© Manuel Dias / SAAL Olhão

JOÃO DIAS – SAAL Operations

CCL – Centro Cultural de Lagos
Thu 1 AGO, 21h30

Documentary / PT (2007)

Operations SAAL is the most complete, extensive and emotionally rich document of a critical period of Portugal and of its recent history.
In 1974 / 75, a housing project gathered architects and people in a unique and revolutionary initiative. The poor conquered houses that themselves would build, and the Portuguese architecture gave a step without precedents that affirmed its value inside and outside doors.
Thirty years later, the filmed memories of the actors of these processes help to understand the social and cultural impact of Operations SAAL, while an extensive collection of documents allows a reflection on the paths that architecture and urbanism traveled since then.
Some of the best known projects are Meia Praia-Lagos, Bairro da Bouça-Oporto and Bairro da Liberdade-Lisbon, involving names of the architecture such as Siza Vieira, Souto Moura or Manuel Vicente, among others.

João Dias Born in Faro in 1976, photographer, he became known to audiences with the documentary SAAL Operations (2007), shown commercialy by Midas in 2009 – a movie about the construction brigades for “decent houses for the people” involving architects and local communities in 1974/75.
The author regards himself as a “localist” and mentions the importance of Edgar Pêra and Pedro Costa (with whom he worked with between 1998 and 2009) in his self taught education.