Premiere "Out of Scene" | Documentary by Henrique Prudêncio

M6 108 minutes Free entry Out of Scene observes the daily life of ArQuente, an amateur theater company where art is a territory of freedom conquered day by day. Here, each rehearsal is a choice: a hobby that transforms into a laboratory of self-discovery and unbounded creation. However, as the new work is prepared, the deadline for the premiere runs out without tangible results. During the process, we observe the coexistence of divergent motivations and the growing tension between individual visions and the demands of the collective, even questioning the necessity of having a show.

Note of intentions: Gil, the director of this play, jokingly says at the end of this film that I ended up with this surreal documentary unfinished. And for many years, I thought so too. What initially was just a film to portray a process of a play from January to May ended up extending into a therapeutic laboratory for its participants over a year. None of us were ready for that, with various difficulties felt during the filming process in having a fixed team without remuneration and motivation. Many times I found myself asking why I was filming that drifting group. However, I knew that, eventually, there would be a conflict. The tensions within the group were noticeable. Some wanted to be there to push their own limits, others wanted to present and contribute to an audience. And when António, our protagonist, leaves the rehearsal midway, I was grateful to have had the patience after 9 months to discover what I was filming. This is a film about artistic processes. What leads a group to come together and want to present a play? Is it worth presenting something when there is nothing to say? Is the collective more important or the individual? All these are questions I find pertinent and that took me 6 years to edit the film, six years later. The theater is very important to me. As I grew up, it was a constant in my life, whether in a school, amateur, or professional context. And I always had the selfish feeling of feeling good, of missing it, of the suffering and euphoria it causes. Presenting to an audience was a secondary process and a duty to fulfill. As an actor, that was not what interested me. I wanted to explore and break my limits. Therefore, I empathize with this group from ArQuente, who, without taboos and without shame, talk about that selfishness and explore it. They assume what so few people do. But what I find an interesting dichotomy is that I felt that empathy while mentally reproaching them for using a wonderful space, for having a phenomenal group and presenting nothing. That affected me, psychologically and physically. During this process, in these 6 years, I was extremely divided about what to think of the group, its director, and this film. I was afraid to conclude it because I feared not understanding them. Conveying this dichotomy then.