me with my homeland was big so I resorted to my language and to nature to try to find this connection. This was the result.