Imagens was made in 1996-7, right after the DV (digital video)format was marketed for consumers. On its arrival I quickly realized its large potential and dropped all thought of working further in film, and began to shoot solely in DV.
Courtesy of its very low cost it was possible to shoot large amounts of material, as well as to do very long shots. This in turn, along with other aspects of DV, pointed to another aesthetic than that which dictated celluloid filmmaking, and I promptly went into exploring this in many ways, as the diverse qualities of London Brief (1997), Nas correntes de luz da ria formosa (1997-1999), 6 Easy Pieces (1996-2000) and OUI NON (1998-2002) all demonstrate.
Imagens was culled from some 11 hours of material that was shot in that period and saved (I shot much more but junked the uninteresting material same day as shooting it). Having no narrative, it, like Luz, was in a sense much more difficult to edit - hence the long period between the shooting and the completion of it. Such work requires a completely different sense of rhythm, time, attentiveness to ambient sound, and figuring out how to orchestrate it through time without the easy hooks of "a story" or some "topic." Imagens is about a place, and its spirits and ghosts. I hope it has properly caught some of the particular and specific qualities which are Lisboa.
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