CASA DO XISTO FOUNDER
Catarina de Sousa is a filmmaker and producer of cinema and artist films. In 2023 she was selected as producer and director for Berlinale Talents. In 2021, she founded with Pedro Neves Marques the cinema and art film production company Foi Bonita a Festa, based in Porto, Portugal.
She is the founder of Casa do Xisto, an artistic residence that aims to promote connectivity through the cinema and visual arts, based in the north of Portugal.
As a filmmaker she co-directed “Tracing Utopia” (2021) with Nick Tyson, directed while at UnionDocs – Center of Documentary and Art in New York, with an international premiere at the IFFR – International Film Festival Rotterdam. In cinema she produced between Portugal, United States and Brazil the following films: “Becoming Male in the Middle Ages” (2022; world premiered at IFFR – International Film Festival Rotterdam, Ammodo Tiger Short Award Winner), “The Bite” (2019; world premiered at TIFF – Toronto International Film Festival), “Art and Hurt”(2018; world premiered at DocLisboa), and “Exterminator Seed” (2017; world premiered at IndieLisboa), all short films directed by Pedro Neves Marques.
She is now co-producing “Gold and Ashes” the first feature film by Salomé Lamas with O Som e a Fúria, in Portugal.
Internationally, she is co-producing “The Bag of The Night ” by Janaina Wagner, a project selected for the Doc’s Station from Berlinale Talents 2023, with Anavilhana Films from Brazil.
She is co-producing “Liminal Spaces” by Lui Avallos, a project selected for the Short Form Station from Berlinale Talents 2023, a virtual reality experimental installation in co-production with Mundivagante Studio.
She is co-producing “Giving Birth” by Adriana Vila Guevara, with Diana Toucedo Films in Spain and Horns and Tails Productions in the United States. She is associate producer of “Ecstasy” (2020) by Moara Passoni and “Olmo and the Seagull ” (2015) by Petra Costa and Lea Glob.
In contemporary art she produced the film Installations: “Vampires in Space” by Pedro Neves Marques, Official Portuguese Representation – Portugal Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, and “The Bite” (2019) a commission of Pérez Art Museum in Miami, both by Pedro Neves Marques. She produced the artist films by Mariana Silva “Zoomorphic Eye/Camera Trap” (2018) commissioned by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and “Cyborg Wildlife” (in production) commissioned by Fundació La Caixa. She also produced the film installation “Catherine or 1786” (2017) by Francisca Manuel, curated by Walk and Talk in partnership with ARQUIPÉLAGO – Contemporary Arts Center, Azores.
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LABORATORY
Ricardo Leite is a director and cinematographer. He organizes and participates in several exhibitions in the field of cinema since 1999, having participated in events in Europe, Morocco, Brazil and Cape Verde. He has collaborated and worked with institutions such as the Oporto Cineclub, the Amazonas Douro Cineclub and the Association of Cultural and Artistic Initiatives in Oporto (AICART). Having worked mostly in the experimental genre and on film, he is the original creator of an innovative technique entitled “The Alchemy of Cinema”.
He is one of the founding partners of the project Átomo47, the only independent film laboratory in the country, inaugurated in 2007, where he currently works and collaborates with Casa da Imagem in V.N. de Gaia. Átomo47 is part of an international list of 40 independent laboratories (http://www.filmlabs.org).
Juliana Julieta is an experimental filmmaker andVisual artist working between painting and experimental cinema. Holds a degree and a Master’s in Painting (FBAUP/FBAUL).
Julieta received the scholarship for the 16MM IMMERSIVE LAB at Casa do Xisto (2021), the Dear Doc Grant at Doc’s Kingdom (2021), and the residency The Mechanics of Cinema at MONO NO AWARE (NY, 2022, supported by FLAD).
Either through oil painting or experimental cinema, JJ explores the physicality of materials and processes, investigating a tactile, sensory, cumulative, and phenomenological approach to image-making. She works with alternative film processing, in-camera editing (Bolex 16mm), and handcrafted techniques (see erotics of the kitchen), expanding cinema into the performance of moving images.
Juliana co-founded EARTHSEA (2023) and is a member of filmlabs Laboratório da Torre (Porto) and Cave (Lisbon). Julieta collaborates with Casa do Xisto as a 16mm instructor for eco-processing workshops.
Her artistic residencies include PRIMAL LIGHT #3 – SPECTRAL at Laboratório da Torre and Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto (2023), InResidence at Performing The Archive, Porto (2024), and Herbarium in Motion in the Rhine region (Germany), supported by the Europe Moves Culture grant (2025). She was nominated for the 2024 Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize, and her work was acquired for the CACE – State Art Collection and the Plaka acquisitions (Porto).