Alexia Fernandes (she/they/he) is a Portuguese and French screenwriter-director. Graduated in 2011, they specialize in film production at the Lisbon School of Technology, Innovation and Creation.
Their short films have been nominated at prestigious events such as Fantasporto, the Lisbon and Sintra Film Festival and the Faro International Film Festival. In addition, their scripts were recognized by the Maison des Scénaristes, which led them to participate in the annual meeting between authors and producers during the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2019.
For approximately three decades, Alexia Fernandes resided in three distinct countries and cultures. They lived life in France, their country of birth and where the father emigrated in 1970; Portugal, where the parents returned in 2000; and Germany, where they have made their home since 2014. Since 2023, they have chosen to divide their time between Berlin and Leiria.
SYNOPSIS
Amid societal pressures to conform, a protagonist struggles to fit into predetermined roles. Yet, through a journey of self-discovery, they confront the constraints of conformity, navigating the complex dynamics of identity and societal norms.
statement
Created as a poem about the inherent relationship between identity and normativity, Olhares is a visual journey that takes us into the realm of our emotions. A dreamlike moment where realizing how unique and intertwined each of our feelings is becomes essential to who we are as a whole.
Inspired by the book Le Partage Social des Emotions (Rimé, 2005), Olhares illustrates a scene of a social chain, where the emotional experience itself changes as the story progresses from person to person. the other. In an effort to delve deeper into the effects that sharing complex emotional situations can have on a societal climate, I intended to embody what it feels like when the individual is humiliated and the identity of a group is strengthened.
Almost all captured in two sequence shots, the emphasis is on the dispersion that occurs in movement rather than contrast in binary perspective. By bridging polarized viewpoints, Olhares presents a time when our personal lives are becoming political imperatives, forcing us to reevaluate what constitutes our inner world.