A Lisbon Affair

Waldo and Shey are a pair in love. Waldo, who lives in Berlin, travels to Lisbon to meet Shey. Their encounter will disclose the emotional tension of their bond and the doubts about their cultural and historical identity as Afro-Portugese.

  • Hoji Fortuna
    Director
  • Hoji Fortuna
    Writer
  • Hoji Fortuna
    Producer
  • Hoji Fortuna
    Key Cast
    "Waldo"
    Viva Riva, Wilson City, Afronauts
  • Izilda Mussuela
    Key Cast
    "Shey"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 25 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 4, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    23,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Angola
  • Country of Filming:
    Portugal
  • Language:
    Portuguese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • New York African Film Festival
    New York, NY
    United States
    April 13, 2022
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival
    Oak Bluffs, MA
    United States
    August 6, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Raindance Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    October 28, 2022
    UK Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Carthage Film Festival (JCC)
    Tunis
    Tunisia
    October 30, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Pan African Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    February 14, 2023
    West Coast Premiere
    Short Series
  • BronzeLens Film Festival of Atlanta
    Atlanta, Georgia
    United States
    August 24, 2023
    Atlanta Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Africa Movie Academy Awards
    Lagos
    Nigeria
    October 30, 2022
    West African Premiere
    Best Short Film
  • Sophia Awards by the Portuguese Academy of Film
    Lisbon
    Portugal
    May 21, 2023
    Best Short Film
  • NY Portuguese Short Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    June 29, 2023
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Hoji Fortuna

An Angolan-Portuguese AMAA award-winning actor (Viva Riva), Hoji emigrated to Portugal in 1994, where he began a career in acting that later extended to New York and the international arena.
He has since been performing in numerous film and TV projects internationally. A Lisbon Affair is his first directing project.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Identity and relationships are subjects that have always fascinated me, being born in Angola, a country that was still a colony of Portugal. A country that shortly after its political independence plunged into a deadly civil war that lasted most of my childhood and early years of my adulthood, forcing me to emigrate to the country that was once the colonising power of my birth: Portugal.
In the process I have lost family and friends and had to invent new ones in the country that adopted me, while at the same time trying to cope with certain inclusion discrepancies related to my blackness.
As a Black Portuguese actor the absence of black presence in Portugal’s visual narrative has been an issue that propelled me to trade Lisbon for New York in 2008.
Ten years later I’ve returned to Lisbon to find a city much more bubbly with people from diverse backgrounds, majorly inspired by a boom in tourism. However, the presence of people of African descent in the cinematic narrative (film and TV) in Portugal is still residual. As far as roles for Black actors go, they tend to play secondary ones, and the narratives proposed by Portugal for international awards or funded by government agencies tend to be that of mainly Caucasian people.
This circumstance creates the need for the Afro-Portuguese to create stories featuring protagonists of African descent, with the same human dignity as their white peers.
A LISBON AFFAIR is a modest attempt in that direction, in creating a cinematic narrative centered on blacks as an inherent part of the hybrid ethnic and cultural tissue of Portugal, featuring two Black Portuguese characters in a love setting while haunted by questions pertaining to their cultural, historic and spiritual identity. A Lisbon Affair is my first contribution as a director to the Portuguese cinematic narrative. It was fully funded by me and I hope it enriches a far needed sincere conversation towards creating a more diverse visual storytelling universe in Portugal.