The two open-air "rooms" of Cine Geração are in the same house where the production company Geração 80 and the Kiela bookstore, by writer Ondjaki are also headquartered, and began in 2020 by welcoming friends and people connected to the world of cinema and Art.
The message spread, the restrictions of covid-19 ended, a friend was bringing a friend and Cine Geração was getting more and more crowded, with cinephiles, artists and the curious, Angolans and foreigners of all ages, eager for a cultural program in the city of Luanda, but also the relaxed atmosphere that the project's mentors wanted to give to that space.
"The idea was to have a space to celebrate Angolan cinema and African cinema in which we would control the exhibition", Ngoi Salucombo, creative director of Generation 80 and one of the members of the collective that launched the initiative, told Lusa.
"In Angola, we don't have access to this content in an easy way, sometimes it's as if we live on an island. We are Lusophones, in the midst of Francophones and Anglophones and these are the ones that produce the most African content, the idea was to go in search of this content," he added.
Luanda still has old movie theaters, such as Karl Marx and Cine Atlântico, but the abandoned spaces have long stopped showing films.
For now, Luandans can only watch cinema in shopping centers on the outskirts of the city, which follow an exhibition policy that does not give priority to Angolan and African content, regrets Ngoi Salucombo.
"We wanted to counter the idea that the Angolan is not a consumer of African and Angolan cinema. What happens is that the offer of this product is not facilitated. The proof of this is that we have been showing African and Angolan films for 100 weeks and 80 to 90 percent of the sessions with a full house", underlines the also photographer.
The anti-covid-19 measures were reflected in the project, conceived before the pandemic, but ended up working in favor of the promoters of the initiative, who started the exhibitions "at home", sometimes with five spectators, and gained time to dominate. technical issues before starting to grow.
It was also because of the pandemic and the distance that they decided to open, after the small room on the first floor, a larger one in the backyard, and now keep a third one in reserve for “exceptional cases”, managing to accommodate a total of 180 people.
At the entrance of Cine Geração, an iconic mural with movie posters welcomes spectators and many take advantage of the director's chair to pose for a photo and immortalize the moment.
Here, "all types of people pass by", says Ngoi, adding that everyone is welcome, from film lovers to children, who were entitled to special sessions in June, the children's month, and even couples who go out to date.
The screening of films, every Thursday, is always followed by a debate, in which the public takes the opportunity to discuss the films with directors, actors and producers or to tackle topics such as colonialism, music, politics, sport or mental health, which were highlighted in some thematic sessions.
"It's an opportunity for us Angolans to talk, we debate very little. And the films are so different that it forces us to have very different conversations every week and the fact that we have such a diverse audience means that we can have any kind of questions", considered the person in charge.
The 100th session was marked with the viewing of "Assaltos em Luanda", from 2005, in which the duo of brothers 'Taliban' and 'King', try to escape poverty by turning to criminality, but end up, without honor or glory, in the hands of the police, after a succession of picaresque episodes.
Ngoi Salucombo explains that the film came at a time of resurgence of Angolan cinema, marked by a "new fever" from the 2000s, and that marks a moment of transition, being considered the most popular film ever in Angola.
Manuela Leitão was one of the first to arrive. She has been in Luanda for two months and has been a fan of Cine Geração since the beginning.
"I've been coming every Thursday to watch the 'shorts' [films], mainly. I've enjoyed it a lot, I've always come back and brought friends, the atmosphere is great. It's a place where I feel very comfortable and where I've seen African cinema very interesting", stated Manuela Leitão, stressing that these films also bring her a contact with "reality" and the experiences of Africa, with its problems, joys, sadness and pain.
"For me, it's very constructive, I have an Angolan husband, my children are half Portuguese and half Angolan and I like to understand how things can be so different and at the same time so close", she said.
"Experiences" is what Marisa Paihama, a regular visitor, says she finds at Cine Geração.
Human experiences on the screen, but also of the people you meet in the cinema "room", "all very different".
Session number 100 would also be special for Marisa: "It was the first film I saw when I came to live in Angola. I'm looking forward to seeing the film again, today I understand Portuguese, at that time I didn't speak much", she tells Lusa, between laughs.
It started to come in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, and describes these moments as "a perfect relief".
"No one went out, everyone was afraid to be with everyone else, but we are human, we have to be constantly accompanied, we need to see faces", considered Marisa Paihama, adding that she also began to give more value to culture in that period.
Pedro Ramires, a Brazilian actor, is in Luanda for the first time and came on the recommendation of a friend to visit the space.
"I am very anxious, for me it is an honor to meet Angolan artists, their work, what they are thinking, reflecting, building new imaginations, I am very happy", declares Pedro Ramires.
He confesses that he knows little about Angolan cinema and that there is some difficulty in having this proximity in Brazil. That is why he is also looking for new references to "Afrocenter" and "decolonize" thought.
"Africa for us is always a reference, I want to know more, it is very rich", concludes the actor.
As for the future paths for Angolan cinema, Ngoi Salucombo defends that it should aim at mass production.
"Quality comes with quantity. As long as we do not produce films in quantity, we cannot expect to have quality in the future", he stressed, admitting that this position is not always coincident in the view of the public, curators or producers.
But even though it is difficult to make movies because it is expensive, Ngoi believes that it is the quantity that leads to growth and that allows films shown in alternative spaces to reach the level of "normal cinemas".
Even if film clubs continue, "because they have to exist too".
