Friday, February 13, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Los Feliz Theatre, Los Angeles
### **ABOUT THE FILMS:** **“He Who Awaits Dead Men’s Shoes Dies Barefoot,” 1970, Dir. João César Monteiro, 35 Mins, The Cinema Guild, Portugal** *In Portuguese with English subtitles.* Monteiro’s first fiction film — and masterpiece — “He Who Awaits Dead Men’s Shoes Dies Barefoot” shows an auteur inspired by the French New Wave (specifically Jean-Luc Godard) and introduces an alter-ego who would reappear in Monteiro’s João de Deus trilogy: Lívio, a young, broken-hearted aspiring artist (and beggar) whose dreams and innocence are violated by a country “that is a bottomless pit, an asshole one can’t escape from.” This poetic yet pessimistic letter to a nation suffocated by a decades-old fascist regime was banned, and remained unseen until Portugal’s 1974 Carnation Revolution. FORMAT: DCP **WHAT SHALL I DO WITH THIS SWORD?, 1975, Dir. João César Monteiro, 65 Mins, The Cinema Guild, Portugal** *In Portuguese with English subtitles.* In WHAT SHALL I DO WITH THIS SWORD?, Monteiro shows NATO forces and US aircraft carriers in Lisbon and compares them to the awakening of Nosferatu, a new villain hungry for fresh blood, while intertwining footage of US Navy sailors cruising Lisbon’s decadent nightlife (one of its prostitutes offers Monteiro an account of her routine), workers protesting pro-capitalist maneuvers, and statements from anticolonial African activists with a satirical restaging of a medieval Lusitanian hero (director Margarida Gil) who defended the country’s soul against foreign invaders. FORMAT: DCP