As well as in fictional films, he used the methods of direct cinema to portrait the life of ancient human communities (ethnofiction) of his country.
He started making films at the beginning of the sixties, at the same time as John Marshall (EU) and Michel Brault (Canada).
He integrated a troupe of theatre amateurs and worked at a state department office in Leiria.
He shot ethnographic films with 16 mm light cameras and with no scientific purposes, like some of his Portuguese fellows, such as António Reis, Ricardo Costa or Pedro Costa, this one using small mini dv cameras, some years later.
After the Carnation Revolution, he directed some theatrical fictional features in 35 mm, all with a strong anthropologic content.