While location shooting for Bread, Oliveira stumbled upon the subject for Rite of Spring, the annual passion play enacted by a community in Northern Portugal. Intrigued by the ritualistic and incantatory qualities of their production, Oliveira returned to the village and set about directing the villagers in a re-enactment of the passion play, adding a rich performative layer to the film. A fascinating ethnographic study of local tradition and history that folds in on itself, Rite of Spring climaxes unexpectedly in a furious apocalyptic  montage that links Christ's death to the violence and lunacy of the Vietnam era. Oliveira's tour de force return to feature filmmaking offers a blend of fiction and nonfiction that, like the contemporary work of Jean Rouch, was radically ahead of its time.

Oliveira´s devastating short is a menacing study of violence and frustrated masculinity that chronicles the strange accident that befalls an all-male hunting party. The Hunt was among Oliveira´s first works to be universally praised for the strength of its vision and storytelling power.

A wonderful short film that examines a series of watercolors of the city of Porto painted by Portugese artist António Cruz. In comparing the different modes of representing and experiencing the city, Oliveira explores the different representational qualities of film and painting.