Making a Living in the Dry Season

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Making a Living in the Dry Season

Making a Living in the Dry Season

Making a Living in the Dry Season
directed by Inês Ponte
trailer by Márcia Costa

2016, 35 min, doc, MiniDv, 4:3 letterbox
Angola, UK, Portugal

Set in a highland village, the film is an intimate portrait of the day-to-day life of a family living in an agro-pastoralist farm in Namibe, Angola. Through the filmmaker’s request to her host Madukilaxi to put her skills into the making of a doll, the film addresses a twofold notion of labour taking place in the dry season: their shared doll-crafting and making a living. Lipuleni, Madukilaxi’s toddler, follows their twofold labour, and the three of them celebrate their efforts with a feast.
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AWARD
Special Mention Best Short Film at FRAMES, Portuguese Film Festival, Sweden (Mar 2018)

“As a progressive search of complicity and transcultural approximation, ‘Making a living in the dry season’ constructs an intimate portrait of the context it is submerged in. The permanent communication in between who is being filmed and who is filming results in an emotive homage to the habits and practices of the ancestral feminine. Within a framework shaped by universal common values, the maternal role acquires a central importance in a precious film, truthfully dedicated to bring our attention closer to a reality that needs to be seen.”

FESTIVALS
Vizantrop Festival, Engaged Ethnographic Film Festival, Serbia (Jun 2019)
Mostra Espelhos d’África, Brazil (May, 2019)
CineNOVA, Portugal (Fev 2019)
EcoDoc, EcoPorto (Junho 2018)
Sjon, International Anthropological Film Festival, Denmark (Mar 2018)
Antropofest, Czech Republic (Jan 2018)
CinePlateau, International Film Festival, Cape Vert (Nov 2017)
Festival de Filme Etnográfico do Recife, Brazil (Nov 2017)
Apricot Tree International Documentary Film Festival, Armenia (Oct 2017)
Women Media Arts Film Festival, Australia (Sep 2017)
Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia (July 2017)
Students´ Ethnographic Film Festival, Croatia (May 2017)
Mediawave, International Film and Music Gathering, Hungary (April 2017)
World Film Festival, Estonia (March 2017)
Days of Ethnographic Film, Slovenia (March 2017)
EthnoFest, International Ethnographic Film Festival, Greece (Nov 2016)
Kratovo Ethnographic Film Festival, Macedonia
Film Art International Festival, Figueira da Foz, Portugal (Aug 2016)
Ethnographic Film Screening Programme of the APA Congress, Coimbra, Portugal (June 2016)

Screenings
Centro Cultural Angola-Brasil, Luanda (Dez 2018)
Instituto Superior Politécnico da Tundavala, Lubango (Nov 2018)
MySpaceLounge, Luanda, Angola (Feb 2018)
Direcção Provincial do Namibe, Moçamedes, Angola (Feb 2018)
Ciência Viva: Science and Technology Week: ICS-ULisboa (Nov 2017)
Leipzig University Summer School: “Ways of Seeing”, Germany (July 2017)
Ciência Viva: Science and Technology Week, “Documentary film and Anthropology”, IUL-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal (Nov 2016).
Extension of the Ethnographic Film Screening Programme APA Congress, Coimbra (Oct 2016) + Extension Lisbon (March 2017).
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A longer version of “Making a Living in the dry season” was the accompanying film for the director’s PhD in Social Anthropology with Visual Media, University of Manchester. Screened at International Ethno Film Festival Heart of Slavonia, Drakovo, Croatia (2016); and at Satterthwaite Africanist Colloquium, Grasmere, UK (2015).

Project details