This video was shown on the occasion of the launch of the book “Esta Noite Sonhei com a Crise” (Last Night I Dreamed of the Crisis), during a tribute held in his honor at ISCTE on April 19, 2013.
That day, my father would have turned 80.
When I first considered making a documentary about him, he was spending much of his time in the Alto Alentejo. The physical distance, on one hand, and the closeness that comes from a son filming his father (and vice versa), on the other, didn’t make it easy to start our conversations for the documentary on a regular basis.
I began by recording some public events in which he participated and filmed a conversation at home between him and his lifelong friend since the days of the GIS (Social Research Office) on Rua do Quelhas: José Manuel Rolo. It was an interview for the journal Análise Social, based on an open, unstructured conversation. I don’t recall him ever having entrusted something similar to anyone before.
Over the years, I also filmed several trips we took together—one in which he accompanied me to Nacala and the Island of Mozambique, and others where he “took” me along, such as to Brazil, Goa, and India.
As his health began to deteriorate, I realized it was too late. Making a documentary about one’s own father is never an easy task, but doing so amid worsening illness is even more difficult.
In addition to a website where he published some of his writings, he prepared one final book, selecting texts and chronicles during the final stage of his life. This became the possible and meaningful commitment, made real thanks to the dedication, unconditional support, and tremendous effort of Cláudia Freire, who oversaw the editing of that final book: Esta Noite Sonhei com a Crise.
He completed it just a few months before he passed away, on March 15, 2013. Therefore, he wasn’t present for its launch, which took place at the school he founded, ISCTE, on what would have been his 80th birthday: April 19 of the same year.
Between those two dates, I rolled up my sleeves. With the material I had gathered over time and with Cláudia Freire’s invaluable collaboration, we created the documentary Mário Murteira: A Learning Man, which premiered at the book launch.
So much was left unsaid, undone. We tried, within the circumstances, to capture the man—or as he put it himself, “the learning man”, a title that would become the name of the film.
He used to say:
“The ‘Learning Man’ is one who knows that life is an endless opportunity for learning.
And who walks that path with conviction,
with determination,
with integrity.”
And that’s exactly what he did.