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Two Words with Edgar Medina founder of portuguese production company Arquipélago Filmes

Two Words with Edgar Medina founder of portuguese production company Arquipélago Filmes
Edgar Medina — He is one of the founding partners of Inner Harbour Films, a production company in Macau, where he worked on several documentaries and national and international feature films as a screenwriter, director and producer. In April 2015 he founded Arquipélago Filmes, dedicated to the production of independent cinema and a high-quality audiovisual. He as received several awards from the Portuguese Film Academy, Portuguese Society of Authors among others.
He is co-writers of several feature film and series like  Cartas da Guerra/Letters from War (2016 directed by Ivo M. Ferreira), drama  series South. Portuguese public service broadcasting RTP1 in September 2019. Portuguese Film Academy Sophia award for Best Fictional Series 2019. Portuguese Society of Authors award for Best Fictional Program 2019;Co-producer and co-writer of the feature film “Hotel Império”, directed by Ivo M. Ferreira-Pingyaou International Film Festival (2018), São Paulo International Film Festival (2018), IFFA Macau (2018);

At the last event OnSeries in Lisboa the first day was dedicated to the premiere of your series Causa Propria. Do you mind to tell us more about it? Is it a psychological drama, a real story a teen drama?

Natural Law (Causa Própria) is a crime/judicial drama series, directed by João Nuno Pinto, currently being released on RTP1.
 The story is about how a small town judge faces an unexpected dilemma after the murder of a local student. Her actions can put her family at risk and she needs to take difficult decisions.

How is performing in Portugal? Do you think to sell the format’s rights for a remake?

The show is being broadcasted in RTP1 (the main public channel) primetime. The results are very good and the reaction from the public and critics has been overwhelmingly positive. The show is very addictive and, even to my surprises, grabs very different types of audiences. Yes, we are open to sell the format.

What’s are the trends in Portugal in fiction?
The fiction in Portugal is very diverse. I think there’s a new focus on formats that are more internationalizable and in co-productions with other countries. I simply wish that Portugal can be know for making shows with a pristine quality. We need to focus in quality and not in quantity.

 What are your next projects?
This year we will shoot Dogpack- a spin-off of a series called South that won all the awards in Portugal, an international co-production that has the support of ICA, to be produced in this year and is considered a landmark in Portuguese TV production. It’s a fast paced thriller set in Lisbon, full of dark humor, that will be directed by José Henrique Fonseca, one of the leading Brazilian directors. We are preparing three more shows and I am thinking in producing a second season of “Natural Law” soon.

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