Clear Shadows

At the age of 71, a highly regarded writer, José Cardoso Pires, suffers a major stroke and loses his memory and the ability to relate to the rest of the world. Everybody seems to defy the famous author to write another novel that recounts this adventure telling his “last story”, the most conclusive of his career, the one of his accidental journey to the clear shadows territory.

Born in 1962, Lisbon, Fernando graduated in Editing, in 1985, at the Film School of the Conservatório Nacional and started working as Still photographer, Script continuity and Assistant Director with known film makers such as: Manoel de Oliveira, João César Monteiro, José Fonseca e Costa, Raoul Ruiz, João Canijo, Manuel Mozos, Luís Alvarães, among others. In 1991 he studied Arts Management at INA-National Institute of Administration and founded his independent film production company, David & Golias, the next year, 1992. He worked as Production Manager and Executive Producer with the historic Portuguese producer António da Cunha Telles, and was responsible for the whole shooting of Fernando Trueba’s 1994 Oscar Winning Best Foreign Film, Belle Epoque. In 2005, he graduated in Film Production at ESTC-IPL. As a producer, Fernando worked with several directors in more than 50 feature films and shorts, TV series and documentaries, having been present in mostly all important movie festivals, such as: Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, Edinburgh, IndieLisboa, Curtas de Vila do Conde, Fantasporto, among others. His first three feature films, as a director, took place in an African universe, focusing on identity and post colonialism issues: Dribbling Fate (1998), The Light Drops (2002) and Skin (2006). Recently he shot two films adapting renowned Portuguese writers works: Virgílio Ferreira, Apparition (2017) and José Cardoso Pires’ book De Profundis Valsa Lenta, Clear Shadows (2022), reflecting their creative literary universes. His films received international recognition and awards in Portugal and abroad. Fernando received himself the Career Award in Fantasporto 2015 for his whole filmwork as director and producer. Regarding TV Production, Fernando directed for RTP several fiction series: Bocage (2006), The Day of the Regicide (2008), 3 Women (2018) and the 2nd season 3 Women-Post Revolution (2021) focusing on the historic process after 1974 Portuguese Revolution. Always involved with the movie sector in Portugal, he co-founded several professional associations: APCA–Movie and Audiovisual Producers Association, ACPPD–Cultural Diversity Portuguese Alliance, Portuguese Arts and Cinema Science Academy, APR–Portuguese Directors Association, AporDOC–Documentaries Association and APC–Cinema Producers Association. Fernando worked also as a professor at Lusófona University, ESTC-IPL, Restart and is a constant presence at meetings, workshops, and symposia. In 2018 the reputed cultural publication Portuguese Studies published a monography: The Cinema of Fernando Vendrell.