Bats in the Belfry

This is a great example of a new generation of Portuguese filmmakers. The "Let's do it!" philosophy is taking place in Portugal. Examples like João Salaviza, Leandro Ferrão, Zara Pinto are allowing Portugal to refresh its face from the old Manoel de Oliveira's films.

More and more filmmakers just allow their imagination to fly thru their deepest dreams and nightmares. And "Bats in the Belfry" is one of the best examples. With no fear, João Alves made a movie that is nothing but an event which throws us into a much bigger sequence. Deadeye Jack tries to find his money for the third time that day, and apparently he'll still have to find at least one more time. Anyone who watches this short film will beg the director to make a feature film with Deadeye Jack, the Sheriff, the vampires, and all of the adventures from this great combination of a spaghetti western and a vampire - true vampire - movie.

This is a very fun and well executed cartoon. It's nice as an exercise in style. It's amazing how the most interesting Portuguese filmmakers to surface in the last few years are all working by themselves on indie productions with their friends. However, if there is a "Let's Do It" generation in Portuguese movies, it is definitely not composed of the names reviewer José Penedo mentions in his review. João Alves notoriously manufactured the whole of this little film, playing all the possible jobs in it's making. However, João Salaviza only shoots in film and all his shorts have been state subsidized, some being commissioned by big institutions like Gulbenkian. I work in the Portuguese film market and know a lot of people but the other two names the reviewer mentions, Leandro Ferrão and Zara Pinto, ring no bells at all in my hears which means we are hardly talking of a "generation" here. "Bats In The Belfry" happens in Portugal at a time when the only way for young filmmakers to do their movies is to gather their friends and try to get hold of the largest number of equipment they can get for little or no money. But it also happens at a time when young filmmakers are learning that "it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it", and also "the ideas" that you have. If there is a real "Let's Do It Generation", I would say it is comprised of the people who have been working alone, like João Alves in this short, doing their best with little or no means - or means gathered through their personal effort, without any kind of state support. Over the past three years, names like Gabriel Abrantes, Patrick Mendes, Carlos Conceição and David Bonneville have been awarded at both national and international film festivals, presenting different types of innovative, independent, self-supported work that's nearly "manufactured" by their hands. They are the ones that most notoriously represent the new Portuguese generation of filmmakers in international short-film circuit. And it's nice to see that "Bats In The Belfry" presents a new name to this generation of independent artisans, and that it also introduces animation into the wild bunch that seems to be the only salvation of Portugal's long suffering cinema.