RUA ESCURA is a film production cooperative formed in 2020 in the city of Porto. Today it is made up of André Gil Mata, Cláudia Ribeiro and Frederico Lobo, three directors/producers whose aim is to make their own films, as well as those of their accomplices. In addition to film production, Rua Escura is dedicated to training in the practice of analog cinema.
About
André Gil Mata
Director, screenwriter, actor and cinematographer (São João da Madeira, Portugal). He studied mathematics, photography and theater. In 2008, founded the photography and cinema lab Átomo47 and the film production company Bando à Parte. In 2010 he was selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus. “Arca d’Água”(2009), the debut film received several awards and was selected for international festivals. “House”(2010) his second-short, premiered at IndieLisboa’01. “The Gravedigger” (2012) received the Melliers l’Argent Award and the Best Film Awards at MotelX and Best Animation at FIKE and Caminhos de Cinema Português. “Captivity” (2012), his first-feature received the DocAlliance Award in Cannes (2013) and was awarded at DocLisboa, Olhar do Cinema Curitiba and Cáceres. “Kako sam se Zaljubio u Evu Ras” (2016), his second-feature received the Jury's Special Mention at the FIDMarseille international competition in 2016. In 2017, he directed the short film “Num Globo de Neve” (Tree of Life Award at IndieLisboa). He has a PhD in Direction at film.factory, Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2016). Drvo – A Árvore (2018) had its world premiere at the Berlinale Forum 2018, was awarded in Lima, Lisbon and Coimbra, was commercially released in Portugal (2018) and in France (May 2021) and was considered one of the 10 best films premiered in France in 2021 by Fernando Ganzo in Cahiers du Cinéma. His films have been shown at festivals and are shown all over the world. “The Flame of a Candle” (2024) premiered at FIDMarseille, and was theatrically released in Portugal and France on 2025 April.
As well as writing screenplays for all his films, he wrote Ubu with Paulo Abreu and Campos Belos (premiered) with David Ferreira. He was director of photography on films directed by Manel Raga Raga, Pilar Palomero, Lea Triboulet and Maria Clara Escobar, among others. He is one of the founders of the film cooperative Rua Escura. Pátio do Carrasco is his most recent film, premiered at the IFFR – International Film Festival of Rotterdam. His work has been the subject of retrospectives at Batalha Centro de Cinema (February, Porto, 2023), Doc’s Kingdom Seminar (Arcos de Valdevez, 2019) and the Luso Brazilian Film Festival (Santa Maria da Feira, 2012), and in 2021 the book “André’s Gil Mata’s Cinema: Some Light in the Dark” was published by Batalha Centro de Cinema.
Filmes
O Coveiro
Fiction, 35mm, 23’, 2009
Fiction, 35mm, 23’, 2009
Arca D’Água
Fiction, 35mm, 23’, 2009
Fiction, 35mm, 23’, 2009
Casa
Documentary, 35mm, 4', 2010
Documentary, 35mm, 4', 2010
Cativeiro
Documentary, HD, 64', 2012
Documentary, HD, 64', 2012
Kako Sam Se Zalijubio U Evu Rasfic
Fiction, HD, 72', 2016
Fiction, HD, 72', 2016
Num Globo de Neve
Fiction, S8, 9', 2017
Fiction, S8, 9', 2017
DRVO – A Árvore
Documentary, 16mm, 104', 2018
Documentary, 16mm, 104', 2018
Pátio do Carrasco
Fiction, 16mm, 46’, 2023
Fiction, 16mm, 46’, 2023
The Flame of a Candle
Fiction, 16mm, 109’, 2024
Fiction, 16mm, 109’, 2024
Cláudia Ribeiro
CLÁUDIA RIBEIRO (b. 1990) was born in Guimarães and lives in Porto. She holds a degree in Cinema (University of Beira Interior) and a Master’s in Anthropology – Visual Cultures (2018, NOVA University Lisbon – FCSH). Her work explores the concepts of culture and identity, driven by a constant questioning of human behavior, memory, representation, and the notion of reality.
Entre Leiras, her first feature film, was screened and awarded at various festivals and broadcast on television channels such as RTP2 and TVCINE, as well as on online platforms like FILMIN. She is a member of the cooperative Rua Escura, together with André Gil Mata and Frederico Lobo, where they produce films and run the A Nebulosa – Free Film Course in Celluloid. She is currently premiering her new feature film Vent du Matin.
Filmes
The Life We Know
Documentary, HD, 84’, 2020
Documentary, HD, 84’, 2020
The Land Makes Man
Documentary, HD, 23’, 2022
Documentary, HD, 23’, 2022
Middler
Fiction, 16mm, 3’, 2022
Fiction, 16mm, 3’, 2022
The Other
Docummentary, HD, 28’, 2023
Docummentary, HD, 28’, 2023
Frederico Lobo
Born in 1981 in Porto, Portugal. In 2006, he attended the Ateliers Varan documentary course at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, where he directed the short film Entre-Tempos, which won the Young Filmmaker Award at the Vila do Conde Short Film Festival.
Since then, he has been working in cinema. In 2008, he directed the feature film Bab Sebta (awarded at FID Marseille, DocLisboa, among other festivals), co-directed with Pedro Pinho, as well as the short film Zone d’attente #0. In 2014, he completed Revolução Industrial (premiered at the Visions du Réel festival), a new feature-length film co-directed with Tiago Hespanha. In 2017, he completed a Master’s in Cinematography at ESCAC in Barcelona.
As a director of photography, he has collaborated with Von Calhau, João Vladimiro, André Gil Mata, Callisto Mc Nulty, David Ferreira, among other filmmakers and artists. When the Land Runs Away (2024) is his most recent film and premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. In 2020, together with André Gil Mata, João Vladimiro, and Luís Palito, he co-founded the film cooperative Rua Escura CRL.
Filmes
Entre-Tempos
Fiction / DV / 13’ / 2006
Fiction / DV / 13’ / 2006
Bab Sebta
Documentary / BetaDigital / 110’ / 2008
Documentary / BetaDigital / 110’ / 2008
Industrial Revolution
Documentary / HD / 73’ / 2014
Documentary / HD / 73’ / 2014
When the Land Runs Away
Documentary / 16mm / 30’ / 2024
Documentary / 16mm / 30’ / 2024