When we spoke last week, Pedro Costa described his latest project The Daughters of Fire with a clarity, conviction, and care that wouldn’t suggest his film runs, sans credits, just seven minutes and mostly consists of three shots spread across a wide frame. But nothing less should be afforded a work that yields so much each time through: new textures in its seemingly rigid design, new resonances in musical arrangement, and perpetual surprise when it cuts, in the final moments, to archival images shot by Portuguese historian Orlando Ribeiro.
That footage––which Costa described as the necessary closing “breather”––is the locus of Daughters‘ official trailer, which he’s personally edited and we’re honored to debut ahead of the short’s theatrical premiere (at Metrograph) on December 1. Cinema Guild will screen it with Hong Sangsoo’s In Water as part of the “Fire+Water” double-bill, a pairing Costa approves by telling me, firmly, “no problem there.” It’s footage to resonate with admirers (shades of Casa de Lava are indisputable), offer window into Daughters‘ musical component, and compromise none of the viewing experience.
Watch the trailer below and return the week of December 1 for my interview: