The Doclisboa festival once again becomes a meeting point between documentary cinema and the arts, with a program that brings together major names from film and music, from Werner Herzog and Lucrecia Martel to Madonna, Jeff Buckley and David Lynch. The Heart Beat section, dedicated to multiple forms of artistic expression, stands out this year with iconic figures of popular culture. David Lynch takes center stage twice: with the national premiere of Welcome to Lynchland, by Stéphane Ghez —which explores the work of the pop surrealist filmmaker through the voices of Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern and Isabella Rossellini—, and with the screening of Duran Duran Unstaged, an audiovisual experience that captures the British icons live in Los Angeles. The same spirit runs through Boy George & Culture Club, by Alison Ellwood, offering an intimate portrait of the band that revolutionized the 1980s, while Becoming Madonna, by Michael Ogden, traces the transformation of a young outsider from Michigan into the world’s most powerful and controversial pop star. Another national premiere, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, by Amy Berg, recalls the musician whose promising career was cut short in 1997, through private archives and previously unseen testimonies.

Portuguese cinema also plays a prominent role in this edition. Punch for Punch, by Diogo Varela Silva, rescues the memory of boxer Orlando Jesus and the marginalized Lisbon of the 1970s. In Pele Nómada, João Fiadeiro and Aline Belfort explore the relationship between city, memory and artistic creation in a context of gentrification. Meanwhile, It Was Dark Inside the Wolf, by Joana Botelho, follows Sara Carinhas on an intimate journey that blends family memories, imagination and stage creation.

The documentary One to One: John & Yoko, by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards, revives Lennon and Ono’s historic benefit concert in New York, combining rare footage, home movies and personal recordings. Music also shapes the program with a tribute to the centenary of Luciano Berio, featuring four rare films that explore the ties between music, literature and experimentation, from Il canto d’amore di Prufrock to Voyage to Cythera, by Frank Scheffer.

The From the Earth to the Moon section brings two major names. Lucrecia Martel presents Landmarks, about the murder of indigenous leader Javier Chocobar and his community’s long struggle for justice in Argentina. Werner Herzog, in turn, signs Ghost Elephants, a journey in search of Angola’s ghost elephants which, beyond exploration, raises existential questions and reflections on environmental and cultural conservation. Also featured is Cover-up, by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, fresh from the Venice Film Festival, revisiting the career of journalist Seymour Hersh and his exposure of U.S. Army torture scandals in Vietnam and Iraq.

Among Portuguese premieres, a highlight is As Brigadas Revolucionárias na Luta Contra a Ditadura (1970-1974), by Luiz Gobern Lopes, which revisits the history of the Revolutionary Brigades in their fight against dictatorship, capitalism and colonialism in Portugal. The documentary traces the period from the rise of the regime in 1926 to the actions of this anti-fascist movement, its internal divisions and its role on the road to April 25, 1974.