The filmmaker Leonel Brito, director of works such as “Cologne and Villains” and “Northern People” and founding partner of Cinequanon, died today, at the age of 85, at Santa Luzia Hospital in Elvas, told Lusa a family member.
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07/07/2026
by
Lusa
Leonel Brito
Nin the district of Bragança, Leonel Brito was producer and director of dozens of films and television series, having been founding partner of the cooperative Cinequanon and worked with names such as António de Macedo, Luís Galvão Teles and Amílcar Lyra.
As director, note for the documentary “Gente do Norte” (1977), with music by José Mário Branco, of whom he was a personal friend, according to the family heard by Lusa, and the documentary film “Cologne and Villains” (1977), recovered and edited on DVD by Cinemateca in 2018.
“ ‘Cologne and Villains’ is a documentary about the colony contract on the island of Madeira, a form of exploitation of agricultural workers with medieval origins, but that remained even after April 25, 1974. To this end, Leonel Brito investigates the history of the colonization of the island and the economic and social forces that shaped it, using various documentary sources, including cinematic archive images”, can be read in a note from the Cinemateca, at the time of the DVD edition.
For RTP, the author of the blog “Farrapos de Memória” signed several series, especially gastronomy, and also worked as an advisor to the State Secretariat of Culture, with David Mourão-Ferreira.
He was also noted for his work at Cinequanon, with António de Macedo, Luís Galvão Teles, José Fonseca and Costa and Luís Filipe Costa, as production director, worked on films such as “The Confederation” (1977), “Freedom for José Diogo” (1975) and “Torre Bela” (1975), among others.
As director, he was awarded by the International Federation of Cineclubs for “Northern People” and also signed “Félix Ribeiro: Dr Celluloid” in 1980, “Arthur Duarte”, in 1979, “Aoeste Todo de Novo”, in 1982, and “Açores”, in 1986.
According to the family member, he lived in Elvas, district of Portalegre, “since the late 1980s”, after leaving Lisbon, “he was an antifascist fighter”, before April 25, 1974, having fallen in love with the cinema in which he worked all his life.
The link to Torre de Moncorvo, according to the family, remained either in initiatives to revitalize the municipal library or through the blog, which was maintained until 2023, year of the last publication.
Born on May 23, 1941, he graduated as an agricultural technical engineer, lived in Angola and Madeira, was a film and photography student at AR.CO, and was also head of the ABC Cineclub.