Eduardo Guedes

Who was Eduardo Guedes?

Eduardo Luis Santos Correia Guedes was a Portuguese film-maker involved with the independent British film collective Cinema Action.

Guedes was born in Lisbon, the son of a judge, and initially studied chemical engineering at the University of Lisbon, but after refusing to take part in the Portuguese colonial wars, he left in 1961 to study film-making at the International Film School in London. After graduating in 1964, he worked as a tutor at the school.

In 1965 he went to Brazil and made three documentaries. Returning to London, he freelanced as a film editor from 1968 to 1971, working with theatre director Peter Brook and Thames Television's Jeremy Isaacs, and was credited as editor of Maurice Hatton's 1970 film Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition.

In 1971, Guedes joined Cinema Action. This was a key component in the organisation of the Independent Film-makers Association which campaigned, among other things, for airtime for independents on the UK Channel 4 network. In 1981, Guedes shot and edited a documentary, So That You Can Live, which opened Channel 4's independent film slot.