Light, Blaze, Fulgor — Auguries for a Non-hierarchical Framing and Flourishing was sparked by the anarchist António Gonçalves Correia and his communal experiments – first, Comuna da Luz (The Commune of Light), in Vale de Santiago/Odemira (1917-18), followed by Comuna Clarão (The Blaze Commune), in Albarraque/Sintra (1926). Metamorphosing itself in different iterations, this expanded film anticipates a fulgurous de-hierarchization of the act of seeing, while attempting to offer a pedagogy of land and conviviality in the bioregion of Alentejo. 

Stubbornly looking at the ruins of a commune we search for auguries. For instance: ‘Fair weather for drifters. We wander by foot across times, erratically shooting images and recording sounds through the kaleidoscopic spatiality of Alentejo, a Portuguese region named after a river, beyond a river. As walking offers unexpected encounters and co-presences, missives are sent to and from the margins. For instance: ‘growing organs for the alternative.’ Our senses are partial, precarious and fragmentary, but not our orientation: There is an everyday struggle for the fulgor being fought and we want to be in it. Against a firmament of dispossession of land, bodies and social bonds, we are getting ready. For instance: ‘On the level!’ The fulgor is mobile, the prefigured community dispersed and diverse. Through dissent and associations of affinity, autonomy and re-enchantment, the offer of cinema could be to let us flourish in non-hierarchical frames. (Sílvia das Fadas) 

2 x 16mm projectoren, English spoken