Jornal de Leiria – Paulo Guerra: “Isn’t it time to improve children’s lives instead of just discussing their protection?”

He was part of the first editorial team of Jornal de Leiria (JL). What were those times like?
They were fantastic and full of life. Every week I wrote the column Condition ‘cine’-qua-non, about cinema, giving voice to my cinephile side, very motivated by the passion transmitted by an American grandfather and by the constant reading of American and French magazines of the Seventh Art, and by my eternal love for the white screen filled with the look and voice of Garbo, of Meryl, by De Niro or Streisand. Furthermore, I was one of the founding partners of the cooperative that created the Journal, alongside, among others, my dear friend António José Laranjeira, who has already flown to another dimension and who I miss so much. At JL I did everything with my chimera companions: I packed copies for the post, typed, wrote reports and even horoscopes. I was a law student in Coimbra and spent a lot of my weekends at JL and even Rádio Clube de Leiria, where I did a weekly program for years called The Ship of Bonança. I felt so complete in these pioneering times of journalism and active, cultured citizenship in a city with very little ambition at the time.

Was the choice of film limited to the weekly film in Leiria?
I usually followed the poster, always supported by my late friend Zé Luís Neves Júnior, who managed the programming at Teatro José Lúcio da Silva and who talked to me for hours about Spencer Tracy, his Bogart, Marlon Brando or Ingrid Bergman. It was there that I lived my Cinema Paraíso. I was the “Toto” boy who always looked for his “Alfredo” in that ribbon chapel, ending a healthy collaboration with him. There were articles about other films even if they weren’t showing – he even gave Zé Luís ideas for “hiring” them.