Janes
A feature documentary on Alberto Janes — the poet behind some of fado's most enduring songs, immortalised in the voice of Amália Rodrigues.
The project
Janes is a feature documentary on the life and work of Alberto Janes — pharmacist, poet, and one of the singular voices of the twentieth-century Portuguese songbook. Born in Reguengos de Monsaraz in 1909, Janes wrote songs that became immortal in the voice of Amália Rodrigues: Foi Deus, Vou Dar de Beber à Dor, Oiça Lá Ó Senhor Vinho, É ou Não É. The songs are known the world over; the man who wrote them, almost nowhere. The film sets out to change that — to return a name to the work it created, and to trace how a quiet author from the Alentejo helped shape the emotional language of fado.
A name that lived in another's voice
As so often happens with authors, Janes was eclipsed by the artist who carried his work into the world. The documentary makes that paradox its heart: the distance between a song everyone can sing and a name almost no one remembers. Amália herself was unequivocal about his gift — "Janes was a good man, full of heart. The kind of person who could change the world." Recovering that figure, with the care and seriousness it deserves, is the project's reason for being.
Four narrative planes
The film unfolds across four planes that run in parallel and intercut throughout — Biography, Specialists, Performers, and the Unreleased. Family and contemporaries anchor the past; specialists and performers read the work in the present; and a new generation of voices carries it into the future, recording songs and poems that were never released in his lifetime. The result is a dialogue between eras, in which Janes's catalogue resurfaces through contemporary artists reinterpreting his work in emblematic Alentejo locations. Performers engaged across the project include António Zambujo, Mafalda Arnauth, Jorge Fernando and Cláudia Pascoal, among others.
From Reguengos to the Alentejo — and back
The film's geographic centre is Reguengos de Monsaraz, where Janes was born and lived much of his life, before the trail leads to the Lisbon doorway at which the pharmacist first showed his songs to Amália. The unreleased works are recorded as music videos shot across emblematic Alentejo locations, closing the circle between the origin and the destination of the journey. The premiere is planned for the Auditório Municipal Alberto Janes in Reguengos de Monsaraz, followed by a regional roadshow through the municipalities of the Alentejo — arriving as the region prepares for Évora's year as a European Capital of Culture in 2027.
Why it matters
Directed by André Braz from an original idea by José Quintela, and produced by Trix, Janes is built to give an overlooked author the recognition his work has long earned — and to use the global reach of Amália's voice to project his authorship to new, international audiences. Beyond the screen, the production brings students from the region's professional schools into the filming and editing process, turning the documentary into an act of cultural education as much as a film.
Director André Braz · Original idea & creative direction José Quintela · Produced by Trix (executive producers João Belmar & João Sacadura) · Consultants Tiago Torres da Silva (lyrics) and João Filipe (music).
