This story explores the mid-century archival films by the German musician Margot Dias who documented life in the extreme north of Mozambique Africa, then a Portuguese colony. The films are an unprecedented visual and sound record of the Makonde culture. The filmmaker brings these films and photographs back to the community. Contemporary musicians, artists and a new generation reflect on these images and this period of colonial history.
Catarina Alves Costa
Catarina Alves Costa is a filmmaker and an anthropologist. She directed, among other films, Margot (2022), Pedra e Cal (2016), Falamos de António Campos (2010), Nacional 206 (2009), O Arquiteto e a Cidade Velha (2004), Senhora Aparecida (1994) and recently co-directed A Ramadan in Lisbon (2019). Among others, she received the Best Documentary Award at the Recife Ethnographic Film Festival, the Critics Award at the Caminhos do Cinema Português, the Planéte Award at the Bilan du Film Ethnographique, the Excellence Award from the Society for Visual Anthropology, American Anthropological Association Film Festival, USA and the 1st Prize of the VII Rassegna Internazionale di Documentari Etnografici festival. She recently released the book Cinema e Povo, 2022.