Mar De Sines

Last Wednesday in the Youth Centre we held an event with the projection of MAR DE SINES, a Portuguese documentary film. It is a project with the community that gathers the testimonies of three generations of fishermen who know the sea of the southwest Portuguese coast as few others.

The documentary main focus is the fishing port and its fishermen, but it also shows us the last fishermen of San Torpes and it walks the rocky coast with the shellfish. We are presented with the memories of the men of the sea, but also the memories that the city itself has from the sea: the collective events as the flood or the Lady of Salvas celebration.

It is the result of more than 100 interviews and 250 hours of recordings, 60 of those on board. It was directed by Diogo Vilhena, with production and assistance of António Campos and original soundtrack by Charlie Mancini, with the participation of musicians from the region.

The movie exhibition was followed by a skype meeting with both the director and the producer that gave us an inside view of the documentary and answered some questions from the audience. It was a very informal conversation that, I believe, had enriched those who participate. One of the most interesting testimonies was given by a local volunteer: he took his grandfather, who is a fisherman, to see the documentary and he shared with us his opinion, and allowed us to make a comparison about the way of fishing and the way of living the sea here in Greece and in Portugal.

Personally, it was a privilege to be the bridge between "Mar de Sines" and Greece, a land of sea, and a people who also have sea inside themselves. But it reached other lands through other people, fellow volunteers of different nationalities, who from now on will have some of Portuguese sea with them.

Written by

Joana