"Oh, you're going to Corvo?" "It's an extraordinary island, in Azores, on the west rather on the northwest..." "Yes, it's crazy." "I am not going to tell you how it is but..." "Azores it's crazy, and there, it's even crazier." "IT'S THE EARTH NOT THE MOON" " Corvo." " The island of Corvo." " Middle of the Atlantic ocean." " Azores." " An island of 7km x 4km." " 6km x 4km, 7Km x 4Km." "Inhabited in the southern end, a single village." " 440 inhabitants." " 450." " There were 900 before." " There were 300." "One crater of a volcano:" "The "Caldeirão"." "One road." " One Municipal Council." " One airport." " One landing strip 800m long." " One plane three times a week." " One health centre." " One fire station." "The Holy House of Mercy, one nursery, one school." " One harbour." " One church." "One restaurant." "Two coffee shops." "Three..." "We are going to film everything we can." "We will try to be everywhere at the same time and not miss a thing." "We will try to meet everyone." " To film every face." " To film every service, every house." "Every street." " Every work place." " And every corner of the island." "Every tree, every field." " Every cow." " Every pig." "Every rock, every bird." "Every music, every night." "From the island of Corvo, you can also see the moon." "Corvo is on earth, not on the moon." "CHAPTER 1" "You don't have to make slow motion, it's done." "My bedroom is facing east." "Two minutes away from the docks." "This road takes us to the fields." "We leave the village using the main road, pass the pitch, and go up until you reach the lookout." "This is where everyone takes a picture of the village." "While waiting for the airplane we find Óscar Nunes, the old Corvo's corporal." "Óscar is the first person opening the door for us, inviting us to his place." "And he told us about his personal journal." "He wrote it for over forty years, about his life on Corvo." "With over 8,000 entries that he destroyed." "This is Corvo from far away, when we arrive from a certain angle, at sea." "It's this shape in all of Corvo, the lower side and the upper side on the other point." "Cargo and inspect the taxation of all revenues." "Here's the one that started to have engines." "This is the maker of the engine." "I kept a journal for all the traffic in the harbour, from my time as corporal, from the first to the last day." "And we don't need all these things..." "Notes, small sentences, reminders, records." "The boat such and such arrived..." "Or, the first day of electricity." "25th September of 1983, the first plane in Corvo." "23rd August of 1945, a Zeppelin flew by Corvo." "Up in the village, take the main road until you find a sign that says:" ""Corvo handicraft"." "Her name is Inês Inês, because she married Mendonça Inês, José Mendonça Inês." "Good afternoon." "Are you alright?" "Where do you keep your designs?" "You've said 2007 and it's 2008." "These gentlemen are here to see them." "Do you remember where you put them?" "You didn't use a model?" "She says she did it by heart." "Yes, I'll see if they can make an eight." "She says that you have to draw an eight..." "Your name first, then 2008 Corvo." "Or is it Corvo first?" " That's it." " Your name first," "Gonçalo 2008 Corvo." "These are ancient manoeuvres." "I have to pass the thread here." " Is this the one?" " Yes, please." "Where do you want me to put it?" "Too bad I didn't start earlier, but I didn't know how you wanted it." "Oh for God's sake..." "The first round is always hard, even the stitches come out of the needle." "This is an old woman's thing, the young ones don't want this anymore." "It's something that will disappear soon." "Just like it happened to weaving." "There used to be lots of weaving here, but now it's over." "All the young girls weaved." "It was what I did the most when I was young..." "Do you have photos of..." " Old ones?" " With that kind of cap?" "Old photos?" "I have one, but I don't know where the book is..." "A priest gave it to me in São Miguel, when I was there." "There was a bunch of men sitting in that place called Outeiro, in a stool." "They all had their cap and their staff on." "But they're not even from my time." "Old photos..." "They wore it on their heads." "But they were barefooted." " They climbed the hills and all?" " Yes." "It was like that in my time!" "I used to walk barefooted a lot." "Someday when you'll wear this cap you'll say:" ""An old woman of 75 years made it for me in Corvo."" "It will stay in your memory." "Yes, it will stay on my head." "CHAPTER 2" "Sorry, we're late..." "What?" "Well..." "Is it on?" "It's like this..." "Good afternoon!" "How are you, since yesterday?" "Excuse me, I'll seat..." "There's always the chance that someone hits this with an axe and breaks in." "And it stays on the door." "This locks up the door, then the key is pulled off and it locks." "But I never understood why there were door locks on an island and on a village where there weren't any robberies and where everybody knows each other." "I remember him saying that there were no robberies, but that... a watermelon or something like that could disappear." "She said that the cap was connected with the whalers." "It were the men from Corvo that learned to knit the cap when they went to America in the whalers." "They learned during the resting days... when they were not hunting whales, and learned from the Scottish sailors." "And when they came back to the island they brought it with them made some changes, put the pom-pom on the top and everybody started using it." "Corvo it's written here." " 2008 it's correct." " Corvo?" "But this is." " This isn't Corvo, it's Gonçalo!" " Oh yes, it's Gonçalo..." "Corvo it's correct..." "Corvo it's written all over." "So I have to begin with..." "I made a mistake, I messed up." "I have to start from scratch and leave this one." "The G has to be where the O is?" "If you don't mind that it stays like this, I'll keep going." " This way is mirrored, do you mind?" " No, I don't mind." " Ok, can I do the rest?" " No, it's no good anymore!" "If someone kills Gonçalo, people will say:" "Look!" "It's him, the one with the cap from Corvo!" "Yes, it's very dangerous outside here." "In Corvo there's still no trouble, but you never know." " No, there is still no crime in Corvo." " You never know!" "Everything ok?" "There's nobody..." "See you soon..." "Take it easy..." "Fooled you!" "Even if you take that way there's a dog and he can get loose." " And now I'm allergic to dogs!" " Now?" "I'll punch you!" "Let's go!" "Ok!" "Hand on your belly!" "Weren't we going to practice..." "Weren't we going to practice the U, the A, the I?" "No!" "You know that already." "When you open your throat wide your tonsils go up when you say X." "What are tonsils?" " The things in your throat." " I've not learned that yet." "I'm only in the third grade." "How can I have learned that?" "No, you don't have to learn it." "Come on!" "Come on..." "Longer." " But I can't." " What?" " I can't." " Yes you can." "Come on." "Now you sing the highest note but your throat can't go up." "The more it goes up the worst it sounds." "Ok." "Now you breathe A in the end and then say E..." "You can't sleep?" " You can't sleep?" " No." "The sea has been choppy for the last three days." "Yesterday at the cafe I didn't get all of Joca's story." "He said that he arrived in Corvo a year ago, two?" "He said he arrived a year ago." " Just like that, without knowing anyone?" " Yes." "It's tasteless." " Do you feel it in your throat?" " No." "You're eating it raw..." "But..." "Doesn't it burn?" "It burns a bit." " Just a bit?" " Well..." "This is the old fashion way, and it will die like this." " Did you get the beer?" " I'm not going there..." "Just look at our harbor..." "Forget it..." "You can't fool around with this pier." "The one in the back is a good one." "Eh!" "It's all white on the top, look at that." "That one went over the higher point of the pier." "You should have filmed the top of the pier." "Because this one went over, for sure." "Here it seems that the sea is calm." "And it is, outside." "This was nothing." "Last year the highest part of the pier was all covered." "You couldn't even see the pier..." "It was on February, if I'm right." "Here you have another." "Another view." "It's more beautiful here." "I heard that the front of the pier is loose." " What?" " It's all loose." " I heard it the other day." " Loose?" "No." "Hey sport, in 20 minutes you have to go to the scouts." "At four o'clock?" "Some days you just can't tell if this is really a pier or not." "You won't stop until you destroy that shit!" "Put that away" "There were many difficult waves there." "Bow near the pier." "Never put the bow forward." "You wish!" "Near the pier wall, by the second tire..." "Always!" "Like many, one after the other." "Look at this one, for instance." "Coming all the way in?" "Look at that!" "This was a big one!" "Rough sea is what you see here." "Look here at the waves in the pier." "Look at the waves here." "Look at this!" "It came all the way up here." "It was all white." "You can't see the pier in that one!" "It was really bad that day..." "We couldn't even see the stairs on the pier!" "The wave crossed over the stairs and turned everything into white." "CHAPTER 3" "Today we're leaving the village." "I've talked to Baptista." "We're going up to the fields." "They'll gather at the common lands." "The dog sees me coming here and gets all happy... wanting to go for a walk." "Shut up!" "My stomach hurts me so much!" "Eugénio, what time is it?" "11:30 am." "If we harvest up to 1 pm, we can leave whatever remains to be done." "Not up to 1 pm, we are going to harvest up until 3 pm." " That's too much." " Since we're already here..." "And you want to kill the ones at home, let's go." "With my gas tank I can harvest for three hours." " I have gas." " I have gas too." "And the island is out of gas!" "Usually the milk goes to the cheese factory to make the Corvo's cheese." "There's also those who make it at home." "Just a few..." "And we've heard of Maria Luísa." "She said to come later by her house at "Matriz" street, after the milking." "She has a small hut where she makes the cheese." "Right next to her house." "Is it good?" "That liquid is whey." "But now in the summer it's best to leave it so that they become." "More softer, more buttery." "This is done until tomorrow." "I stopped making cheese." " Did you really?" " Yes, I don't do it anymore." "I have some cheese already riped to eat during the year, but..." "I don't have milk so I'm not making any more." "But cheeses are like babies except they don't weep." "I have to take care of them just like babies." "It's done, this is all of it." "We have to put some love and caring in everything we do, and things will come out alright, or else everything can go wrong." "We have to put some love into everything we do, so it gets well done." "I'm 63 years old and this is my way." "I think that it's a good way." "Everyone should do it the same way." "It's written in English." "CHAPTER 4" "Come in, please." "The runway goes from here to there." "We come from the beach, through here, this is pebble, and here you have sand, it's a sandy beach." ""Lages da Baleia" is here and "Canto do Incenso" there." "Where it is said to exist a second volcano." "The first volcano was the "Caldeirão", and this was told by some geologists who walked around the island." "That this bay here, this one here, used to be much larger and it's smaller now." "On the left of the fallow land we take another path, a dust path, and we leave the car by the artificial lagoon." "Then we look up:" "It's the "Morro dos Homens"." "Then we have to climb through the peat moss, until we reach the top of the hill." "They say it's the highest peak in Corvo." "It's 718m high." " We can see the whole island from there." " The cliffs by the sea." "There aren't many islands that we can see all around." "There's never the feeling that we're not in the middle of the ocean." "The view over the "Caldeirão"." ""Poço de Água" creek." ""Cantinho" creek." ""Entre as Cancelas" creek." "We head off from Caldeirão across the main road, towards the village, and we find a dirt track, in construction, the eastern road." "And before we arrive to João de Moura's high we pass by four or five creeks that pummel down the cliff." "Dry creeks, where there's water only when it rains." "There are only a few places in Corvo with trees." "Endemic plants..." "The whole island used to be covered with vegetation." "Yes, before men arrived." "Isn't it wonderful?" "So, I don't know which day is today." " It's the 10th, I think." " The 10th of which month?" "October?" "September?" "September 10th?" "So, today is Monday." "No, today is Sunday..." "So, maybe it's the 9th." "The first person from the dance company to arrive in Corvo was Wes, 10 years ago." "He came from America, in his schooner and passed between Flores and Corvo." "And he stopped in Flores." "There, he asked:" ""What's that island in front?"" "They told him it wasn't worth visiting, there were only primitives there." "He found that interesting and came to Corvo." "He traveled around the island by foot." "He was the one who found the face of the Indian carved in the rock." "Then he founded an association and organizes artistic residencies in Corvo." "And they seldom come to the village..." "They told me there was an Austrian guy who tried to live outside the village." "Whereabouts?" "Next to the cliff of "Pão de Açúcar"." "Did he stay there?" "For a while." "Then he left." "CHAPTER 5" "Give it rope!" "Come here." "Hold that one and the one in front we'll use it later." "We'll use it on the table." "The left hand comes first!" "Come here." "Calm down!" " We are calm!" " Calm down Aurélio, you are very stressed." "Come here, you devil!" "Wait, wait." "Let go of the rope." "Come on, pull Zé Emílio!" "Hold that hand down, João!" "You don't have to hold that foot." "You don't need to hold there." "You must make it slowly so that it doesn't get ruined." "A few stitches, some rounds..." "Guess what we've filmed this morning?" "A pig slaughter." " Was there a pig slaughter today?" " Today." " At someone's house or here in the?" " It was at Pereira's house." "At his house." "A pig slaughter like in the past." "Like old times, now it's all done in the slaughterhouse." "But they weren't the only ones..." "It's called Our Lady of the Graces." "It's quite a wonderworker." "It stays 24 hours at each person's house and it's very pretty." "Shall we go?" " It's lovely, isn't it?" " It's beautiful!" "Very beautiful!" "I am going to take it to Teresinha's house now." "Each house has it for 24h and the person who's holding it has to take it to the next place." "We pray for her..." "Teresinha!" "Good Lord, they're following me like a bunch of fools!" " Tadeu." " Sérgio." "Pimentel." "Baptista." " Fraga." " The Pimentel grandson" "Edmundo, Filipe." "Aurélio." " Xavier." " João Branco." "João?" "Amândio." "The man from the Holy Mercy house." "Malhoa." "José Manuel Nunes." "Guilherme." "Alfredo." "José Alves." "Baptista said that, even farther back, they'd push the cattle one by one into the boat." "With their shoulders..." "They're in action!" "They're pulling the tail, as they do with the bulls." "Those cows are all around 500kg, and 600kg, 700kg." "The ones we saw today weren't like that?" " No!" "I don't know if they had any..." "but those are rare." "Where on earth was this?" "I have no idea..." "It was somewhere." "Is it near the village?" "Good grief!" "I'm dressed up for the mass in this one!" "This cap I'm wearing..." "I have relatives in America that send them here." "I always wear this stuff." "No, this was a bunch of years ago." "Good grief!" "What did Baptista get himself into?" "This one is for morning, this one is for dinner." "I don't like this, because sometimes this is like a bone in their belly." "Baptista laughs about the old stories from Corvo, when there was no gasoline nor cars." "And the parcels coming from America with t-shirts and jeans." "And that story about the ship's barber, the wannabe banker, who kept the money under his barber's chair and would trade dollars for escudos." "And the cow from Corvo, which was a bit smaller and that doesn't exist anymore." "And of the time when there were 8,000 heads of sheep in the island." "He said that the day of the shearing was beautiful." "He always says that the greatest wealth of Corvo are the common lands." "Uncle Pedro!" "You have to come here!" " Let me see." " Here?" "Came for the money?" "The allowance." "Uncle Pedro is the oldest person in Corvo." "How old are you Uncle Pedro?" "Ninety..." "How old?" "Ninety." "Your age Uncle Pedro?" "!" " I don't have..." " You didn't bring the hearing device?" "Like that, you can't hear." " Write it down!" "Your age?" "Age..." ""How old are you?" 94!" "We had heard a lot about him, before we got here." "And we wanted to hear him playing." "He hasn't played in a while." "He ran up the stairs and didn't give us time to prepare..." "Now you!" " Now it's your turn!" " Oh, no..." "CHAPTER 6" "Pimentel's niece once told me something during dinner." "She said that there was an event that marked the end of the whaling." "Or rather, that shortly after that story, the whaling was over in Corvo." "Sit here..." "Sit on the chair." "So that you can see." " Is it over?" " Yes" "Ah, there's something I wanted you to see..." "But when you had... when you were a whaler, you had no cattle, right?" " What?" " When you were a whaler..." "I did!" "I even got to... to tie the cattle to the wall with a rope and... when the rocket signal went up to go after the whale!" "Sometimes we'd kill 7 or 8 whales a day." "To earn 2,000 escudos per year." "Bloody hell!" "Some whales were dangerous, they'd turn against the boat." "Damned!" "Is that what happened?" "It's a brave creature." "Ah, blasted life!" "I don't like to speak about those matters." "No, my brother-in-law died and I've never wanted whale again." "It's over." "Did you know that when the vessels used to come to Corvo... right until the 50s, they would come here 4, 5, 6 times a year, the day the vessels arrived was a holiday in Corvo." "It was the day of "Saint Steam"." "That furry animal is hanging from that stick there!" "When you finish this you can say that I'm the second oldest man in Corvo." " Take it with you." " What's your name?" "My name?" "Fernando Duarte Costa." "I was a born in 1916, on the 25th of March of 1916." "I got married on the 15th of March..." "On the 15th of February, sorry, on the 15th of February of of 1941!" "It was hard to say..." "I've been married for 66 years." "Do you want me to say more lies?" "Do you?" "Did you like to watch the whales in the sea?" "Did I?" "I still dream of them." "I still dream of them, many times." "You also asked him if... if he wanted to go to the fields with us, to the whale-watching post." "He was the one who gave warning when the whales came." "But he said no." "That he never went back there." "It will be hard for me to see." "My sight is weak." "Ok?" "Yes, keep this rolling to see if I can understand something of it." "You will, just wait a moment." "Relax." "Can you see now?" "I do, but I can't understand what I'm seeing..." " Fern leaves." " I can see this in white..." " Don't touch!" " It's ok!" " No, it's not!" " That's made of glass..." "It's ok." "But you can't touch there." " No." "You can't also touch the glass." "No." "Here is where you change it." "There's some grass, here." "I don't know what that is..." "You must explain this so that I can..." " Wait!" " There's the sea!" "More sea." "The sky was grey here." "Full of clouds..." "Look!" "Hydrangeas!" "And this?" "Where is this?" "It's been a while since I've been there!" "I don't know where it is..." " It's the whale-watching post!" " You've worked there." "Wasn't it the whale-watching post?" "It didn't look like it to me." "It is." "These are fern in the walls." "Look, the window facing down." "These are spider webs." "More spider webs." "And now?" "Now I can see that it's the whale-watching post." " It's the post in João de Moura's peak." " Yes it is!" "But I didn't stand watch there." "It was made of wood." "It looks like a chimney, right?" " It's the whale-watching post!" " No, it doesn't have a chimney!" "Yes it does, now it has." "It didn't have but now it does." "How come?" " Who made it?" " I don't know!" "The whale-watching post doesn't have a chimney!" "Oh, my father in law..." "Ah, it's written there:" "Whale-watching post." "Yes!" "That's the whale-watching post and the chimney is there since I've been working in the cheese factory." "It wasn't there, before." " Ah!" "I understand, now..." "The sky was pretty dark there." "We used to wait 'till it cleared up." "Sometimes in the morning it was very dark, and then it would clear up." "They go by slowly..." "The wind is weak, for sure." "I would be at the post by dawn and came back at 4 pm." "But if you saw a whale you would come back later." "But if you saw a whale you would come back later." " By foot?" " Yes, by foot." "And my colleagues couldn't figure how I did those things." "And they were surprised." "They didn't understand how I used to do it." "The watchman in Lage das Flores post used to say that I was convinced that I could see the whales under the sea." "And then..." "I would sit like this for hours." "In the days that I saw a whale" "I wouldn't even get up." "Hour after hour." "CHAPTER 7" "Beautiful." "He is from Norway, this son of a bitch... this composer." "But we need a table." "We need a piano, but they say that maybe for Christmas..." "But how did you find Corvo?" "I didn't understand that yet." "I've been in Africa for a long time." "When I got to Germany the sky fell in." "Everything's too straight." "When I got back to Germany I couldn't live there anymore..." " The rules..." " Yes..." "Everything's straight, everything's clean, there's no... freedom!" "Then I said: "In Europe, but the furthest point possible."" "And then you got to Corvo, the furthest point in Europe." "What?" "Are we done?" "Help yourself..." "Life is like a patchwork." "Patchwork quilts are pretty too." "Do you know patchwork quilts?" "To me, a patchwork quilt is pretty." "I've been sewing my little patchwork quilt, trying to sew each piece of cloth very tightly." "And if you pay attention to decoration we must still find something to contrast with everything else." "Yesterday you told me about those dreams of..." "Of levitation." "My subconscious is so heavy that sometimes I dream that I am rising up in the air... therefore, levitating, and that everybody is looking at me." "I have a hard time passing through, it was worse those days..." "I had a hard time passing through the electric grid... the telegraph wires..." "And everyone's looking at me and I would feel myself in a field of superiority." "That was what..." "A zeppelin that came here during the 2nd World War, flying very low..." "And I was so scared, so I hid behind a pile of rocks." "But then everything becomes..." "its opposit." "And I wanted to walk in the air too." "I've hoarded so much, I've written so much..." "This is all a mess now, you see." "When one loses the fundamental things, and my health is not so good these days..." "That was why I burnt my journal..." "that I had kept all my life." "But did you really burn it all?" "That's it... my friends." "Thank you, Oscar, for everything..." "Such a big archive on Corvo that was gone..." "Over 40 years of history." "When he was Corporal, Óscar used to come here often, to the docks of "Boqueirão", to welcome the boats about to arrive." "CHAPTER 8" "to welcome the boats about to arrive." "Can you see, up there?" "That day, it would come from the air almost to the middle of the rock." "It's getting stronger now." "Yes, it is..." "It's growing." "The one on this side... it hasn't reached the bottom yet... but it will." "But it's running quite strong." "I messed up." "I shouldn't have left." "But I'm a very stubborn guy..." "Whenever I do something wrong..." "I never try to mend it..." "Even if it costs everything." "That's the most confusing bit of my life." "The longer I leave it, the more I put it off, you know?" "But, Gonçalo, there isn't any guy..." "I would like you to meet my daughter one day." "Did I show you the pictures I got around New Year?" "No." "I'm planning to buy a few frames for them." "It was her Christmas gift." "Let me see..." "Ah, here they are." " She's just sent them?" " Yes, by Christmas." "Now she is like this." "And this is our living room..." "This is how a guy realizes that he's getting fucking old." "The sea makes us older." "The salt and the sun." "Especially the sun." "There was a birdie like that one, it lasted months, it wouldn't leave me alone." "It would follow me up to the "Ponta do Marco"." "It would always follow me, I knew it well." "The sea was better in the afternoon." "Up there we're almost a mile and a half offshore." "It was there that I caught the 46kg one" "It was the male." "The female is still there, no one caught it yet." "But it was adrift, it was not anchored." "Don't you hear the engine?" "We had already picked the anchor." "There was no fish..." "The line was loose..." "Maybe we'll catch an Atlantic wreckfish now." "Yes... it's a wee wreckfish, about 6 or 7 kg." "That wreckfish was a female, the lower jaw is longer and sharper." "I just caught a wee wreckfish!" "A wreckfish..." "Around here." "I will harness here again." "I will harness again!" "Why don't people fish here at night?" "Well, because..." "I did spend nights out here." "This kind of fishing has nothing to do with what they do in the continent." "Did you know how to fish before you came to Corvo?" "Not this kind of fishing." "Nor had I ever imagined it would be like this." "I just came to see what was Corvo all about." "Ah, we arrived by night already." "In January, around 6 or 7 pm it's night already." "You came here to see how things were?" "How so?" "How the lifestyle over here was," "I knew it was quiet, I had heard about that." "But I didn't mean to stay in Corvo." "But since I'm here, I stay." "Now all I have is here." "But I have my daughter and my wife over there..." "My wife who isn't my wife anymore, but to me she'll always be." "But, I'm not going to say:" ""I want that for myself"" "God forbid I'd do such a thing!" "Did you leave everything behind?" "I left everything." "CHAPTER 9" "CORVO MUNICIPAL COUNCIL" "Do you want me to show you some more?" "No, we'll look at them one by one." "So that you can explain them a little bit as well." "More or less like that." "It's enough, isn't it?" " Is that the library?" " Yes." "Is it being built now?" " We are going to start now?" " Yes, yes..." "I'm just filming this." "We also have another project that I think is fundamental for the development of the island." "It is a multi-purpose venue where it will be possible... to show movies," "to stage theatre performances, gigs," "all sort of cultural activities." "Sadly, we don't have a place like that in the island at the moment." "The building holds 150 people and... it also has a parking lot." "Ah, and I forgot to mention:" "It will also have a bar, obviously." "It's going to be quite expensive, but we rely on the good will of..." "We already have the word of the of the regional Mayor, who is going to help us out in every way he can so that we can build the facility." "Which, I repeat, I think is a fundamental thing to do." "Thank you." "Cut!" "Look at us, so young!" "Where did you find these?" "We were so many..." "The "Rodrigues"..." "Ah, a whole family in the Philarmonic, It's not easy." "What a beautiful souvenir you brought me!" "And then..." "The tune was very well played." "It gave me goose bumps..." "I almost cried!" " It was a thrilling moment..." "Baptise me, Lord, with your Spirit" "Baptise me, Lord, with your Spirit" "And may I be filled With the fire of your love" "Here in my heart O Lord" "Clara Sofia, you are now a new creature." "You are in the destiny of Christ." "Receive the light of Christ." "And you, parents and godparents, you have been entrusted with this light so that Clara Sofia, enlightened by Christ, may always walk as a child of the light." "The community welcomes the new Christian." "Give her a round of applause!" "CHAPTER 10" ""ARCOS ARCHIVE" ""Around 12 am." "Note" ""Ariel docked at the wharf of Corvo" ""on the 17th of September 2008." ""Ariel was christened upon arrival." ""Her godmother was Andrea Filipa Medeiros Proença," ""9 years old," ""4th grade's best student at Mouzinho da Silveira's school, in Corvo." ""My little friends, girls and boys standing here with us," ""and all the others who take part in the christening ceremony" ""of the new motor launch called Ariel." ""It will hold regular passengers services" ""between the islands of Corvo and Flores." ""Until now, as you know, there wasn't any kind of maritime public transportation in Corvo."" ""Ariel is the name of a series of scientific artificial satellites" ""designed in England, and launched by the United States." ""It's funny, after the motor launch arrived to Corvo," ""Ariel 5 also reached the Earth."" "Oh, leave the saint." "Don't take the saint down!" "It doesn't matter having the CDU thingy there as well." " I'll put it close to the saint." " I've been giving interviews." "I've been giving interviews... and it doesn't need anything from CDU." "I've given many." "I even went to São Miguel!" "I get one half of him and it's done." "I left the cheese factory in May this year." "Because of the lack of salaries, as you might know, we complained a lot." "That's when I read those books, that stuff from the political parties..." "I realized that CDU (Comunist Party) Was important in our lives, in the lives of our children." "Therefore, I decided to run for the CDU party." "For the improvement of Corvo." "For instance, the cheese factory..." "The workers and the engineer..." "Everyone quit their job at the cheese factory!" "I was the first one, and then they all came after." "I thought it was going to close down so that they wouldn't have to pay their employees." "But that wasn't the case." "Here's what happened instead:" "The workers quit and they hired two people with no experience whatsoever..." "Now tell me something..." "If there is no money... to pay the people that quit..." "Not me, they paid me up to the last dime." "But the others, the engineer and all the rest..." "If there's no money to pay them where will they find the money to pay the two people they have there now?" "On top of everything they throw milk away." "They didn't know how to work with the machinery," "They didn't know how to make the cheese..." "And now, what do you think?" "Wouldn't it be better to have paid people, and the engineer, a faultless man, who had the right training, instead of having all that mess there, God knows how?" "The people from Corvo don't want their cheese anymore." "And other things in Corvo need improvement." "For example." "When parents are working." "The president of the Council, the government... tons of promises, Gonçalo..." "What about fulfilling them?" "There's no youth center." "Parents work until six, seven in the evening." "Children leave school at 4:45 pm, sometimes at 4 pm, other times at 3 pm." "Where do those children go?" "To wander around?" "Why don't they build an after-school centre, just like the other islands did?" "Where they can do their homework, have activities, and learn way more." "That is what I fight for." "The tourists come over here and what will they see?" "A filthy landfill?" "Everyone goes around complaining about us!" "No." "The government promises boats and more boats." "What for?" "After the elections, the boat will be dismantled." "Will it be a boat just like the one we saw yesterday?" "No, it's going to end up like that." "Sooner or later that boat will leave Corvo." "And the food that gets here out of date, half rotten?" "We order a kitchen utility, we pay for it, and it gets here all smashed!" "Is that what the people from Corvo want?" "No, it isn't." "We don't want that." "We want to fight." "My party doesn't promise a thing." "Whatever it says, it is what it will accomplish." "No promises..." "We are fighters." "I am a woman who fought, all my life." "And I will always fight for the improvement of the people of Corvo." "Patrícia!" "Where is my flag?" "There are many left there." "No, the flag might bring bad luck." "So... there's a party going on here?" " Is that it?" " Wait!" "Here's a shirt." " It's been my party all my life." " Which one?" " The Socialist Party." " Ah, that's what matters." "Gonçalo, this is the best, man!" "Politics are the best thing on earth!" "There should be a vote every month." "You always need 5 needles." "Because 4 of them are always in use, and you need to keep an extra one." "That color was the whalers' favorite?" "Yes, it was dark blue." "Now the tourists like other colors." "People have different tastes." "Some like white, others like." "But the old favorite was dark blue." "My grandfather, for example, didn't want any other." "He didn't want any other hat besides one of these." "I've learned how to make them, so that he could wear them." " Really?" " I was 20 when he died." "I've learnt it then." "Was he a whaler?" "He wasn't." "He had been to America in one of those whaling ships, but then he came back and he was a ploughman." "This wasn't for sailors only." "Peasants..." "Everyone would wear them." "He has never been a whaler..." "Come in, please." " How have you been?" " Thank God I haven't had any pain." " We've seen each other." " How are you?" " Please, take a seat." " Thank you." "Not many people knit these days." "Years ago, people would knit a lot." "Even jackets, dresses, it was all like this." "But it's very hard to buy wool in Corvo, no one sells it... this yarn." " There's no sheep anymore!" " No sheep..." " Were there many in Corvo?" " Many, many sheep." "In general, clothing would be made out of sheep wool." "Back in the days, people would live off the earth." "Even I remember that, here in Corvo." " That's not that far back..." " No, not that far back, not for my age." "Apart from sugar, we would buy very few things." "For example, there was a vessel... 2, 3, 4, 5." "I didn't want to make a mistake..." "The vessel would come in October..." "And we would be up to February without any boat coming here." "And the weather had to be good or else it would head to the island of Flores, and it would not come here." "People would live off the earth." "We would grow beans... bread, corn, wheat..." "The pigs..." "The lard..." "Potatoes, sweet white potatoes." "Everything was off the earth." "Move to the right as well." " What?" " Edmundo?" "That's it..." " Ready when you are." " Take one!" "Can we start?" "It's a scandal the way Corvo's financial services work." "Since 2006, the services have been working on a seasonal basis, opening only a few days a month." "This means that the residents of Corvo cannot use these services and risk serious consequences in regard to the payment of their financial responsibilities." "This is a serious concern for the population of the island and it's affecting them heavily." "Ever since 2006, the Popular Monarchist Party presented this problem to the municipal assembly, we approved a motion calling the attention of the government of the Republic to a situation that is absolutely atypical, where the State is resigning from its duties in the island." "This motion was sent two years ago, and hasn't got any reply." "We also presented a document at the island council." "This document also, approved about two years ago, hasn't received any reaction from the central administration." "In the last meeting of the island council we called the attention of the regional government." "It's a responsibility of the government of the Republic, but we think that the regional council can play an important role as an intermediary taking the concerns of the citizens of Corvo to the government of the Republic." "But the president of the regional government has showed no interest regarding this issue." "And how are we going to solve this?" "The government of the Republic doesn't answer, and the regional government doesn't care." "What democracy is this, where one doesn't have the chance to put forward neither the arguments nor the complaints regarding a service that isn't working?" "The State is resigning from its responsibilities!" "This we cannot accept, and this we will fight against in the regional parliament." "On the first week after my election" "I plan to travel to Lisbon and present myself to solve this problem." "And I won't leave until I am heard, nor until they give me answers..." "Why do they act this way and why do they have abandoned the island of Corvo." " Is that it?" " That's it." "Wow, that's great!" "He's getting better..." "Jorge told us to drop by his place later on." "Do you know for how long he has been working for RTP here?" "I think it was shortly after he moved in to Corvo." "The island had no reporter." "He showed me some of the stories he did." "There was one about gutweed, also known as grass kelp." "Another one about the festivals of the Holy Spirit, which takes place every year." "There was one about a sailboat that ended up in Corvo, by itself, with the sail ripped apart and without a sailor." "And he found out that the sailor had been missing for 8 months already." "One of the latest was about that accident, that we saw, with a Dornier aircraft." "As soon as it landed, it had a flat tire." "Corvo is running at half speed these days." "It's democracy's fault." "Let's see..." "Half of the employees of the Council are dispensed for electoral campaign." "The same happens at the Holy House of Mercy, where a third of its employees are absent." "Many services are heavily constrained while others were forced to shut down." "So that the Health Centre could remain open they had to call a worker from the neighbor island of Flores." "Around 75 citizens of Corvo are running for the several parties." "The Popular Monarchist Party has the bigger impact." "With 45 people, that complete the candidate lists for Corvo and help filling up the lists for other neighbor islands." "Seven different parties run in the constituency of Corvo, but in fact, only four of them have the chance to win one of the two seats available for the island in the next legislative assembly." "Here, political parties resemble football teams, such is the transfer from one party to another." "Some are involved in politics for the sake of conviction, while others are in it for personal gain." "Even ifjust for the sought-after campaign that they will easily turn into holidays." "There are 353 registered voters in Corvo." "However, the real number of voters shouldn't be over 300." "The saying: "one wins by a vote, one loses by a vote"" "takes a new dimension in this island." "It has happened before, people winning or losing by a vote over here." "All of this means that, in Corvo a single vote has bigger decisive power than in any other island around, or even countrywide." "This explains the keener engagement of the candidates in the quest for another vote." "They promise job positions and rewards, and call in past favors." "Because here a vote can literally be worth a lot of money." "What we've seen yesterday at the Outeiro doesn't happen often." "A group of men sitting like that on the bench of the Outeiro..." "It was a meeting point." "There was the House of the Holy Spirit there as well." "And there was a square." " It was the center." "It looks like everyone would meet there, day or night." "So that they could make decisions collectively." "The children couldn't stay or they couldn't take part in the meetings." "I don't remember who told me that in the square down there, the "Cancela", the younger ones could stay." "When the time would come for them to join the group that was making decisions, one of the elders would call them," ""Hey you, come up here and give your opinion"." "And that way they would make their transition." "Corvo has never been filmed before as it is now by these folks." "They're making a movie, they have to..." "They're doing their job." "We've seen some parts in a tape." "Tomorrow there's a pig slaughter, you should come." " Where's that?" " It's up there." "CHAPTER 11" "CHAPTER 12" "Move!" " Don't you let Nico go loose?" " No." "Do you ever let the dog go loose?" " Never, because he runs." " He runs away..." "We went to the dump this morning." "You went up there?" "It was the only place missing..." "It's an open air dump." "There must be lots of... lots of trash." "I've never been up there but I've heard that the city hall's warehouses are up there." "They work over there?" "Are they near the dump?" " Yes, just up the road." "Just up the road..." "I've heard they were built there." "The first landfill that they built was here in Corvo, but they never finished it." "Bring me the bucket with a beret to put this one inside." " What?" "A bucket that's outside with a beret." "There you go." "Now it has a little brim." "And your cap is done." "Now yours goes here..." "Looks like the crown of Jesus..." "It will be like..." "This shapes it..." "And now, like everything, it needs water." " You're going to wash it?" " Yes." "Now it goes in the water... so it gets... harder." "And now it's the pom-pom." " Ready?" " Ok." "He should have stayed longer..." "It's not four o'clock yet." "One more minute..." "In name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." "Amen." "Blessings and praises be given at all times." "Holy Mary of Miracles." "We pray the holy rosary as intended by our Holy Father for peace in the world, for the conversion of sinners, for those who agonize in this sorrowful night, for all our sick, for our health and our families, for the souls of the departed" "and for the blessed souls of the purgatory, mainly the most forgotten." "Joyful Mysteries:" "In the first joyful mystery let us contemplate the annunciation of the Angel and the incarnation of the Word." "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name." "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." "Hail Mary, full of Grace, The Lord is with thee." "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever." "Amen." "O Mary, conceived without sin" "O my Jesus, forgive us and save us from the fires of hell" "Blessings and praises be given to the world." "Holy Mary of Miracles," "Mother most pure" "Mother most chaste" "Mother inviolated" "Mother undefiled" "Mother most amiable" "Mother most admirable" "Virgin most prudent" "Virgin most venerable" "Virgin most renowned" "Virgin most powerful" "Virgin most merciful" "Virgin most faithful" "Mirror of justice" "Seat of wisdom" "Cause of our joy" "Spiritual vessel" "Vessel of honor" "Singular vessel of devotion" "Mystical rose" "Tower of David" "Tower of ivory" "House of gold" "Ark of the Covenant" "Gate of heaven" "Morning star" "Health of the sick" "Refuge of sinners" "Comfort of the afflicted" "Help of Christians" "Queen of Angels" "Queen of Patriarchs" "Queen of Prophets" "Queen of Apostles" "Queen of Martyrs" "Queen of Confessors" "Queen of Virgins" "Queen of all Saints" "Queen conceived without original sin" "Queen assumed into heaven, body and spirit" "Queen of the most holy Rosary" "Queen of families" "Queen of peace." "You know who does it?" "Fátima, this lady's niece." "Goretti's mother, from the bank." " Ah, from up there?" " From up there." "I'll meet her." "Thank you." "She's from Brazil." "She wanted cheese." "But I don't do it anymore." " You don't?" " No." "I didn't sell it this year." "See you tomorrow." " See you tomorrow if God wills." "You heard what Maria Luisa said?" "What?" "That the saint came by the sea in a box." "The Holy Mary of Miracles, the image of the saint." "It's a Flemish image." "It had a message that said:" ""Build a chapel where you find me."" "Tadeu told me the legend of the Holy Mary of Miracles, when some Turkish or Algerian pirates attacked Corvo, maybe to kidnap... all the population of Corvo, and to take them away." "They fought back but they didn't have weapons, so they took the image of the saint to the fight." "It seems that the saint saved them by bouncing back the bullets with her hands." "I've some things to do but I don't feel like it..." "One of these days I'll give this to the cats to eat." "A man without a woman goes crazy here." "I'm thinking about leaving to Angola, you know?" "I've been there and I like it." "Sign a contract..." "Europe is over." "Europe is burned." "There you can make some money." "I have some friends working there." "The major investments don't start." "The fish market..." "The airport." "The east road..." "There's still no money, you know?" "A guy has to clean up." "CHAPTER 13" "Come on!" "Come!" "You're bringing the car and I'm going by foot." " Is that alright?" " Sure, sure." "It's better that way." "Come here with me." "Maybe we should tie the rope, don't you think?" "Tie the cow, it's easier." "Give her another..." "It wasn't meant to be this early." "January would be enough." "Do you want me to go there?" "Pass the rope to José Fernando." "If you want me to go there so that you don't get dirty, I'll go." "I don't have anything to tie it up with, or I would." "Do you want me help you?" "Is the head breeching?" " Saint Anton!" " Slowly." "This makes pressure on the belly." "Oh, she isn't that big." "Turn it a little bit that way." "That's it." "She's coming, she's coming." "Eh, take the rope." "Let her lick." "Let's make sure of the gender." "We'll check again." "Oh, José, you got it wrong!" "Where are the little balls?" "There!" "It's a wee male!" "The little balls are there." "It never fails!" "Eh, you can't go wrong, if it has little balls." "That's good" "The first stream of milk should go to the calf." "It's the healthiest milk." "They even say..." "In about half an hour that guy will be standing up." "He has milk on his neck." "She likes him..." "Camera..." "Action!" "The birdwatcher that we've seen, with the long hair, was Peter Alfrey." "Who?" "The birdwatcher who was stuck in 2005 here in Corvo." "He was in Flores, and came to Corvo for a day or two and he was caught by a storm." "Since he couldn't leave the island, he headed to the fields." "He was impressed by the amount of bird species never been spotted in Europe." "He went back to London, and published a few articles in some magazines" "There's an article where he writes... that he saw a bird so rare... that he threw up." "He felt sick with the discovery." "And for being alone while watching something so rare." "CHAPTER 14" "Santa Iria Island." "Islet of Flores, because it has been considered an islet." "Island of the Statue." "Island of the Lighthouse." "Island of Saint Thomas." "Island of the Marker." "Joca believes that from a certain point and distance, from the edge of Ponta do Marco, he can see the silhouette of the knight, of the statue of the knight." "Isn't that just a myth?" "Sure, but Joca says he has seen it." "But it was not the statue that he saw." "He mentioned a shape drawn or carved in the rocks." "But there's a report from Damião de Góis, the king's scribe, where it's said that the first sailors, when they reached Corvo, saw the statue of a knight pointing towards America with his right hand," "towards Newfoundland." "And that was reported to the king who asked for evidence." "So a second expedition went to Corvo, in order to bring the statue back." "But when they tried to pull it up, the statue fell down, and shattered." "Moo-cow!" "In 1991, Jorge Barros, photographer, and Dacosta, writer, arrived in Corvo for the first time" "in order to write a book about the life of Corvo." "There were no books about it." "It's almost impossible to reconstruct the life of Corvo." "500 years." "It seems that the island doesn't have its own written memory." "It's not like many people could write at the time, only the priests could." "And the Municipal Council records date back only 200 years." "But even part of that was lost in the fire at the Council hall." "The church, the Council." "The archive." "The fire that erases memories..." "Leite de Vasconcelos, the ethnologist, dropped by Corvo in the beginning of the 20th century, to study the local dialect." "And left straight away because a woman approached him and asked" "about the exchange rate for the dollar." "FINAL CHAPTER" "It's losing some light..." ""Those who keep, will always find."" ""It is better to have, than to ask for."" ""Those who spend more than they have, will end up begging."" "I've never been able to look at the present." "I always have my eyes in the future." "Because I've already forgot the past..." "Fortunately so..." "I forgot all about that..." "This was the second..." ""It's is on earth, not on the moon"." ""The island of Corvo." "Azores." "Portugal." ""Right in the middle of the Atlantic ocean." "Notes from a journal, March 1970"" "There are things here..." "There are things here that I didn't even remember." "After all these years." "Here, "The island of Corvo"." "Here, "The island of Corvo"." "It's kept there..." "Here it keeps a bit of the title." ""From the island of Corvo you can also see the moon"" "If you manage to film this..." ""Notes from a journal." ""Another year has gone by:" "The year is 1970," ""but also the Moon's first year," ""which made itself noticed with a stormy winter" ""and all of its inevitable consequences." ""Not even the weather seems to lessen this suffering" ""that goes on over the planet "Earth"..." ""Now, my dear Flu:" "Make sure you don't come back" ""because, in case you're greedy, you won't find even a bit of flour," ""maybe only a kilo each week, that is, if the ship arrives in Corvo..." ""Here, all we have is the Sea everywhere," ""this wonderful and horrendous sea, which, not too many years ago," ""prevented people from coming here for 90 days..." ""The conditions of our "Sandy Beach" are the following:" ""Where there is no dock nor similar." "During the low tide," ""passengers have to be taken "in arms" or "on the back"" ""from the shore to a tiny boat, or the other way around." ""Otherwise, they will have to take off their shoes" ""and start their trip "by foot" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean." ""This is quite funny sometimes, specially now that the mini-skirt is fashionable." ""However, "in the year of the Moon", nothing is that funny anymore." ""But one thing is certain:" "If you compare," ""a departure to the Moon in Cape Kennedy" ""to a departure in a boat at the "Sandy Beach" in Corvo the contrast is actually quite funny..."" "I think your head was a little bit lower..." "Like this?" "Lower?" "Which way was I looking?" "More or less so, looking at the camera, like that." " You didn't find your beret, did you?" " No, I didn't, it's gone." " Ok, it's done." "Thank you Alfredo." " You're welcome." "It's the end of life." "If others die, we must also die." "Right..." "We pluck a melon when it's ripe." "And we kill a pig when it's fat..." "Each pig has its Christmas." "Even a flower dies, how would we not too?" "Do you think one can get used to the idea?" "Yes." " Do you feel that?" " Yes." "I feel that we have to ripen." "We know it has to be that way." "What must be will be." "We should make way to others." "Gosh!" "To think that you've started from scratch..." "From beginning to the end!" "This is a big beret, a small pom-pom wouldn't look nice." "And here it is:" "The hat from Corvo!" "Let me try it on..." "Now film him wearing that..." "Yes, like that." "Now you're a true man from Corvo!" "THIS FILM IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE INHABITANTS," "PRESENT AND ETERNAL FOR THE LAST 490 YEARS." "WITH" "ARCHIVE PHOTOS" "ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS" "ARCHIVE FILM" "ARTISTIC RESIDENCE SUPPORT" "SHOOTING SUPPORT" "POST-PRODUCTION SUPPORT" "POST-PRODUCTION VIDEO COLORIST" "SCRIPT ASSISTANT" "SOUND MIXING" "EDITORS" "SOUND, SOUNDTRACK, VOICE" "CINEMATOGRAPHER, VOICE, DIRECTOR, PRODUCTION" "WE WISH TO THANK" "RECORDED WITH BETWEEN 2007 AND 2011" "THE END"