NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS 2025 (April 2-April 13)

[Chris Knipp]

JUNE JOÃO

PAULA MARQUES: TWO TIMES JOÃO LIBERADA (2024)

Gendered exorcism: Paula Tomás Marques uses a fictional history to critique modern filmmaking conventions and show trans people enacting their own history

Wendy Ide, Screen Daily: "A project that walks the line between biographical drama and conceptual art piece, the experimental Portuguese LGBTQ+ project Two Times João Liberada challenges the conventions of the biopic and takes on the patriarchal structures that still hold sway over much of cinematic storytelling. It is about the making of a misguided film about a fictional historical character, João Liberada, a gender non-conforming shepherdess who was targeted and imprisoned by the Inquisition in 18th century Portugal, and is likely to be of niche appeal.

"The project is the feature debut from Paula Tomás Marques, who has made several short films exploring gender and sexuality, including 2019’s In Case Of Fire, which won Best Student Short at San Sebastian, and 2024’s Dildotectónica. Two Times João Liberada is a film that was clearly made on a limited budget, and the ambition of a project that involves period details, special effects and a supernatural visitation should be applauded. That said, the picture’s modest production values and unpolished performances will likely limit its reach to audiences who share the film’s prominently displayed politics."

The story is of João Liberada, a fictional protagonist pieced together from archives reporting on the ostracism of gender non-conformists and the practices of punishing gendered sinners by the 18th-century Portuguese Inquisition. From the outset the film shows the director Diego (Andre Tecedeiro) becomes mysteriously paralyized and the film has to be suspended or done differently. Diego, as Wendy Ide says, is "a mbit of a thankless role for Tecedeiro, who is basically the fall guy and punching bag." From the start the lead, June João, objects to the way he is going with the story of her character. Eventually, the original martyred trans person appears to June to critique the film in comically down-to-earth and modern vernacular terms as totally in the wrong key.

From a POlish review by Tomasz Paborca: "The newly established section of the Berlin festival could not lack a piece that looked at the titular perspectives with a critical eye. After all, Tomás Paula Marques addressed the marginalization of queer optics in source documents and the reproduction of inequality through the apropriation of historical figures' biographies. She also made her own arguments for considering the LGBTQ+ community as haunted."

We know that an antique period can be evoked in unusual and radical means. There are Albert Serra's recent films about Casanova in 2013 and his 2016 La mort de Louis XIV. Rossellini was a master in his 1966 Louis XIV: la prise de pouroir and other historical films. His charmingly naiveand pure evocation of Saint Francis of Assisi Francesco, giullare di Dio, which gathers some of the anonymous "Fioretti di San Francesco" may be closer to what Paula Marques's film is grasping for. But Marques is more interested perhaps in pointing to how a cis-male filmmaker might tend to misunderstand a female, not to mention a transfemme, point of view in making a movie. The ficttional director of Two Times João Liberada expresses a great admiraiton for Bresso. But does the hint of brutality in his direction an allusion to Bresson? June João, the lead in his film, points out he is focused too much on the violent aspects of the trans martyr they are depicting, instead of the times when she was happy among the nuns.

I liked the moments of deliberate anachronoism, and especially the series of "antique" woodcuts that depict the life of João Liberada as depicted in the film, with the modern film crew standing by.

Two Times João Liberada/Duas Vezes João Liberada, 70 min., debuted at the Berlinale Feb. 18, 2025. Screened for this review as part of New Directors/New Films. Showtimes:

Monday, April 7
8:30pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2

Tuesday, April 8
6:15pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater