PRESS & ARTICLES
VARIETY: “Gouveia spoke to Variety about the Mapiko dance as an act of political defiance, uncoupling African art from the Western gaze, and the struggle to preserve culture from one generation to the next.”
SUPAMODU: “Telling the history of a country through dance might seem like a lofty idea, but this feat is accomplished marvelously in Sara CF de Gouveia’s “Sound of Masks,” where the post-colonial malaise of Mozambique is narrated and enacted by visionary dancer Atanásio Nyusi.”
SLANT MAGAZINE: “A crucial subtext in The Sound of Masks is that precolonial practices aren’t objects frozen in time, but bear the marks of history like any form of transgenerational human activity.”
TSF: “É através da dança e de Atanásio Nyusi que o documentário olha para capítulos da historia moçambicana, como o colonialismo. "Acabamos por deixar esse tema no filme como um fantasma. Há momentos assim no filme, se calhar um pouco mais subtis, que acabam por ir sublinhando essa ideia do colonialismo e do que é que deixa para o futuro porque aquilo não acaba um dia e é como se nunca lá tivesse estado."
Black History Month - Vancouver: “The film really comes down to connecting past, present and future: knowing the past, to understand the present and to imagine the future.”
LUSA: “Filme de realizadora portuguesa sobre dança moçambicana maconde destaca-se na África do Sul”
SCREENAFRICA: “In the film, Gouveia delves into Nyusi’s life behind the masks, revealing his beliefs, fears and aspirations as a father and a custodian of the Mapiko tradition.”
VARIETY: Rushlake Takes World Rights for Two Acclaimed African Docs (EXCLUSIVE)
DURBAN–Cologne-based Rushlake Media has acquired world sales rights for “The Sound of Masks,” by Portuguese filmmaker Sara Gouveia, and “In Search,” by Kenyan director Beryl Magoko. The announcement was made Thursday at the Durban Intl. Film Festival, where both documentaries are screening.
AFRICA IS A COUNTRY: “The Sound of Masks is a visual meditation on the nature of memory in postcolonial societies ravaged by conflict, and a nonlinear biopic of a remarkable, if little-known, artist.”
“The Sound of Masks explores dance, memory and the meaning of life, ancestry, culture and political struggle in postcolonial Mozambique.” Paolo Israel
POV MAGAZINE “The Sound of Masks is a wicked cool arts doc about the power of dance (…) The film, one of the better works to screen at the festival with the support of the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Development Funding for African documentary, is an invigorating portrait of cultural survival.”
IN THE SEATS “Atanásio makes for a wonderful subject and through this art form he does allow us as a viewer to not only get a sense of history but also those emotional perspectives of particular moments that are passed down. They may change and evolve but it always feels like it’s an incredibly important function of the dance to not only comprehend the story it tells but to really connect with it as well. That’s really what is at the core power of any art form, for it to transcend the place it comes from but time itself.”
The Sound of Masks, a film by Sara CF De Gouveia, is a moving ode to the cultures of Mozambique told primarily through dance and music.
CAPE TIMES 11th April 2019
Film contact
The Sound of Masks: Mozambique Focused Documentary to screen at Hot Docs 2019
VISAGE - Review - IDFA 2018
“El film se convierte en el ritual dancístico mismo gracias a sus impresionantes secuencias de baile documental y de puesta en escena, donde máscaras entre terroríficas y bellas cobran vida propia.”
“O filme de Sara Gouveia, “The Sound of Masks”, vai ter a sua estreia esta semana no International Documentary Film Festival em Amesterdão, na Holanda.”
Dans Magazine (NL) - Review - IDFA 2018
“Dans brengt mensen samen” (Dance brings people together).
SAMDB News
The Sound Of Masks – Documentary To Screen At Hot Docs Canada
IDFA PRESS CONFERENCE
“The Sound of Masks” in the Luminous category
