A common concern runs throughout Tomás Paula Marques’ four short films, that comprise her entire filmography to date: the right to individual self-determination and dignity in society. With a BA degree in Directing, a postgraduate in Sociology and a Master’s degree in Filmmaking, the artist from Porto directs films that are both subtle and daring, and creates queer characters who are crushed between the instinctive search for freedom and self-knowledge and the oppression from others, who are intransigent to difference.

The inaugural session of the New Moons cycle presents Paula Marques’ work at a turning point — from linear narrative cinema to an exciting experimental language, on- and off-screen. Batalha’s audiences will have the chance to experience first-hand the premiere of a new performance work, When We Dead Awaken (2022), a living and material extension of her latest film. A work that is never non-dissident, non-questioning nor unjust, as we have always come to expect from Paula Marques.