Labor On the Douro River (1931)

LABOR ON THE DOURO RIVER  (1931)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Manoel de Oliveira
Manoel de Oliveira's first movie, a silent documentary about life on Portugal's docks. It's an exhilarating, point-blank look at the dirty, dangerous, back-breaking work of the men and women who haul goods to market and load and unload the ships (and not much of that work was mechanized then). The director was in his early 20s when he made it, and you get a real sense of this kid who's got a great new toy, a movie camera, still figuring out all the cool stuff it can do.  A nice print of the movie turns up on a DVD with "The Strange Case of Angelica", which de Oliveira shot almost 80 years later, close to the same locale.