Greasy Luck

Fortuna Escorregadia was selected by RTP through the 2017 Audiovisual Content Call, leading to a co-production and international distribution agreement with Portugal’s public broadcaster. This partnership strengthened the film’s national and international reach and contributed to bringing the recent history of Azorean maritime communities to wider audiences.

The documentary emerged from a research project dedicated to understanding the profound transformations that took place in the Azores following the end of whaling. Through the testimonies of former whalers, whale lookouts, family members and community representatives, the film follows the difficult transition experienced by a small town whose identity had been deeply connected to the whaling industry for generations.

Rather than presenting a simplified view of change, Fortuna Escorregadia documents the conflicts, resistance and debates that accompanied the end of whaling. At a time when the protection of cetaceans was becoming an international priority, many local residents perceived the prohibition of whaling as an external imposition that threatened traditional ways of life, inherited knowledge and cultural identities built over generations.

The project also included a public screening programme featuring films and documentaries about whaling produced in different countries, followed by debates and intergenerational discussions that gathered testimonies, opinions and memories relating to this period of transformation. These encounters revealed the complexity of local perspectives and contributed to a deeper reflection on the historical relationship between Azorean communities and whales.

Today, whale watching is one of the Azores’ most important tourism activities and an internationally recognised example of economic reconversion and sustainable adaptation. The documentary explores this transition, demonstrating how the knowledge and experience of former whalers and whale lookouts became fundamental to the development of a new relationship between people and whales, based on conservation, scientific knowledge and the appreciation of natural heritage.

Director: Sandra Cristina Sousa
Producer: Comunicar Atitude
Co-producer and International Distributor: RTP

Fortuna Escorregadia complements a body of documentaries dedicated to the history of whaling and the transformation of Azorean maritime communities, developed by Comunicar Atitude over the last decade. This line of research and audiovisual production also includes Whaling Heritage and From Whaling to Tuna, works that document different stages in the relationship between the Azorean people and the sea.

The project contributes to the preservation and promotion of Azorean whaling heritage by documenting the transformation of maritime communities following the end of the whaling industry and the sustainable adaptation of traditional maritime knowledge to new ocean-based activities.