Jose Vieira part 2 - A Society's scapegoats reveal its ghosts

This article was first published in The Prisma on April 10th 2023 and can be read in full with images at:

https://www.tropicalwaves.blog/post/jose-vieira-part-2-a-society-s-scapegoats-reveal-its-ghosts

Shocked that immigrants were again living in shanties, near Paris, José began to follow the Romanian and Roma people. Taking photos for them, led to making films, and being invited to Romania. He talks about giving voice to migrants through films made on a shoestring budget.

Graham Douglas

José Vieira was asked about his investigative method in an interview by Carlos Campos for the LEFFEST festival, which was not published. He replied that making a film was like a journey in which you are guided by the flavour of sensations. “I make a historical and sociological investigation, and I soak up the literature in order to find the words to tell the story (…) When I made Os Emigrantes (2009), I worked a lot with the idea of the double absence, which the sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad wrote about with that title (1999): the experience of having lost the place you had, and being out of place wherever you go. (…) I look at my first rushes, observe the characters, I try to capture what is written in their memories, I write an outline, film some more, and so on. But this means that I have to pay everything from my own pocket. Previously, I used to write a project, and look for a producer, but I got fed up with so much waiting, so much wasted time, and sometimes the indifference I experienced.”

Despite the struggle, he says that he loves the craftwork of making documentaries, and the communication with people. During his time working with Romanian migrants in France he took hundreds of photos, and gave them prints to send home. He began to learn their language, and eventually went to visit their villages in Romania, where the warmth of hospitality had a big effect on him.

We continued our conversation, until he almost missed the Q&A for one of his films.

Each crisis has its scapegoats - and the way foreigners are talked about always reveals the ghosts that a society fears.

A free e-book (in Portuguese), which describes the work of José Vieira and others on Portuguese emigration was produced for the Melgaço Film Festival in 2014.