HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN HERE

HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN HERE is an exercise about war and the search for a place of belonging. Is it in our memories, in a physical space or is it a mental place? With this exercise I revisited familiar images in a mirror process with my son where, in a house closed to the outside space, we constructed a narrative of search and reflection, seeking to populate the spaces of the house with the physical spaces outside. Using sound references, we reconstructed the spaces and projected what they are internally. In a projection of images of memories, the character looks at himself in the mirror, revisits what these memories are and their meaning. He rereads what escaped him, reflects on what they truly are for him. In a game of mirrors, the journey ends in questions about war, about memory and about the relationship that the outside has with him.

NOTE OF INTENTIONS

In an exercise about imprisonment, we reflect on memory and on physical and mental confinement. With the echoes of the world, we look again at what are diffuse present impressions. By revisiting them, we find meaning and form in them as we correlate them with our projections. At a time when war transforms the sense of belonging by depriving us of where we belong, where we are from, and how long we have really been here.

This film is also a way of talking about war without resorting to graphic or violent images.

Directed and Edited by: João Bordeira

Screenplay: João Bordeira and João Vasco

Music: Jordam Powell

Mixing: Luis Simões

Production by bMOTION PICTURES

with:

João Vasco

Márcia Pacheco

João Bordeira

Alice Ferreira

Matilde Ferreira

Ana Bordeira Ferreira

Beatriz Pacheco

Luis Pacheco

Joana Vida

Maria de Lourdes Bordeira

Elisabete Medeiros