28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
The Figures Carved into the Knife by the Sap of the Banana Trees
director: Joana Pimenta
original title: As figuras gravadas na faca com a seiva das bananeiras
country: United States, Portugal
year: 2014
running time: 16 min.
synopsis
In a meditative flow of images, interspersed with flashes and vibrations of light, old postcards give life to a story with a sense of mystery straddling fictional colonial memory and science fiction. The invented memories are like cyphers that fill in the gaps in the correspondence between the Madeira islands and the former Portugues colony of Mozambique.DETAIL:
At night, the wind blows in from the foaming sea and sways the long, extended leaves of the banana trees. If, on a Saturday at midnight, you pierce a knife into one of its trunks, in the morning you will find a message carved into the shining blade by the tree’s acidic sap.
biography
Joana Pimenta was born in Lisbon and lives and works in New York. She is currently studying film and visual and environmental studies at Harvard University – a continuation of her graduate studies of film and art education from Lisbon and Paris. She is also interested in visual ethnography. Most of her previous work has been in the field of video and video installations. The Figures Carved into the Knife by the Sap of the Banana Trees is her cinematic debut.more about film
| director: | Joana Pimenta |
| producer: | Cozette Russell |
| script: | Joana Pimenta |
| photography: | Joana Pimenta |
| editing: | Joana Pimenta |
| sound: | Gisburg Luis Brandao, Joana Pimenta |
