A Dama de Chandor | The Lady of Chandor
Catarina Mourão | 1998
Betacam SP colour | 68'

[Synopsis]
Thirty-five years after it’s independence from the Portuguese colonial rule, Goa is definitely a state of many contrasts. Together with a strong migrating Hindu population, there is still a Portuguese speaking minority which seems somewhat frozen in nostalgia and kept in a strange time limbo.
Aida, the Lady of Chandor, lives alone in Goa. At 82 years of Age she devotes each day to caring for her beautiful old house, a house which has survived three centuries of Portuguese colonial rule. Without the Lady of Chandor the house will die. Without the house Aida would loose her reason for living. But inside this house time moves in a magical way and both the house and the Lady of Chandor seem immortal.

[Credits]
Direction: Catarina Mourão
Photography: João Ribeiro
Sound: Armanda Carvalho
Edited by: Catarina Mourão and Pedro Duarte
Production: Sp Filmes/Pedro C. Martins
Director of Production: Julie Taylor

[Awards]
Award António Reis for Best Documentary (Portugal, 1998)
Mention of Honour by the Federação Nacional de Cineclubes in the IX Encontros Internacionais de Cinema Documental da Malaposta (Portugal, 1998)
Best Script in the 8th International Festival of Etnographic Film of Belgrad (Yugoslavia, 1999)
Prize for Cinema Revelation by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, Prémio Aurélio da Paz dos Reis (Portugal, 1998)

[Exhibitions]
Museu Nacional de Etnologia - Lisbon, Portugal (September 1999)
IXºs Encontros Internacionais de Cinema Documental - Loures, Portugal (November 1998)
International Film Festival of Bucareste - Hungary (January 1999)
Cinemateca Portuguesa no ciclo O Novo Documentário - Lisbon, Portugal (April 1999)
Festival Internacional de Cinema de Cabo Verde - Cape Verde (May 1999)
Teatro Rivoli - Oporto, Portugal (June 1999)
Bienal de arte da Maia - Maia, Portugal (July 1999)
8th International Festival of Etnographic Film of Belgrad (Jugoslavia 1999)
Film Festival of Turin (November 1999)
Auditório da FNAC do Chiado - Lisbon, Portugal (February 2000)
Cinema King - Lisbon, Portugal (April 2000)
International Festival of Etnographic Film of Gottingen - Germany (May 2000)
Festival International du Nouveau Cinema et des Nouveaux Medias - Montréal, Canada (October, 2002)
RTP 2 - Portuguese Public Television (March 1999 and March 2001)