The Last Days
São Paulo. Brazil. In a building occupied by the Movement Sem Teto (Homeless Movement), a group of journalists works against the mass dissemination of fake news and the bias in traditional media during the second round of the 2018 presidential elections. Their passionate and unequal struggle merges with the threatened daily life of the families who inhabit the building. Outside, the election process proceeds relentlessly until the victory of Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate.
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Cristina Ferreira GomesDirector
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Ellen IgersheimerProducer
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Project Title (Original Language):OS ÚLTIMOS DIAS
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Project Type:Documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 53 minutes 30 seconds
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Completion Date:June 8, 2020
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Country of Origin:Portugal
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Country of Filming:Brazil
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Language:Portuguese
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Shooting Format:DIgital HD
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Distribution Information
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Mares do SulCountry: PortugalRights: All Rights
Cristina Ferreira Gomes is the founder and director of the production company Mares do Sul. She is currently directing the documentary Rio de Onor, Outro Tempo, with financial support from portuguese The Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual, Zasnet, Bragança Municipal Council, Films4You, RTP. She made her directorial debut with the documentary Mulheres ao Mar, with financial support from portuguese The Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual, Comissão dos Descobrimentos, which earned her the Revelation Award at the Caminhos do Cinema Português Festival, in 2002. Her following documentary, Carta de Chamada, filmed in Brazil, with financial support from portuguese The Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual, received an Honourable Mention for Best Documentary, as well as the Public Choice Award for Best Documentary at the 2006 Caminhos do Cinema Português Festival. The film was also included in the Panorama Festival and Portuguese Film Festival in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro the following year. It was also screened during Emigration film season, organised by the President of Portugal in 2008. Filmes do Homem Festival, 2016.
A few highlights from her career as director:
• The Art of Losing, 2018
Video dance based on the eponymous work by choreographer São Castro, made for the Almada Dance Company. 39’. 2018 Caminhos do Cinema Português Festival. Cinemateca Portuguesa, 2018. Festival InShadow.
• À Procura de António Botto, 2018
Documentary about the life and work of writer António Botto. Screened at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Consulate General of Portugal in São Paulo, Araraquara University, Brazil. RTP 2
• Cesina Bermudes, Uma Vida Só Não Basta, 2018
Documentary about the life and work of the first female doctor in Portugal to earn a PhD, a woman with an active political past against the Portuguese dictatorship. RTP 2.
• Documentary series Portugal que Dança, 2016/ 2018
17 documentaries about creatives in the area of contemporary dance in Portugal. Filmed in eight international cities, from Rotterdam and Stockholm to São Paulo, among others. RTP 2. Premiere at Viriato Theatre, in Viseu.
• Max, o Menino do Assobio, 2015
A young boy, a tailor’s apprentice, used to walk the streets of Funchal, in the island of madeira, whistling popular tunes. The whistle boy would end up becoming one of the most famous performers of Portuguese popular music. RTP 1
• Domingo à Tarde, 2012
Documentary about the day-to-day lives of a group of Pakistani young men who meet up on Sunday afternoons to play cricket in one of Lisbon’s most iconic locations. RTP 2, São Jorge Cinema, 2013 Panorama Festival.
• Laurinha, 2012
This documentary rescues one of the best Portuguese actresses of all time from silence and oblivion. RTP 1.
• Menina Limpa Menina Suja, 2011
Documentary about the visual artist Ana Vidigal. RTP 2.
From 2013 to 2016, she was a member of the jury for the Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Awards, presented by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
I met the collective Jornalistas Livres (Free Journalists), a group of independent journalists, in September 2018. I had travelled to Brazil to attend the screening of a documentary I directed about the Portuguese writer António Botto. It was a tumultuous time, the first stage of the election campaign for the presidential elections that would decisively define the country’s future.
During the elections in the biggest country in Latin America, in one of the most important global economies, I began outlining a film that would mirror the international trend of growing public acceptance of the far-right narrative and the election of politicians with similar agendas to Jair Bolsonaro’s.
The Final Days focuses on the conflict of values, on the inability for social justice to prevail and on post-truth followed day by day throughout the campaign in this immense country, with colossal social asymmetries.
The place where the Jornalistas Livres work, a building occupied by low-income families in the centre of São Paulo – a veritable bastion of resistance, a living organism in an imposing and run-down building – is a metaphor for Brazil in those days and for the battles that were fought (and that are still being fought) in a country of migrants, the heir of a Portuguese colonialist past, unresolved regarding the military dictatorship and presenting serious social conflicts.
In a global context where we are flooded by fake news, and where there is an array of militant political action, I filmed a documentary in which the spoken word comes from the emotional speeches and perspectives of ordinary citizens about those narratives, expressed in casual conversations and reactions. Naturally, at the time I did not know what the election results would be, so I created a documentary about this “all-or-nothing” seen from the main characters’ point of view, ordinary people fighting for the ideal of a free press, against fake news and the whole post-truth era.