Clínica Popular Comunal da Cova da Piedade. 1975. Directed by Margarida Gil What Shall I Do with This Sword? (Que Farei Eu com Esta Espada?). 1975. Directed by João César Monteiro

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What Will I Do with This Sword? (Que Farei eu com Esta Espada?). 1975. Portugal. Directed by João César Monteiro. Courtesy The Cinema Guild

Clínica Popular Comunal da Cova da Piedade. 1975. Portugal. Directed by Margarida Gil. 2K digital restoration by Cinemateca Portuguesa; courtesy Cinemateca Portuguesa. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 34 min.

What Shall I Do with This Sword? (Que Farei Eu com Esta Espada?). 1975. Portugal. Directed by João César Monteiro. 4K digital restoration by Cinemateca Portuguesa; courtesy The Cinema Guild. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 65 min.

In one of his earliest efforts, João César Monteiro presents the arrival of NATO forces and US aircraft carriers in Lisbon and compares them to the awakening of Nosferatu, a new villain hungry for fresh blood. What Shall I Do with This Sword? is one of the richest works in Portuguese militant cinema, intertwining documentary footage of US Navy sailors cruising Lisbon’s decadent nightlife (one of its prostitutes offers Monteiro an account of her routine), workers protesting pro-capitalist maneuvers, and statements from anticolonial African activists with a satirical restaging of a medieval Lusitanian hero (director Margarida Gil) who will defend the country’s soul against foreign invaders. In Clínica Popular Comunal da Cova da Piedade, Gil offers a close look into a free, communal health clinic founded by locals after the 1974 revolution.

This film accompanies The Ongoing Revolution of Portuguese Cinema.

Past events

Tue, Nov 5, 2024, 7:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Sat, Nov 2, 2024, 1:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

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