When the Phone Calls

Cinema was still silent when the telephone began to ring in numerous films. More than a mere prop (an icon of modernity) this device, as had already occurred in literature and theatre, had a profound impact on cinema. By connecting and interrupting different characters, locations and experiences of time experiences, the telephone not only expanded narrative possibilities — from the generation of dialogue to the exploration of off-screen space and the creation of suspense — but also transformed the very language of cinema itself.

Almost 150 years after Alexander Graham Bell uttered the historic words, ‘Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you,’ — and precisely at the moment when the iPhone reaches legal adulthood — Batalha presents a film programme that stages unexpected conversations between analogue telephones, digital devices and cinema. This selection invites audiences to reflect on how such technological transformations have affected not only the way we communicate, but also how we live, and, naturally, how cinema is made.

From blockbusters to artists’ films and auteur cinema, this programme brings together narratives that pivot upon telephone calls, works filmed on mobile phones, and scenarios that explore the phone camera as an ambivalent weapon — a tool that can serve both as a means of resistance against authoritarian regimes and as an instrument of surveillance, aggression and public judgement.

Running from September to October, When the Phone Calls spans 15 countries, three continents and over a century of cinema. At each screening, we invite the audience to silence their phones and lower their brightness — and to become an active interlocutor in this game of crossed lines.

Curated by Diogo Costa Amarante, Inês Sapeta Dias and Justin Jaeckle