Biography

José Álvaro Morais was born on September 2, 1943 in Coimbra, Portugal. He was a director and writer, known for The Jester (1987), Quaresma (2003) and Peixe-Lua (2000). He died on January 30, 2004 in Lisbon, Portugal.

He met Emanuel AG in the mid '90s and that had an impact on their further respective careers. They collaborated with each other and Emanuel AG worked as his publicist, having helped to recognize his filmography in the history of the Portuguese cinema and relaunch his filmmaking career throughout Emanuel's work as film critic and curator/programmer. Emanuel AG was the first one to globally organize a retrospective of Morais' oeuvre when his name was yet to receive a nationwide acknowledgment in their own mother country.

José Álvaro Morais became one of the most promising gems of the Portuguese cinema and a unique lookout of the European landscape, a future Manoel de Oliveira if not prematurely missed.