Best Portuguese documentary movies

Against the backdrop of a turbulent era in Brazil, this documentary captures Pelé's extraordinary path from breakthrough talent to national hero. Mixing rare archival footage and exclusive interviews, this documentary celebrates the legendary Brazilian footballer who personified football as art.

Filmmaker Catarina Vasconcelos sifts through the memories of her ancestors. Her naval officer grandfather, Henrique, who married her grandmother, Beatriz, on her 21st birthday, spent extended periods at sea, leaving her with six children. This is the beginning of a generational saga.

Anderson Silva is the deadliest man on the planet - The longest-reigning UFC Champion, and the most feared fighter in mixed martial arts. Like Water offers a unique perspective of the living legend as he trains with fellow fighters Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida, Junior Dos Santos, and Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira, in preparation for his career defining title defense against challenger, and arch villain Chael Sonnen. A man of few words, Anderson Silva walks the fine line between cockiness and confidence. A philosopher in spirit, and dedicated family man, Silva's personality contradicts that of Sonnen's, who uses trash talk and intimidation to get under his opponents' skin. Balancing family and fighting; respect for the sport, and rage for his opponent; Silva's mind and body will be put to the test, as first-time filmmaker Pablo Croce peels back the layers of an ultimate fighter to reveal the heart of a champion.

Miley Cyrus took the world by storm as she brought her Bangerz Tour to fans across the world. The highly anticipated concert film features show stopping performances along with behind-the-scenes look into the tour and her personal life.

In the wake of the plane crash that claimed the lives of 71 people, the Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense seeks to rebuild the team that once made history.

Short silent documentary from 1931 about those working on the River Douro in Oporto.

A series of musical performances showcasing the diverse facets of fado, a musical genre from Lisbon.

A long-hidden, personal doc about leaving a beloved house by the late, revered Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira.

Manoel de Oliveira's autobiographical documentary about returning to his hometown.

It all started in Mafalala, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Lourenço Marques, Mozambique. A kid kicked into rag balls and did not care much about school. This kid was called Eusébio da Silva Ferreira and would become one of the best footballers of all time. This is the narrative of "Eusebius - A History of a Legend", a documentary film made by Filipe Ascensão and that counted on the collaboration of Eusebio himself in the last years of his life, before dying, in January 2014. Released in the year in which Eusebio would be 75 years old, the film counts on testimonies of many people who have crossed with him, from Hilário da Conceição, his childhood friend who would also be a footballer, to Bobby Charlton, opponent in the 1966 World Cup, passing by Antonio Simões, the " White brother "who accompanied him from Benfica to the end of his US career, and some of his Portuguese soccer heirs like Luís Figo, Rui Costa and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The world post-World War II and its transformations; the utopias that were created and the barbarity that have marked it. The dismantling of the dreaming generation of 1968 and the creation of new prospects in a globalized world.

On June 10, 1995, to celebrate the Day of the Race and Sporting’s victory in the Portuguese football cup, a group of Portuguese ethno-nationalists went to the streets of Bairro Alto (Lisbon) to beat up Black people. The official outcome was 11 victims, one of which died.

Three friends. Six arenas. One documentary.

A documentary film about football career of Dejan Rambo Petković, who was a star of Brasileirão - Brasilian football league.

A group of elders spends their weekdays in a retirement home in Sandim, in the north of Portugal, where they talk, do arts and crafts, practice yoga and pray. We follow them between October 2012 and March 2013, when an economic crisis overshadowed Portuguese society and unemployment rates reached record levels. Meanwhile, arrangements are made for the Carnival ball. Will they bring the first place home this time?

We revisit the life of Eunice Muñoz through the private memories of her house. We watch the intimate side of the actress, who does not play any part here but that of being who she is next to whom she loves. We watch her natural complicity with Lídia, how they bodies are 62 years apart but their spirits not even one. They open us the door to their intimacy and household rituals. Certain that theatre is more real than life, it was up to the two actresses to live a purer form of life, one that would overcome every likelihood of theatre, turning cinema into the most beautiful con in the world.

“Once upon a time, before people came along, all the creatures were free and able to be with one another”, narrates the voiceover. “All the animals danced together and were immeasurably happy. There was only one who wasn’t invited to the celebration – the frog. In his rage about the injustice, he committed suicide.” Something Romani and frogs have in common is that they will never be unseen, or stay unnoticed. In her film, young director Leonor Teles weaves the life circumstance of Romani in Portugal today with the recollections of a yesterday. Anything but a passive observer, Teles consciously decides to participate and take up position. As a third pillar, she establishes an active applied performance art that becomes integrated in the cinematic narrative. Thereby transforming “once upon a time” into “there is”. “Afterwards, nothing will be as it was and the melody of life will have changed”, explains a voice off-camera. Golden Bear for Best Short Film 2016

More goals, more trophies, more followers; for Cristiano Ronaldo life is about being number one, about standing alone. New documentary explores how Ronaldo has overcome adversity to reach unparalleled heights and examines his journey to become the most followed person on the planet. Has he redefined what it means to be an icon in the 21st Century? And at 36, will he rest on this legacy?

A few months before WW2 a family is torn apart: Maria goes to Timor, her brothers to Portugal. After Japan invaded Timor and Maria is sent to a prisoner’s camp, her family fears the worst. A documentary about a silenced period in Portuguese history.

Mauro, a former soccer player from the city of Recife, Brazil. Having made only one goal in his entire career, he became famous as a symbol of Ibis Sport Club, which entered the Guinness Book of Records as "The Worst Soccer Team in the World". With a lot of humour, Mauro manages to turn his misfortune into triumph.

A personal documentary about gay marriage in Brazil that focuses on the filmmaker Fábia Sartori Fuzeti, who opens the film by proposing to her partner Gabriela Torrezani. The movie follows their footsteps from that moment until their big day. At the same time, it explores the lives various gay and lesbian couples that got tied the knot since the Brazilian Supreme Court legalised gay marriage in June 2011.

A baby is bathed by its mother, who sings: “When I was a young girl…”. Later, a little girl’s voice will pick up the thread: “When I’ll be an old lady…”. Between the two, the film sketches an anthropology of all the different games, wonders, and plays with auditory perceptions that children carry out with water in all its shapes (baths, sprinklers, lakes…). But other dimensions are hinted at: an exploration of its meanings for mankind, a kaleidoscope of its movements, textures, and reflections, a spectrum of the scales in which it is to be contemplated. (Nathan Letoré)

A story about survival, belief in the physical memory of things, as if still-life was always part of the scientific possibility or of the nightmare of extinction.

A documentary organized around the promotion of Indo-Portuguese cultural heritage, with commented pictures of the most striking examples of civil and religious architecture and housing areas marked by portuguese traditional construction. Patent portuguese memory in everyday's commercial and artistic life of Cochin, now the capital of Kerala state and surrounding regions of Cranganor, Calicut, Quilon and Travancore. The undisputed and recognized influence of Indo-Portuguese Catholic communities across the region.

A woman decides to film her visits to her grandmother. In the quiet home, the camera captures the unique relation between these two women 50 years apart. With days passing by, the lines between film and life increasingly become blurred.

Documentary on the outskirts of São Paulo. The rapper Mano Brown, the educator Dagmar Garroux and the writer Ferréz live daily with the ills of the periphery of São Paulo. Each in its own way, bringing a baggage of experiences that deserves reflection.

Joaquim Pinto has been living with HIV and VHC for almost twenty years. “What now? Remind Me” is the notebook of a year of clinical studies with toxic, mind altering drugs as yet unapproved. An open and eclectic reflection on time and memory, on epidemics and globalization, on survival beyond all expectations, on dissent and absolute love. In a to-and-fro between present and past memories, the film is also a tribute to friends departed and those who remain.

The story of the last sheppards of the Star Mountain Range in Central Eastern Portugal.

On July 1, 2019, Salgueiro Maia, the iconic name of one of the captains of the Carnation Revolution, would be 75 years old. He was born in Castelo de Vide and is buried there, in a shallow grave, as was his wish. This documentary addresses some of the most relevant moments in the life of this courageous and tolerant man, whose contribution to the end of a 41-year dictatorship and to the establishment of a democratic regime in Portugal was decisive.

The life and work of one of the most controversial Brazilian musicians, having as its backdrop Tom Zé's 2005 European Tour. The documentary shows a detailed vision of Tom Zé's personal musical universe, in which a guitar and a vacuum cleaner have the same melodic importance. In intimate interviews, he narrates different parts of his life and tells us about his musical debut in the early 60s, his downfall during the 70s, and his 90s comeback.

Documentary about the old people living in the highest floors of old buildings with no lifts, in Lisbon.

A cameraman and a soundman arrive in Corvo in 2007, the smallest island in the archipelago of the Azores. Right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Corvo is a large rock, 6km high and 4km long, with the crater of a volcano and a single tiny village of 440 people. Gradually, this small filming crew is accepted by the island’s population as its new inhabitants, two people to add to a civilization almost 500 years old, whose history is hardly discernible, such is the lack of records and written memories. Shot at a vertiginous pace throughout a few years, self‐produced between arrivals, departures and coming‐backs, “It’s the Earth not the Moon” develops as the logbook of a ship, and turns out as a patchwork of discoveries and experiences, which follow the contemporary life of a civilization isolated in the middle of the sea. A long atlantic film‐odissey, divided in 14 chapters, that combines anthropological records, literature, lost archives, mythological and autobiographical stories.

The story of the young people from Brasília that, led by Renato Russo, after a long journey and many obstacles, sees their dream come true, with the success of their bands.

December 1991. Half of the century-old Tua railway, that circulates between Bragança e Mirandela, is shut down by a political decision. Fifteen years later, the train's whistle echoes in the memory of the people from Trás-os-Montes. This decision cut the development of the country and increased disparities between the coastal and inland of Portugal, making it the most centralist country in Western Europe. Now, the trains that still wind through the idyllic valley of Tua is threatened by a dam, which would flood what is considered one of the most beautiful railway lines of Europe. The people stood, isolated, in the only district in the country without a single motorway mile.

A cup of coffee, a cigarette. A coin, another cup of coffee. Patients roam the halls. They walk alone. Waiting. Another smoke, a burning cigarette. Therapies that appeal to the senses. Routines that pull them back to reality. It's life repeating itself at psychiatric hospital spaces'. Lucidity and madness live together. From the outside world comes an actor in search of his character for a theatre play, diving into the inner world of schizophrenia. Patients are part of the creation of the character. Amidst the haze, the actor finds a poem by Ângelo de Lima, an alienated. The theatre character is born. Cinema documents it.

A portrait of Belarmino Fragoso, a veteran boxer in Lisbon nearing the end of his career. In a blend of reportage and re-enactment, the many vices of the once national featherweight champion are revealed against a background of the grim economics of boxing in 1960s Portugal.

Part of the "I Love My Label" documental project dedicated to independent music labels from Portugal.

A stream of consciousness from Brazil’s underground flows straight into the heart of the city’s street carnival. In between the masks and the make-up, the young, naked and new bodies and a spectacular firework display, people come into view who have undergone a transformation that makes it difficult to clearly ascribe them to any gender.

"35 years after, the movement of things" follows filmmaker Manuela Serra's return to Lanheses, 35 years after having directed "The Movement of Things" there.

From a dramatic chapter to the eternal ecstasy of a great achievement. The documentary "Mosaico" tells details and behind the scenes of the recovery from the injury suffered by player Diego Ribas, shirt 10 of the Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, during a match in July 2019 for the Copa Libertadores da América.

This is a film about how war settles in the bodies of the people who are forced to experience it directly. And then, thousands of miles away and dozens of years ahead, how, like a virus, it can still infect other human beings.

A journey through the history of Portuguese electronic music from 1968 to 2016.

Spain, 1519. Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese navigator in the service of King Charles I, undertakes, at the command of five ships, a commercial expedition to the Moluccas. The story of the first circumnavigation of the world, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522.

Ashore portrays the life of a singular fisherman in an ancient riverfront community near Lisbon. Divided between the quiet solitude of the river and the family ties that wash him ashore, the film follows Albertino Lobo, as nature renews itself with each season cycle.

Immerses us in the devastating reality of Afghanistan after the Taliban occupation: music has been banned. Forced into hiding, a group of young musicians attempt a harrowing escape to Portugal. Will they be able to find their voices again?

Follows Dan, a young Venezuelan man currently living in Lisbon, who collects magic mushrooms in the forest and distributes them in the city to those in need of help - like a New Age Robin Hood - using pigeons as carriers.

Jaime, a poem of suffering and loneliness, describes the existence and pictorial work of a man isolated in a psychiatric hospital.

Ziraldo - Era uma vez um menino... is a self-portrait of the artist. The film follows Ziraldo's trajectory by means of statements and interviews he has given over more then forty years. His life and art history in his own words, voice and emotion.

For more than 20 years, Lindo hunted sea turtles on Príncipe Island. After an encounter with an unexpectedly docile turtle, he decided to change his life to start protecting the animal from other predators. Now he's delving into his past to find the clues that will launch a debate about the future of the island and reflect on the difficult balance between man and nature.

Daniela takes us to the most festive photographs in her family album, the photographs from her birthdays. It is through the images that she goes around the crowded table and reveals her greatest desires and frustrations and those of her closest family members.

Celebrating a 30-year carrer, the multi-instrumentist, singer, composer, and brazilian writer, Humberto Gessinger is releasing the DVD "Insular - Ao Vivo". This is the register of the concert recorded in Belo Horizonte/MG; It counts with songs from his new album, as well as older hits from his formers works.

Portuguese Rock'n'Roll history since the late 50s

“Black Gold” is a visually striking film directed by a Japanese filmmaker, blending a minimalist aesthetic with the natural beauty of rural India – a true visual feast for cinephiles. Every detail is crafted with precision, reflecting a uniquely Japanese perspective.

At 30, Jiro embarked on a year-long trip taking in the Soviet Union, North Africa, Europe, and the United States. Nearly half a century later, his daughter makes use of various memorabilia to take a step back in time and explore how such adventures have shaped the man’s take on the modern world.

A história é baseada em fatos reais e inspirada no livro “Matar ou Morrer“, do ex-oficial Conte Lopes. Apesar de ser uma produção independente o filme pretende criar polêmica e já é sucesso nos camelôs como o primo rico “Tropa de Elite”.

Film directors with hand-held cameras went to the streets of Lisbon from April 25 to May 1, 1974, registering interviews and political events of the Portuguese "Carnations Revolution", as that period would be later known.