This document represents a fraction of all my research. The terms in bold are the topics that I’ve done further and extensive research on.
- Borns in Corsica, 1929. He studied in Paris and became an ethnologist (as a student, Giacometti was quite active with his political speech during this time). Works at Musée de l’Homme (as an ethnologist, his curriculum was already fascinating at 26. Fell in love with the Portuguese, Isabel Ribeiro.
1958: discovers Kurt Schindler’s and Rodney Gallop’s testimonials on Portuguese ethnic music and culture and becomes obsessed.
1959: He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and moved permanently to Portugal by his doctor’s recommendation. I’ve found some other details about his health state after 1974 when he referred to how difficult it was for him to undertake his practice while being almost incapable. In another interview in 1984, he said that his health state allowed him to register every ethnic phenomenon all over Portugal. However, from the 80s till his death, Giacometti was almost forgotten, and most of his expeditions turned into solitary battles).
- February: First sound collection in Bragança.
1960: w/ Fernando Lopes Graça (he would rarely follow him, but he was “the music connoisseur who advised Giacometti, and who made the musicological study of the themes”, according to musicologist Mário Vieira de Carvalho) founds the first-ever Portuguese Sound Archive. Together they edited two dozen phonographic collections: Anthology of Portuguese Regional Music.
1961: Giacometti collaborated with the legendary Portuguese sound technician José Fortes.
1962: Realises ethnographic series with Radiotelevisão Portuguesa‘s (RTP)* production, entitled O Alar da Rede (there’s no direct translation of this phrase, but it is an Algarvian expression that stands for net pulling.
*it is crucial to understand RTP’s positionality during this period
1963: Realises Rio de Onor: uma reunião do conselho. A film about town meetings in a remote village of Trás-os-montes
1963: Beginning of production of radio programs** for the Emissora Nacional (Portuguese’s statal radio broadcast), Radio France, BRT, WDR, Sveriges Riskradio on traditional Portuguese music and its functions. It lasted until 1983.
**There’s no information about these programs. They might have been stored in the Portuguese Sound Archive at Torre do Tombo (The National Archive), which I already contacted. It would be interesting if I could work there on my DSP year.
**However, after researching a little bit, I found out that an old Emissora Nacional’s archive in Pegões, Setúbal, was abandoned in 2011. In 2018, reporters found rare Giacometti vinyl recordings broken on the sight.
1970: The beginning of producing a documentary series that would later become a consecration: People who sing (original: Povo Que Canta), directed by Alfredo Tropa.
1972: Integrates the team of researchers at the Faculty of Arts of Lisbon – Geography Institute and develops the Line of Action for the Collection and Study of Popular Literature, culminating in 1982.
1975: Structures the Work and Culture Plan for Students of the Student Service (Recovering Portuguese culture, an objective for students of the Civic Service). He was part of the FNAT (a fascist institution National Foundation for Joy at Work, in Portuguese, Fundação Nacional para a Alegria no Trabalho) Reorganization Commission, later replaced by INATEL (National Institute of Telecommunications), and proposed the creation of the Worker-Farmer Documentation Center (CDOC, Centro de Documentação Operário-Camponesa)
1981: Edits with Lopes-Graça, and with the support of Círculo de Leitores, the Cancioneiro Popular Português (Portuguese popular songbook). He sells his collection of musical instruments and ethnographic objects to the Municipality of Cascais, and the latter later founds the Portuguese Music Museum at Casa das Verdades de Faria, in Monte Estoril.
1984: He sells the Portuguese Sound Archives to the Secretary of State for Culture, everything being found today in the National Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon.
1987: Inauguration of the Museu do Trabalho (Labour Museum), in Setúbal, where Giacometti collaborates in executing the exhibition O Trabalho Faz o Homem (Humans are made of labour).
1990: The last report on his work is conducted in August, in a campaign to Peroguarda (Ferreira do Alentejo), by journalist Adelino Gomes. On November 24th, he died in Faro. He is buried, at his request, in Peroguarda.
2010: On the 20th anniversary of his death, a commemorative edition was made with all his filmography: Michel Giacometti – Complete Filmography.