‘Ama Romanta – A Utopia That Made Records’
by Carlos Mendes and Vasco Bação
Price: free.
Salão Nobre da Reitoria da Universidade do Porto [Main Hall of the Rectory of the University
of Porto], Porto.
Description: Pop Dell’Arte, Mão Morta, Telectu, Sei Miguel, Mler Ife Dada, Croix Sainte, Anamar… In the second half of the 1980s, Ama Romanta, João Peste’s label (the charismatic lead singer of Pop Dell’Arte), was the alternative in the world of Portuguese music. Created with the aim of fighting against the camouflaged censorship of radio stations and labels, they were an ‘avant-garde movement in the face of a record market stunted by cultural myopia and the obsessive easy maximisation of profit’. This documentary, directed by Vasco Bação, reminds us of that remarkable moment in Portuguese music which, as João Peste said years later, ‘was a suicidal project since the beginning’.
Links:
https://media.rtp.pt/antena3/ver/ama-romanta-utopia-fazia-discos/