Other Landscapes: On the Expanded Cinema of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata

This chapter examines João Pedro Rodrigues’ and João Rui Guerra da Mata’s take on expanded cinema, evaluating the significance of experimenting with technology, classic narrative, and performance within the cinematic event (Hatfield, 2004) in the context of their oeuvre. Since 2011, JPR and JRGdM have been (re)creating diegetic worlds through video installations that communicate – in different ways – with their own cinematic world. For instance, in Today is a Party Day (2016) nine screens, displayed in three rows of three TV screens each, exhibit in loop the rushes for JPR’s short Parabéns! (Happy Birthday, 1997). By focusing on the relation between experimental and “classical narrative” cinema in this context, the chapter addresses issues such as the notion of filmic reality, cinematic apparatus, and audience’s perception. It also assesses the reconfiguration of diegetic time and space within this recent self-exploration in JPR’ and JRGdM’s eclectic cinephile universe, especially by looking at the video installations included in From the Pearl River to the River Ave, Solar – Cinematic Art Gallery’s 2018 exhibition (Portugal).