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The world, life and work of Jaime Fernandes, a peasant born in Barcos (Beira Baixa, Portugal), who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 38 and interned in a sanatorium in Lisbon, Hospital Miguel Bombarda, where he died at the age of 69. When he was 65-years-old he started to paint and during the short period of life-time until his death he made a brilliant pictorial work, influenced by the social environment and the sanatorium daily-life. In conjunction with Margarida Cordeiro, Portuguese filmmaker António Reis made feature films attempting to fathom the “real culture“ of their native land. The result was four beautifully photographed, almost dialog-free works in which the land itself took precedence over traditional notions of narrative. Most of these naturalistic, experimental stories were designed to contrast the pastoral beauty found in the mundane activities of rural women to the frenetic, male-dominated lives of those living in filthy, over- mechanized cities. Before entering the film industry, Reis had established himself as a noted, self-taught artist and poet. His interest in film began in the late 1950s when Reis collaborated with the Group of Experimental Cinema of the Cineclube do Porto to makeAuto da Floripes/The Floripes Play (1959). He then made two short documentaries in the early ’60s. Through the decade, Reis occasionally lectured at the Escola de Cinema at the Conservatório Nacional. Reis teamed up with psychiatrist Margarida Codeiro in the early ’70s. They made their first film together, Jaime in 1973. by Sandra Brennan in AllMovie- Director: António Reis Assistant director: Margarida M. Cordeiro Director of Photography: Acácio de Almeida Sound: João Diogo Sound assistant: Margarida M. Cordeiro Music: Louis Armstrong, Stockhausen, Telemann Film Editor: António Reis Assistant Film Editor: Margarida Martins Cordeiro Production: Centro Português de Cinema / Telecine-Moro Producer: Henrique Espírito Santo With funds by: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Shooting: 1973 Premiere: Cinema Império - Lisboa, 2/05/1974 Distribution: Animatógrafo
