New artistic director for Maputo’s Scala

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New artistic director for Maputo’s Scala

3:27 CAT | 20 Jun 2022

Photo: O País

Actress Josefina Massango is the new artistic director of Cine Scala, in Maputo. She sees her greatest challenge as exploring the cinema’s potential to showcase different artistic modalities.

Thirty-five years after she started going to the Cine Scala in central Maputo, Josefina Massango has been invited to become the cinema’s artistic director.

Responding, the actress said: “It is an honour to be here, where I have known my greatest joys in terms of cinema.”

Josefina Massango started going to the Cine Scala at the age of 14, a teenager who would doing anything and everything to watch movies. If the rules prevented her from seeing feature films intended for over-18s, she would borrow her older sisters’ clothes to make her look more grown-up, and make sure she was accompanied by an adult. Above all, she learned to avoid looking the doorman in the eye when she handed him her ticket.

Such tricks worked time after time, and Massango was able to keep up with the many film productions of her era.

Over the years, in fact, Scala has been above all a space for the promotion and dissemination of the seventh art. From American cowboy films to Indian novels, Scala has established itself as one of the landmarks in the cultural geography of the Mozambican capital, functioning practically as a window on the world.

But the management of Scala now intends to open the space to other modalities, such as dance, music, visual arts and even theatre. “Theatre was little explored here,” Massango says, “but now, the intention is to explore this possibility more seriously, because the space is ideal. In fact, we intend to invite all artists who want to do something at the Scala.”

Cine Scala was built in 1931, 91 years ago. It is currently managed by Associação Cultural Scala. The artistic director before Josefina Massango was Chimene Costa.

By José dos Remedios

Source: O País