The short documentary “Manuel”, directed by Bruno Carnide and produced by CoffeeMuseum, has recently won the Best National Documentary award at the Film Fest Sao Tome (Sao Tome and Principe). The same short has already been selected for the 10th Development Film Fest (India), last September, 2015.
In about seven minutes, “Manuel” presents one of the many stories that can be found in Sao Tome: “His name is Manuel. 71 years old. Widowed. Carpenter. Owner of a coffee lot at Roça Monte Café (Sao Tome and Principe). Land from which everything springs, without asking permission.” – Check the short online at this link.
SYNOPSYS: His name is Manuel. 71 years old. Widowed. Carpenter. Owner of a coffee lot at Roça Monte Café (Sao Tome and Principe). Land from which everything springs, without asking permission.
Manuel has a wide and broad smile, with lines of poems. He tells a unique story of a country that has forgotten how it was when it produced coffee. He still cultivates, dry, roast and grind it. But life does not wear him out.
Manuel doesn’t drop his arms. He enjoys all that the land offers him, like a blessing. A seed is wealth. A berry. A vanilla pod.
Manuel is impossible to describe in words, much less in photographs. It misses the wet weather that sticks to the skin. It lacks the smell of wet earth and freshly fried plantain. It absents the sound of children screaming out there lack. Above all, it lacks Manuel’s permanent laugh.
Manuel is one of the few people producing coffee in São Tomé and Príncipe.
Production: coffeemuseum.com
Director: Bruno Carnide
Producers: Cristina Barros & Rui Silva
Photography, Edition, Sound: Bruno Carnide
