Bela Vista

10 10
2022
30min

Portuguese

English

Country: Portugal

Original Title: Bela Vista

Through the lens of Bela Vista, a neighborhood in Setúbal, Portugal, the film explores the tension between ideals of beauty and the lived reality of community, turning sight itself into a question of perspective.

Portuguese
English
Country: Portugal
Original Title: Bela Vista

AWARDS: Best Short Film · FIDOCS – International Documentary Film Festival of Santiago / Honorable Mention · MiradasDoc – International Documentary Film Festival of Guía de Isora

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Doclisboa – Festival Internacional de Cinema / Doclisboa Extension Cabo Verde / FIDOCS – International Documentary Film Festival of Santiago / FESTROIA – International Film Festival / MiradasDoc – International Documentary Film Festival of Guía de Isora / FIDBA – Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival / ethnocineca – International Documentary Film Festival Vienna / Ekotopfilm – International Festival of Sustainable Development Films / Arquiteturas Film Festival / Mostra do Cinema Português – Instituto Camões / Milano Design Film Festival / Frames – Portuguese Film Festival

Bela Vista - Beauty, vision, and a neighborhood’s truth

This compelling doc unfolds at the intersection of words, images, and place. Drawing from the double meaning of “Bela” (beautiful) and “Vista” (sight), the film situates itself in Bela Vista, a neighborhood in Setúbal, Portugal, to explore how language, aesthetics, and social reality intersect.

Blending poetic reflection with observational documentary, it questions ideals of beauty, community belonging, and how we position ourselves in relation to what we see.

The film meditates on vision not only as an act of looking, but as a way of inhabiting the world—asking how neighborhoods are represented, and how they see themselves.