Salatinas documentary

We want to finance the production, exhibition and distribution of a documentary about the Salatina community, forcibly removed from Alta de Coimbra due to the destruction of hundreds of houses and other buildings to build the University City.

Did you know that in the 1940s, around two hundred buildings in twenty blocks were razed to the ground in the Alta district of Coimbra? And that the approximately three thousand people who lived there and made their living, in streets full of shops, services and monuments, were relocated to peripheral neighbourhoods with no accessibility? Neighbourhoods in Coimbra such as Celas, Fonte do Castanheiro, Arregaça, Marechal Carmona (now Norton de Matos) and Santa Clara were created from scratch while the Alta district took on the form of a “University City” in a painful process silenced by censorship.

We want to reveal this story and we count on your help. Every contribution counts.

With the urban rehabilitation policy in the historic center on the agenda, and after celebrating half a century of Freedom, help us rewind and show how this destruction of part of Alta de Coimbra happened at the hands of the Estado Novo and rescue one of the most brutal memories of the city by following the trail of the so-called "salatinas".

Layer upon layer, Coimbra continues to die and be reborn consecutively, but what about its people? And their routines? Their traditions? Help us finance this film that began to be conceived and produced in the spring of 2023, following an award-winning report and on its creators' own initiative, given the urgency of capturing on video the few Salatinas still alive, and share with us the pleasure of putting together the pieces of the puzzle that makes up our city.

We collected testimonies, expert statements, unreleased material and an original soundtrack, but the execution and completion depend on the funds and partnerships we can raise now so we can premiere in the summer of 2025. Are we counting on you?

Uma das salatinas focadas no documentário

Instantâneo de rodagem no Bairro de Celas, Coimbra

About the author

We are a team of passionate journalists and documentaries , living in Coimbra and united by the common cause of telling important but unknown stories, amplifying the voice of those who know how to tell them like no one else, but who are rarely (if ever) heard. This is the result of a research, collection and collection of testimonies that began over a year ago, in the spring of 2023, and which we consider urgent given the age and health status of the few Salatinas still alive.

AUTHORS

Tiago Cerveira is a photographer, filmmaker and founder of projects such as «O Meio e a Gente» and «Rostos da Aldeia», finding his true passion in documenting the tangible and intangible heritage of rural communities in Portugal. He has made several documentaries, which have been shown and awarded at national and international film festivals.

Rafael Vieira is an architect and contributing journalist. He writes for Parqmag and Architect@Work. He rescues graphic memories of the city through the Tipos de Coimbra project and maintains the Coimbrastreetart collection. Winner of several journalism awards, he (re)opened the salatina portal in 2022 with a report and will soon launch a book on the subject through the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

Filipa Queiroz is a journalist and documentary filmmaker from Coimbra. She worked as a reporter and editor in Lisbon, Macau and Coimbra. She founded the digital magazine Coolectiva. She produced and directed the documentaries «Once Upon a Time in Ka Ho» (2012) and «Boat People» (2016). More recently «Coimbra é Intervenção» (2024), with Tiago Cerveira.

SOUNDTRACK

Gonçalo Parreirão is a musician and director from Coimbra. He was the guitarist for the band Red Italian Hunter and was part of projects such as Miss Cat and Rapaz Cão and Fere. He is currently part of the projects lume, Pešpäkøvå and bürro. He dedicates a large part of his compositions to the soundtrack of films that he presents live in the cineconcert format.

Fotografia de entrevista do documentário

Budget and due dates

The proposal for the execution of this documentary involves:

- Information search
- Image search (photographic and video archives)
- Organization of information
- Script creation
- Contacts
- Interviews totaling more than 50 hours
- Shooting of illustrative/contextual images
- Creation of narrative text
- Studio narration recording
- Narrative assembly
- Original soundtrack composition
- Musicians' fees

We plan to cover these expenses with the amount raised in this community fundraising campaign, among other support and partnerships that may arise and that we are actively seeking.

It is expected to take another 6 months to produce and finalize the film, which will last approximately 1 hour and will be shown on small and large screens, as well as being present at national and international film festivals.

Images