Film Series and Masterclasses
9-12 November 2026 | Aula Magna, FBAUP
Film series and masterclasses featuring three films by Staffan Julén, with the director in attendance, two masterclasses and a closing lecture.
With Filipa Cruz, Maile Costa Colbert, Cássio Eduardo Viana Hissa and Christian Dunker. Moderated by Eduardo Brito and Filipa Cruz.
The cycle Documentos-Sentimentos. O amor como método (Documents-Feelings. Love as Method) explores artistic and academic research through the lens of love, understood as a way of approaching others and a means of producing knowledge.
Over four days, the Aula Magna at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP) will host three films by Swedish director Staffan Julén, who will be present at the screenings. Two of the films feature the writer Svetlana Alexievich, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015.
The films are complemented by two masterclasses: Listening to Care for What We Cannot Know, by Maile Costa Colbert, on sound, archives and ecological memory; and a session by Cássio Eduardo Viana Hissa, taking the form of a close reading in which the author engages with a text in notes written for the cycle, drawing on Entrenotas: Compreensões de Pesquisa. The programme concludes with a lecture by Christian Dunker, Figurations of Affect and Images of What We Feel.
Free admission, subject to venue capacity.
Online Streaming | Microsoft Teams
Talks and masterclasses will be streamed live via Microsoft Teams. Both masterclasses will take place exclusively by videoconference and will be screened in the Aula Magna for those attending in person.
Please note: the films will not be streamed online.
Join the online sessions:
https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3403362440050353?p=ey2sl3VpD9nfsv2gzg
Meeting ID: 340 336 244 005 035 3
Passcode: Lq2Uj7
Programme
Monday, 9 November | 14:00–16:20
Opening
14:00 — Opening of the cycle by Filipa Cruz and launch of the letters
14:10 — Introduction to the film by Staffan Julén
14:15 — Lyubov – Love in Russian, by Staffan Julén and Svetlana Alexievich, 2017, 89 min
15:45 — Conversation with Staffan Julén, moderated by Eduardo Brito
16:10 — Letter writing
16:20 — End
Tuesday, 10 November | 14:30–17:15
14:30 — Introduction to the film by Staffan Julén
14:45 — Svetlana Aleksijevitj – the biggest lies of all are documentaries, by Staffan Julén, 2016, 58 min
15:43 — Break
16:00 — Listening to Care for What We Cannot Know: Sound, Archives, and Ecological Memory in the Extinction Trilogy. Masterclass by Maile Costa Colbert, online, moderated by Filipa Cruz
17:05 — Letter writing
17:15 — End
Wednesday, 11 November | 14:30–18:05
14:30 — Introduction to the film by Staffan Julén
14:45 — Love in Swedish, by Staffan Julén, 2022, 100 min
16:25 — Break
16:40 — O amor como método, entrenotas. Masterclass by Cássio Eduardo Viana Hissa, via videoconference, moderated by Filipa Cruz
17:55 — Letter writing
18:05 — End
Thursday, 12 November | 17:00–19:00
Closing session
17:00 — Figurations of Affect and Images of What We Feel. Lecture by Christian Dunker, moderated by Filipa Cruz
18:30 — Open discussion with participants, moderated by Filipa Cruz
18:50 — Writing of the final letter and closing reflections on the cycle, moderated by Filipa Cruz
19:00 — End
The films
Lyubov – Love in Russian
Staffan Julén and Svetlana Alexievich | Sweden, 2017 | 89 min
In Russian, with English subtitles.
Svetlana Alexievich collects testimonies from ordinary people about love in Russia, often experienced under difficult circumstances. The film follows this work.
Svetlana Aleksijevitj – the biggest lies of all are documentaries
Staffan Julén | Sweden, 2016 | 58 min
In Russian, with English subtitles.
The film follows Svetlana Alexievich during the years in which Lyubov – Love in Russian was made. The title echoes a phrase used by the writer.
Love in Swedish
Staffan Julén | Sweden, 2022 | 100 min
In Swedish, with English subtitles.
Staffan Julén travels across Sweden, from Karesuando in the far north to Ystad in the south, listening to people of different ages and backgrounds talk about love.
Biographies
Staffan Julén
Institutet för framtidsstudier, Stockholm
Swedish filmmaker and researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, where he is responsible for communications. Since 2018, he has been developing a research project funded by the Swedish Research Council on the role of subjective documentary in a post-truth era, based on more than 90 hours of interviews with Svetlana Alexievich.
He began his career as an assistant to Roy Andersson and has directed and produced eight internationally award-winning documentaries since 1983. His films include Lyubov – Love in Russian, made with Svetlana Alexievich, Svetlana Aleksijevitj – the biggest lies of all are documentaries and Love in Swedish.
Filipa Cruz
i2ADS, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto
Filipa Cruz (b. 1990) is a visual artist, poet, lecturer and researcher. She is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP) and an Integrated Researcher at i2ADS (Institute for Research in Art, Design and Society). She holds a PhD in Art and Design, specialising in Sculpture, from FBAUP, where she teaches studio practice and artistic research methodologies.
Since 2023, she has been Editor-in-Chief of HUB – Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society. Her artistic practice unfolds across four epitomes, including the Dialectics of Affection, while her literary and sculptural universe is fundamentally concerned with Love.
Maile Costa Colbert
Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon; CineLab/IFILNOVA
Maile Costa Colbert is an intermedia artist, researcher and educator whose work focuses on sound and time-based media. She is an invited Assistant Professor of Multimedia at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon and a researcher at CineLab, IFILNOVA’s research laboratory for cinema and philosophy.
Her practice and research include Wayback Sound Machine: Sound through time, space, and place, a project exploring what we can recover by listening to the past. Her work has been presented internationally at festivals, exhibitions and performances, including the New York Film Festival, MoMA and the Berlin International Film Festival.
Cássio Eduardo Viana Hissa
Federal University of Minas Gerais
Full Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. In Entrenotas: Compreensões de Pesquisa (Editora UFMG, 2012), he critiques standardised approaches to scientific research, which determine the course of inquiry before encounters take place, and argues for the importance of imagination in research.
Christian Dunker (BR)
University of São Paulo
Christian Ingo Lenz Dunker (1966) is a psychoanalyst and Full Professor of Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychology of USP. He completed a postdoctoral research at Manchester Metropolitan Univ. and is a Member Analyst of the School of the Forums of the Lacanian Field. A two-time recipient of the Jabuti Prize, he writes for UOL and engages in the public communication of psychoanalysis through digital platforms. He coordinates the Laboratory of Social Theory, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis at USP. His books include Estrutura e Constituição da Clínica Psicanalítica (Zagodoni, 2012), Mal-Estar, Sofrimento e Sintoma (Boitempo, 2015), Transformações da Intimidade (Ubu, 2017), O Palhaço e o Psicanalista (Planeta, 2018), Psicanálise nos Trópicos (Boitempo, 2026) and Discurso e Narrativa em Psicanálise (Autêntica, 2026).
Eduardo Brito
i2ADS, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto
Filmmaker and writer, Eduardo Brito is a PhD candidate at FBAUP, supported by a grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and a visiting lecturer at FBAUP and Ghent University. He directed the feature film A Sibila (2023) and several short films. His research brings together cinema, photography and literature, exploring questions of truth, fiction and memory.
Organised by
Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto (FBAUP)
Department of Plastic Arts
PhD in Visual Arts
Supported by
i2ADS — Institute for Research in Art, Design and Society / FBAUP
University of Porto
Caixa Geral de Depósitos — U.Porto–CGD Cooperation Agreement
Participants’ institutions
Institute for Futures Studies — Staffan Julén
Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, and CineLab/IFILNOVA, NOVA FCSH — Maile Costa Colbert
Federal University of Minas Gerais — Cássio Eduardo Viana Hissa
University of São Paulo — Christian Dunker
Ghent University/University of Porto — Eduardo Brito
