Cinema Manoel de Oliveira and Me

An old photograph taken 36 years ago His hand rests on my shoulder A blessing a gift Then a history of over four decades of friendship admiration and apprenticeship A journey into Oliveiras cinema his method his way of filming and his extraordinary cinematic inventions He lived for over a century over a century of cinema cinema in its entirety For him and for me too now documentary and fiction films go hand in hand it is all about cinema So I had the audacity to film a magnificent story that Manoel loved but never filmed one that he left behind as if his hand and eyes were close to God or among the gods and he was steering me João Botelho