Access Road
Via de acesso
Access Road
Portugal 2008
directed by
Nathalie Mansoux
screenplay
Nathalie Mansoux, Justine Lemahieu
cinematography
Joao Pedro Placido, Nathalie Mansoux, Miguel Sargento
sound
Breno Pentagna, Carols Mota, Elin Gjelmonsum
editing
Justine Lemahieu
producer
Nathalie Mansoux
production
Nathalie Mansoux
Beco do Maldonado, Nr17, 1 Dto.1100328
LissabonPortugal
T +351 9696 25997
E nathalie.mansoux@gmail.com
world sales
Nathalie Mansoux
Beco do Maldonado, Nr17, 1 Dto.1100328
Lissabon
Portugal
T +351 9696 25997
E nathalie.mansoux@gmail.com
format
BetaSP, barvni/colour
running time
81'
The Old Europe also has its slums. In one of them, Azinha de Besouros, near Lisbona, authorities decide to build a new shopping center. Local inhabitants and their modest homes become redundant, since they are on the way of the future highway. People from the slums, the majority of which even pay the taxes, are not entitled to new homes due to stiff birocratic rules. Understanding does not reach them, so machines coming to do their job are soon on their doorsteps. The story that follows is documented with compassionate objectivity of Nathalie Mansoux's camera. It leads the way to the inside of slum to an almost ethnological adventure. Camera writes and creates a chronicle of a new type of ethnos which is beyond protection of law and has no political rights. Harsh realistic approach of the documentary features is combined with interesting background sounds, such as reading letters, formed as some sort of birocratic regulations, reminding us of Kafka, in which institutions try to explain, why the homes are destroyed and why the inhabitants are not entitled to new ones.
Via de Acesso is an independent documentary film, a self-financed guerilla project, offering an excellent basis for debate, since it brilliantly shows how a part of society has become a side product.
»I work as an independent translator for the Cinemateca Portuguesa and many film festivals. I've bought the tapes and paid the transports with my own money. A students' association lent me the camera because they believed in the project. The persons who worked on editing, sound and color calibration didn't receive any money (they also believed in the project). We used my computer and my house for editing.« (Nathalie Mansoux)
Nathalie Mansoux
Born in 1974 in Paris, she studied in Paris and Lisbon. She collaborated with Portuguese director Rui Simões on the film Ruas da Amargura (2008) and was a coordinator at the Short film festival The Invisibles at Chapitô in Lisbon. Her first short documentary De Paso por Juchitán (2001) received the best documentary award at the 2002 Ovarvideo Festival. She also shot Mémories (2005) and Femmes en Construction (2007). Via di acesso is her most recent documentary.
