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The Films of Joao Pedro Rodrigues and Joao Rui Guerra da Mata
Edited by José Duarte and Filipa Rosário
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Book Presentation:
An exploration of the films of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata
• Engages with current discourses around World Cinema, Art Cinema and Queer Studies
• Offers scholarly approaches from different perspectives and fields: from close readings to Cinema Studies, gender and identity studies, transnational approaches
• Includes both textual and contextual analysis of the directors’ works
João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata are one of the most cosmopolitan duos in contemporary world cinema. Their films tell us stories of love and human desire, receiving a highly favourable reception among critics and at international festivals. Despite their high profile, Rodrigues and da Mata’s work remains relatively understudied.
ReFocus: The Films of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, paves the way for the study of the directors’ work, critically analysing the various cinematic perspectives of their short and full-length feature films. In the first collection solely dedicated to their work, this book addresses the historical, political, stylistic, industry, and cultural dimensions of Rodrigues and da Mata’s films, providing critical recognition for their contribution to world cinema.
Press Reviews:
[T]his volume boosts the international status and visibility of smaller players, allows for a larger audience to have access to the work of these two artists while, simultaneously, justifying the international acclaim they have already earned. While the specificities of working and living in a particular small nation are made apparent throughout the essay selection, so is the transnationality of the stories told. Overall, the volume highlights the transformative input of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata in the Portuguese cinematic landscape.
– Hermínia Sol, AM Journal of Art and Media Studies
[T]his volume boosts the international status and visibility of smaller players, allows for a larger audience to have access to the work of these two artists while, simultaneously, justifying the international acclaim they have already earned. While the specificities of working and living in a particular small nation are made apparent throughout the essay selection, so is the transnationality of the stories told. Overall, the volume highlights the transformative input of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata in the Portuguese cinematic landscape.
– Hermínia Sol, AM Journal of Art and Media Studies
This indispensable collection offers an extraordinarily rich set of perspectives on one of Portugal’s most innovative and important filmmaking partnerships. The result does justice not only to Rodrigues and Guerra da Mata’s well-known work on queerness but also to their unique and complex engagement with spatial thought, cinephilia and corporeality.
– Hilary Owen, University of Oxford
Duarte and Rosário conduct a complex and complete analysis of the work of these two pioneers of Portuguese Queer Cinema; an insightful, multi-layered book that delves into the meaning of Rodrigues and Guerra da Mata’s images of queer subjects and their endless transformations.
– Iván Villarmea Álvarez, Universidade de Coimbra
Without ever assuming itself as a manifesto against the auteur theory (which, since the 1950s, has absorbed the entire discourse of cinephilia and film theory), ReFocus: The Films of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata is an example that the academy begins to expand its scope beyond the figure of the director. [...] In the absence of more extensive studies on the various creative voices that are sheltered in "allegedly" technical positions, comes a book that, in gathering a set of distinct perspectives on the filmography of João Pedro Rodrigues, also presents a panoramic view of one of the most reflexive art directors of Portuguese cinema, João Rui Guerra da Mata.
– Ricardo Vieira Lisboa, Público
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
See the complete filmography of João Pedro Rodrigues on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same authors:
The Global Road Movie (2018)
Alternative Journeys around the World
Dir. José Duarte and Timothy Corrigan
Subject: On Films > Film selections
> On a related topic:
The Haunted Cinema of Pedro Costa (2025)
by James Naremore and Darlene J. Sadlier
Subject: Director > Pedro Costa
The Films of Pedro Costa (2020)
Producing and Consuming Contemporary Art Cinema
Subject: Director > Pedro Costa
Hispanic and Lusophone Women Filmmakers (2015)
Theory, Practice and Difference
Dir. Parvati Nair and Julian Gutierrez-Albilla
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