Leonardo Simões

Movies

Greice
Director of Photography
Greice, a 21 year old Brazilian girl, studies at Fine Arts university in Lisbon. In the early days of summer, she gets involved with the mysterious guy: Afonso. The couple is accused for a strange accident that occurs at the students welcoming night party. Greice needs to return to Fortaleza, her hometown, to renew his residence permit. Hidden in a hotel, while preventing her mother from discovering the problems in which she was involved and with the help of some friends, Greice tries to find a place of comfort in the world.
Why Are You Image Plus?
Cinematography
Ima is a little girl who passed away too soon. Desperate to talk to her grandmother, she decides to possess a young boy. But an old spirit is interfering with her plans. Inventive and playful, Why Are You Image Plus? is a jewel of irony and a precise satire of the almighty Catholic Church.
Fantasmas do Império
Director of Photography
Ariel de Bigault's work has been connected to the routes of the Lusophone World. In Fantasmas do Império we are guided by the saotomean actor Angelo Torres through some works of the Portuguese cinema that explored its colonial past. Some directors as Fernando Matos Silva, João Botelho or Margarida Cardoso help to understand imperialism, colonialism, and propaganda seen through the "family album" which is the Portuguese cinematic collective imaginary.
Vitalina Varela
Director of Photography
A Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.
Destiny Deluxe
Director of Photography
Through a city that carries the weight of broken expectations and tough absencies, we follow the day of three young adults. César who got into a photoshoot by accident, Chloé who hopes to find a place to do her own work, and Helena who is back in her town for some days, only to find the living shadow of a loss.
Coroa de Espinhos
Criança
Dorota is a woman of faith. Every day she strictly follows her intense routine of dedication to her Lord - which is somewhat unusual. One day, Dorota's faith is put to the test.
Mirage My Bros
Director of Photography
An elementary school class without a teacher, a contract signing with a giant football club and a new year's eve party. Three tales tinged with aspiration and the desire to escape express a look into a youth absorbed by the power of dreams and the harshness of reality. A generation facing growth in tension with the future.
Black Heart
Cinematography
A couple looks to mend their relationship and build a new home in the Azores.
The Secret Agent
Director of Photography
An adaptation of the 1907 political novel of the same title by Joseph Conrad set in Portugal during the so-called "Hot Summer" of 1975, re-contextualizing the anarchist prose within the Carnation Revolution.
Horse Money
Director of Photography
While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.
The Invisible Life
Director of Photography
There is a long night when Hugo, a civil servant, is sitting on the stairs of the Ministry where he works. He can’t face going home. The images of the mysterious 8 mm films he found in António’s house after he passed away keep coming back to his mind. Hugo remembers the day when Antonio, his superior at the Ministry, told him that he was going to die. Indirectly, Antonio seemed to want to tell him something about Hugo himself. Hugo’s desire to understand what had remained unsaid between the two of them, triggers other memories from the past. Hugo unexpectedly thinks back on the last time he saw the woman he loved, Adriana, and relives once more what he feels has been his unlived life.
Historic Centre
Director of Photography
Four voices and their visions of Guimarães, cradle city of the Portuguese nation and European Capital of Culture in 2012.
Lamento da Vida Jovem
Director of Photography
A participant in a coup d'état by young commissioned officers, Ventura loses his way within the woods. Eventually, Ventura is admitted into a mental hospital where he has conversations with "ghosts" of the past in the hospital's elevator.
This Side of Resurrection
Director of Photography
The film tells the story of a sister and a brother, Inês and Rafael. Since the divorce of their parents, their family never saw Rafael again. Inês runs away from home looking for him when she is told he is back at the Guincho Beach and surfing again. Rafael is an ex-surf champion who everyday gets himself inside the most dangerous waves to test the limits of his life. When the two brothers meet, Guincho makes them come together in a promise of paradise on earth, as it was the last place where their family lived together and in happiness. But Inês is surprised one day when she finds her brother looking fixedly to the Serra de Sintra mountain range, where the Convent of the Capuchos, which once was his refuge, is. She fears having brought him back the memories of the separation of their parents. Rafael is in a crisis of faith. When one day he disappears, Inês knows he went back to the convent, and she starts doing what she can to bring him back to her.
Civil War
Director of Photography
Summer of 1982, a beach in the south of Portugal. Rui and his parents live closed in their worlds, blind to the failure that characterizes them as a family and condemns them to the malaise of survival. Rui will have school exams but he is only interested in music and in the exploration of imaginary worlds that he constantly sketches in drawings. Only Joana seems capable of pulling him out of his autism. The girl's vitality fascinates him.
Poema Colagem - Homenagem a Mário Cesariny
Director of Photography
A 15ª Pedra
Director of Photography
Joáo Bénard da Costa, director of the Portuguese National Film Archives [deceased in 2009], interviews the dean of contemporaneous film directors [96-years-old then]. Two humanists of different philosophical backgrounds, both with their long, entire lives dedicated to culture in general (music, painting, literature) and to film in particular, discuss freely, sometimes haltingly, the director's power as a creator or a magician, the philosophy beyond particular scenes in classic movies, film technique, the importance of color, sound and music to films, art versus entertainment, and much more. Their talk takes place in a museum room, seating in front of "The Annunciation" (a 1510 oil painting by João Vaz, a Portuguese artist), which eventually leads to a discussion of 'Leonardo da Vinci', and the relationship between a trend-setter master and his disciples.
Europe 2007
Cinematography
Somewhere in Europe... Nightime. A woman and two men in a van making its way through a maze of highways. The woman looks into the darkness, and then at the traffic that's getting denser. The two men take her into a rundown building. The woman is assaulted. The van is parked near a highway, and there are now three women and two men inside. They wait. A car pulls up. A man and a woman get out... One of the women from the van tries to escape... They grab hold of her. The two vehicles leave, and are lost in the night.
Colossal Youth
Cinematography
After the Portuguese government demolishes his slum and relocates him to a housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, 75-year-old Cape Verde immigrant Ventura wanders between his new and old homes, reconnecting with people from his past.
A Batalha dos Três Reis
Director of Photography
Autography
Camera Operator
A documentary that portrays not only the poet and painter Mario Cesariny but as well his life, his journey and his individuality.
Fair Day
Director of Photography
Dawn is breaking into day. Fair day. As in every year. But this is a year of mourning. "It doesn't look right!" Vera says to her sister. And her mother-in-law looks at her and remembers the dead son. Remembrance is a silence between the two of them. Children's voices come from outside. Lucia wants to go to the fair with her uncle and cousin. "You promised!" claims the daughter. Vera consents in letting her go. Lucia waves her hand as the tractor drives away. Chance, once again. An accident. Death, always so close, so alive.
Altar
Director of Photography
The experimental nature of this film explores the memories of a young love.
Antes Que o Tempo Mude
Director of Photography
Saramago: Documentos
Camera Operator
About the Portuguese author José Saramago, based on a long interview with the writer at his home on the island of Lanzarote, in which he analyzes his work and shares his reflection on some aspects of his personal life.