The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will present an extensive retrospective of Portuguese filmmaker, curator, and academic Susana de Sousa Dias, highlighting her distinctive approach to archival cinema and political memory.

De Sousa Dias has gained international recognition for her films examining dictatorship, colonial legacies, and collective memory through innovative use of archival materials. Her breakthrough work Still Life (2005) explored Portugal’s #Estado Novo# fascist regime, while 48 (2009) achieved wider acclaim by contrasting official photographs of political prisoners with survivor testimonies recorded decades later.

The retrospective will showcase her evolution from European historical subjects to her recent focus on Brazil’s neo-colonial archives. The program includes the world premiere of Fordlândia Panacea (2025), which examines Henry Ford’s former company town established in the Amazon rainforest in 1928.

IDFA describes de Sousa Dias’s methodology as creating «dissident counter-archives» that reframe images of power rather than using archival footage as mere illustration. Her work encourages audiences to question how political histories are constructed through film.

As part of her role as Guest of Honor, de Sousa Dias has curated a Top 10 selection exploring collective memory and political narratives, featuring works by #Sarah Maldoror# and #Harun Farocki#. An extended conversation with the filmmaker will serve as a centerpiece event of the festival.

The retrospective offers a comprehensive view of an artist whose work reveals «erased histories of violence and resistance to authority» through careful examination of historical documents and testimonies.