Festa Co-Producer Duarte Barcelos recently planned and held the premiere of Festa at Estreito da Calheta. Here's what he had to say:
Dear friends,
The premiere of "Festa" at Estreito da Calheta was a complete success.
The room was so crowded and there were not seats enough for everybody and some people had to stand up at the back. The estimated attedance there was about 150 to 180 people.
Before showing the film I did a brief historic retrospective of the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament in New Bedford using a powerpoint presentation.
Mr. Goncalo Nuno Santos, director of the Centro das Comunidades Madeirenses attended and I invited him to say a few words in the end. He praised the film, my devotion to the study of the history of the Madeiran immigrants in the US and asked everybody to give me a big round of applause, which was done.
He told me before the projection of the film started that he would inform the President of the Republic about this film for he is interested about the history of the Portuguese in the world. He promised to get back to me with more news about this.
Enclosed are the pictures that I took there. Unfortunately there was no media there to cover this event, and I think that that was because of the fact that at the same time the Flower Feast Parade was taking place in Funchal.
But nonetheless I wrote a chronicle for the Portuguese Times about it and it will be published on the next edition of the newspaper next Wednesday.
...
I am also considering showing the film at Prazeres and at Santa Cruz in July during its feast of the Blessed Sacrament.
I am also considering showing the film at FNAC, a major place in Funchal, and maybe leave a few copies there to be sold. I will tell you more about it soon.
Anyway, yesterday was a very rewarding day for me before lots of people attended and you should also be proud of that.
Kindest regards to you all,
Duarte.
