João Mário Grilo
Mário João Lourenço Bagao Grilo (* 1958 in Figueira da Foz ) is a Portuguese film director.
Career
Even as a student at the Gymnasium in Figueira da Foz, he shot his first Super 8 films and attended since he was 15, the annual international film festival in his hometown. During his subsequent studies in Economics at the University of Coimbra, he has been active in film clubs and headed 1976-1977 already an academic film study group. In 1978 he presented a project for a super 8 movie when a state film promotion institute Instituto Português de Cinema (IPC, today's Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual ) and received the first government support for this format in Portugal. After the IPC recognized the quality of the film ( "Mary " ), it promoted following the formatting of the film on 16mm.
Grilo broke after his studies in Coimbra and started a sociology degree from the University of Lisbon ISCTE. Around the same time he was a film critic for the newspaper Jornal de Letras and turned his second feature film, A Estrangeira ( " The Brave One ", 1982). His third film, O Processo do Rei ( "The Trial of the King", 1990) with camera by Eduardo Serra, received critical acclaim, particularly for its successful picture composition, which is in the historic action by the forced dismissal of King Alfonso VI. ( 1667) based on the paintings of the time.
In addition to his government work Grilo also received recognition for his academic work. He earned his doctorate at the New University of Lisbon with a thesis on " The order in Film" ( published in 1993 ) and is within the scope of his teaching at the university, especially in the interdisciplinary research field of "new media " / " Social Media " and the "film - Philospohie " involved. In addition, he maintained for many years a weekly column in the magazine Visão in which he went public with well-founded criticism of capitalism and social criticism
Reception
His films have been screened at various festivals ( Berlin International Film Festival Locarno, Caminhos do Cinema Português in Coimbra, Venice Film Festival, TIFF, Toronto ) and received several awards. His work got the attention of the critics, but not the audience. His films are characterized by high accuracy, rigor and seriousness, and make public appeal humor and love stories almost completely missing. Among the filmmakers, however, his work is recognized internationally. With its recognized academic work, he also deals mostly with the topic of film and new media. With all the development it is so directly in the tradition of Cinema Novo and his demanding conception of film and its social task off commercial aspects.