Eduardo Geada

Eduardo Geada (Lisbon, 1945-05-21) is a Portuguese film director, screenwriter and professor.

Biography

generic

He graduated in "Anglo-American Studies" at the "Faculty of Arts of Lisbon University" (1976). Like other young Portuguese "cinéphiles" from his generation, he plunged in the world of cinema taking active part at the important film club movement of the sixties, an open and vivid place where he, like several other future filmmakers, assimilated techniques and theories.

In 1978, as a Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship winner, he finished his specialization in "Film Studies" at the "Slade School of Fine Arts" ("London College University").

He completed his "Master of Arts in Media and Communication" at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (New University of Lisbon), with the thesis "O Cinema Espectáculo" ("The Film Show", 1985). He got a "Phd in Film and History of the Media", with the thesis: "Os Mundos do Cinema: Modelos Dramáticos e Narrativos no Período Clássico" (1997).

He was a professor at the "Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema" in Lisbon (theatre and film school) from 1978 to 2004. He has been teaching at the "Escola Superior de Comunicação Social" (media and communication college) since 2004. He is a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley (2007/2008).

Between 1968 and 1976 he worked as a film critic for magazines and newspapers : "Seara Nova", "Vértice", "Vida Mundial", "A Capital", "República" and "Expresso". He was the author and presenter of the radio programme "Moviola" (1985/86), on "Antena 1", dedicated to film sound-tracks.

He made a TV show on cinema and culture. Between the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies, Geada gave an important contribution to film criticism, submitting his ideas on cinema to enlarged discussion, and publishing several books.

From 1997 to 2002 he was the managing director to the "CulturSintra Foundation" ("Quinta da Regaleira", Sintra)..

filmmaker

He is a film and a TV director. His first film, "Sofia ou a Educação Sexual" (1973), was one of the last to be censored by the old regime and shown only after the Carnation Revolution. In the film take part some of the most important representatives of Portuguese culture, such as David Mourão-Ferreira, Jorge Peixinho, Eduardo Prado Coelho. As a "bébutant", João Lopes, a future well-known film journalist and critic, worked in this film as assistant director. In spite of some problems with production, the film is finished. It raised expectations that would not entirely meet director’s ambitions.

After the Revolution, Geada, a left-winged "militant" filmmaker among others, feels happy to be allowed to show his films uncensored in TV. He is free, like many others, to show things that had never been seen : the new Portuguese reality, focused by an optics very sensible to social justice and social progress, entering every-bodies’ homes : "Lisboa, o Direito à Cidade", "A Revolução está na Ordem do Dia", "Temos Festa" are three films representative of the important Portuguese movement of the "cinema militante", which left many films that would become historical documents of an undeniable value.

One of his first films was "O Funeral do Patrão" (1975), based on a play by the Italian playwright Dario Fo. "A Santa Aliança" (1977), based on a scenario by Geada himself, has the pamphlet-like structure of some other interesting post-Revolution films and was selected for the "Quinzaine des Realisateurs", Cannes Film Festival. A most recent film, "Passagem por Lisboa" (1993) shows the memory of cinema : the film is dedicated to Félix Ribeiro and Luís de Pina, two pillars of the Portuguese Film Archive (" [http://www.cinemateca.pt/acinemateca.asp Cinemateca Portugusesa] "). Mixing documentary and fiction, the film revisits Lisbon, at the beginning of the forties, with the participation of famous people, like Pola Negri, Leslie Howard (actor), the Duke of Windsor, Primo di Rivera and the fictitious character Victor Laszlo (in the movie "Casablanca")

academic qualifications

*1976: Degree in Anglo-American Studies from the Faculty of Letters of Lisbon University.
*1977/78: Grant student from the Gulbenkian Foundation at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he obtained the post-graduate degree in Film Studies.
*1984/85: Completes the M.A. in Cinema in the Department of Media Studies at the New University of Lisbon.
*1997: PhD Thesis on Scriptwriting and Film History in the Department of Media Studies at the New University of Lisbon.
*1978 to 2002: he has lectured at the Higher Institute of Cinema and Theatre.
*Since 2002: he has lectured at the Higher Institute of Sciences of Communication.

books

*1977: IMPERIALISM AND FASCISM IN THE CINEMA (O Imperialismo e o Fascismo no Cinema), Moraes, Lisbon.
*1978: CINEMA AND TRANSFIGURATION (Cinema e Transfiguração), Horizonte, Lisbon.
*1985: THE POWER OF THE CINEMA (O Poder do Cinema), Horizonte, Lisbon.
*1986: AESTHETICS OF THE CINEMA (Estéticas do Cinema - organização), Dom Quixote, Lisbon.
*1987: THE CINEMA SPECTACLE (O Cinema Espectáculo), Edições 70, Lisbon.
*1998: THE WORLDS OF THE CINEMA (Os Mundos do Cinema), Editorial Notícias, Lisbon.

writer and director

feature films for cinema

*1973: SOFIA AND SEXUAL EDUCATION (Sofia e a Educação Sexual)
*1976: THE HOLY ALLIANCE (A Santa Aliança)
*1985: GREETINGS FOR DONA GENCIANA (Saudades para Dona Genciana) (after José Rodrigues Miguéis)
*1988: STREET OF NO RETURN (personal assistant to Samuel Fuller)
*1993: PASSAGE TO LISBON (Passagem por Lisboa)

TV films and programmes

*1974: LISBON, THE RIGHT TO THE CITY (documentary about Lisbon).
*1975: THE BOSS'S FUNERAL (after a play by Dario Fo).
*1976: PARTY TIME (documentary series).
*1978: UNAVOIDABLE RISK (cultural series with sculptor Lagoa Henriques).
*1979: MARIANA ALCOFORADO (after the translation by Eugénio de Andrade).
*1982/83: LISBON LIMITED SOCIETY, fictional series including:
**THE ANARCHIST BANKER, after Fernando Pessoa.
**THE MAN WHO CAN'T WRITE, after Almada Negreiros.
**A JOURNEY IN OUR OWN LAND, after José Rodrigues Miguéis.
**THE RITUAL OF THE LITTLE VAMPIRES, after José Cardoso Pires.
**THE IMPOSSIBLE EVASION, after Urbano Tavares Rodrigues.
**SUNSET IN AREEIRO, after Sttau Monteiro.
*1986/87: THE SHAPE OF THINGS (cultural series).

arts and culture management

*1996 to 2002: Arts Manager of the Cultursintra Foundation in Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra (classified World Heritage by the Unesco).