50th IndieLisboa- Lisbon Festival of Independent Film

Since 2004, the capital of Portugal hosts a festival that is dedicated to young and independent cinema, IndieLisboa. Directed by a triumvirate (Miguel Valverde, Nuno Sena and Rui Pereira), it became, in the four years of its existence, an event which does intentiously without the mainstream films and stars and focuses in stead on worldwide indies. What Portugal’s most known independent filmmaker Pedro Costa said at the occasion of his Colossal Youth (Juventude em marcha, 2006). could be the festival motto: “Youth is a risk that needs to be taken. Cinema is a risk that needs to be taken.” IndieLisboa takes this risk. The competitive section presented new directors with her first or second film. Sidebars (“Observatory”, “Laboratory”) showed films from the “New Crowned Hope” project and an overview on recent German cinema. Some of the films did of course tour already through the festival circuit, but to make them known to the Lisbon public and to put them in the context of worldwide independent cinema, is without any doubt a deserving (and risky) festival conception.