“While we live,” Portuguese-American writer John Dos Passos once wrote, “we must make the torch burn ever brighter until it flares out in the socket.” His grandson, John Dos Passos Coggin, announced the launch of his Kickstarter campaign to raise seed money for a new feature film project he wrote, Son of Portugal.

Son of Portugal is a drama/thriller feature film project set in 1964 in the United States and Portugal.  Lyndon B. Johnson is President of the United States and António de Oliveira Salazar is the fascist dictator of Portugal, leading Europe’s oldest dictatorship. Son of Portugal is about the Connemaras, Joe and Diana, an idealistic young couple working at the U.S. State Department. They host a 16-year-old foreign exchange student, João (“John” in Portuguese), a boy raised under Salazar’s repressive regime. Joe and Diana and their two children, Dan and Moira, forge an unbreakable bond with the shy, precocious João. When the Salazar regime tortures João’s pro-democracy father and then comes after João himself, the Connemaras must decide what they’re willing to do in the name of family and democracy. 

Marcio Rosario, actor, director, and producer

In addition to Dos Passos Coggin, Son of Portugal is executive produced by Marcio Rosario. Rosario, a Brazilian actor, director, and producer, has worked in the film industry for forty years. He studied at the American Film Institute and Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Rosario has participated in major international productions such as The Expendables, Collateral Damage, The Scorpion King, The Thin Red Line, Fight Club, and Galaxy Quest.

John Dos Passos Coggin, writer and executive producer

John Dos Passos Coggin, an American writer, wrote the script for Son of Portugal. Coggin is the only grandson of writer John Dos Passos (1896-1970). His Dos Passos roots are in Ponta do Sol, Madeira. Coggin has traveled in Portugal and Madeira and speaks English and Brazilian Portuguese. He co-manages the John Dos Passos literary estate and serves on the advisory board of the John Dos Passos Society. He writes films, poetry, biography, and journalism. 

The Son of Portugal project comes at an auspicious time. Next year, on April 25th, Portugal will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of fascism. The filmmakers humbly ask for support by donating to their Kickstarter or elevating it on social media and other networks.

Source: Press Release /PR Newswire /Contact johndpcoggin@gmail.com