a dandily dressed man outside in the street with a cartoonish looking movie camera that has "cinema" written on its sidealr

What Will I Do With This Sword?
(Que Farei Eu Com Esta Espada?)

Introduction by Francisco Valente
Directed by João César Monteiro.
Portugal, 1975, DCP, black & white, 67 min.
Portuguese, English, French, German and Dutch with English subtitles.
DCP source: Cinema Guild

This rare documentary by the baroque provocateur João Cesar Monteiro is an agitprop intervention made in the raw aftermath of revolution that openly critiques its limits and uncertainties. Dynamically intercutting his own documentary footage of NATO and US ships docked in the Tagus River with scenes from Nosferatu (a touchstone of Monteiro’s later films and the succubus persona he would embrace) and charged interviews with members of the working class, including sex workers, Monteiro created a lasting document of the turbulent years following the Carnation Revolution.

What Will I Do With This Sword? introduction with Francisco Valente and HFA Director Haden Guest.

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