Estonian group
In March 2023 we received a group from Estonia led by Helen Anvelt from Midwayer Films.
It was a beautiful spring period. We were able to do some great filming with all seven group members taking turns in the various roles of directing, interviewing, camera, sound, drone operation and editing.
On this page you can see the result: a short film about Marieke Woudstra, Portuguese teacher, novelist and founder/president of an association that organizes all kinds of cultural activities in the old school of Monte da Estrada.
Reviews
Extremely intense, challenging, exciting, powerful and overwhelming experience – making a short and meaningful documentary “Follow your dreams” at Portugal Film school together with film industry professionals Ton van Der Lee and Ian Davidson. We got so many practical, useful and simple tips, making the hard and long process of film making as simple as it could be. It was certainly much more than we could have expected – creating a professional portrait film from the scratch about a wonderful soul, Dutch writer, Portuguese teacher and saviour of the local community – Marieke Woudstra. Film is full of beautiful scenes from Portuguese nature as well as wise words of a lovely and inspiring Marieke making this film into a piece of art created by our dream crew with passion, dedication and love.
Helen Anvelt
My experience during this course was eye-opening: I learned a lot not only about the whole process of documentary filmmaking, but also myself and the role I would like to pursue in the film world. It was challenging but at the same time incredibly fun. Ton and Ian were fantastic instructors and made the whole learning process interesting and encouraging. Additionally, the location – the tiny village of Monte de Estrada was fantastic and all of its people very welcoming.
Nata-Triin Eisel
I had an amazing experience participating in the portrait documentary course at Portugal Film School in Alentejo. The teachers, Ton and Ian were highly experienced and peaceful, making the learning environment warm and inspiring. The course was well-structured, and the food was delicious. Overall, we had an excellent team and an inspiring course in a beautiful location
Ramin Pourmand
I had a very pleasant experience in Portugal Film School. I took part in the Directing part of the course and found it very usefully packed with the theory, the structure and preparation of making a documentary, the analysis, as we were watching a few documentaries and practice when we made one ourselves. I would like to say a big thanks to Ton and Ian as thanks to them I feel like I have a much better overview of how improve my skills and put together a documentary.
Agnes Saaren
