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This is the first English-language study of internationally acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, examining the cultural, production and exhibition contexts of his feature films, shorts and video installations. It situates Costa's filmmaking within the contexts of Portuguese, European and global art film, looking into his working practices alongside the impact of digital video, forms of collaborative authorship, and the intricate dialogue between modes of production and aesthetics. Considering the exhibition, circulation and reception of Costa's creative output in settings such as film festivals, the art gallery circuit and the home video market, ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa provides an essential critical analysis of this major filmmaker - as well as of the multifaceted production and consumption practices that surround contemporary art cinema. Nuno Barradas Jorge teaches in the Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is the co-editor, with Tiago de Luca, of Slow Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2016).

This is the first English-language study of internationally acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, examining the cultural, production and exhibition contexts of his feature films, shorts and video installations. It situates Costa's filmmaking within the contexts of Portuguese, European and global art film, looking into his working practices alongside the impact of digital video, forms of collaborative authorship, and the intricate dialogue between modes of production and aesthetics. Considering the exhibition, circulation and reception of Costa's creative output in settings such as film festivals, the art gallery circuit and the home video market, ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa provides an essential critical analysis of this major filmmaker - as well as of the multifaceted production and consumption practices that surround contemporary art cinema.

This is the first English-language study of internationally acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, examining the cultural, production and exhibition contexts of his feature films, shorts and video installations. It situates Costa's filmmaking within the contexts of Portuguese, European and global art film, looking into his working practices alongside the impact of digital video, forms of collaborative authorship, and the intricate dialogue between modes of production and aesthetics. Considering the exhibition, circulation and reception of Costa's creative output in settings such as film festivals, the art gallery circuit and the home video market, ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa provides an essential critical analysis of this major filmmaker - as well as of the multifaceted production and consumption practices that surround contemporary art cinema.

A construção da Cidade Universitária de Coimbra, levada a cabo entre 1941 e 1975, supôs uma intervenção urbana tão profunda e afirmou-se tão claramente como uma obra de regime que se torna difícil exagerar o seu significado. Ela é, a par dos tribunais, uma das melhores expressões da arquitetura de poder do Estado Novo. Nenhuma obra revela tão bem o uso propagandista do património. No entanto, observada em pormenor, deixa ver a ação por vezes desencontrada dos organismos oficiais. E a sua receção crítica sugere uma escassa capacidade de endoutrinação. É no seio da arte totalitária que a Cidade Universitária de Coimbra melhor se compreende, mesmo nas suas aparentes contradições. O seu estudo confirma a diferenciação de modelos arquitectónicos e traz para primeiro plano as divergências existentes dentro do Estado Novo quanto à importância do nacionalismo arquitectónico e aos meios de o alcançar. O predomínio do classicismo monumental não obstou ao afloramento de modelos pseudo-vernáculos em bairros de realojamento e obras secundárias e à tardia emergência do modernismo. A estatuária, próxima da dos regimes autoritários e totalitários pelo seu estatismo, sobriedade académica e alusão à Antiguidade, permaneceu refém de um naturalismo simplificado e geralmente convencional. Os murais foram votados à consagração da História, dos heróis nacionais e do saber. The construction of the Coimbra University Campus between 1941 and 1975 involved a profound urban intervention that is clearly marked as the product of the Salazar regime, so much so in fact that it is difficult to exaggerate its significance. Like the law courts, it is one of the best architectural expressions of the power of the “New State”, which clearly reveals how the heritage may be used for propaganda purposes. However, a closer look reveals the sometimes unsystematic action of official bodies, while its critical reception suggests that the capacity for indoctrination was minimal. Coimbra University Campus should best be understood within the context of totalitarian art, despite its apparent contradictions. Careful study has confirmed the extent to which it differs from other architectural models and highlights the divergences existing within the New State as to the importance of architectural nationalism and the means for achieving them. The predominance of monumental classicism did not preclude the late emergence of modernism or the flourishing of pseudo-vernacular models in neighbourhoods built to rehouse the displaced and other secondary works. The statuary, which resembles that produced by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in its statism, academic sobriety and allusions to Antiquity, is underpinned by a naturalism that is simplistic and generally conventional. As for the murals, these celebrate moments from history, national heroes and knowledge.