In 1927 Luís Wittnich Carrisso, a botanist and professor at the University of Coimbra, set out on a voyage to Angola to study the native flora and gather samples to bring back for the collection at the Coimbra Herbarium. In 1937, Carisso died in the Namibian desert, where some 80 years earlier Frederico Welwitsch had discovered Welwitschia mirabilis, a plant hitherto unknown to science. Now, after another span of 80 years since the death of Carisso, Tracking the Naturalists: Angola retraces this naturalist’s steps in order to demonstrate the diversity of tropical plants and their ecological adaptations, from the Tropical Moist Forest of Angola’s north to the Namibian Desert in the country’s south.
Director André Godinho (b.1979, Lisbon) studied at the Lisbon Theater and Film School, where he directed 6 Minutos (Young Filmmaker Prize – Vila do Conde Short Film Festival 2002), and he attended the Documentaries Course “Les Ateliers Varan” at the Gulbenkian Foundation. He makes documentary films (MHM – on the life of publisher Manuel Hermínio Monteiro; Faz Tudo Parte – the making of the “Três Cantos” concert featuring José Mário Branco, Sérgio Godinho and Fausto) and experimental fiction (La Chambre Jaune, Ponto Morto). He regularly works on film shoots as a continuity editor and creates video for theatre, dance and opera performances. He collaborates closely with the Teatro Praga and Cão Solteiro Teatro drama companies, with whom he works not only as director but also as actor and co-author.

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