Premiere Brazil! at MoMA

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 11 July 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 9th edition of Premiere Brazil! screens July 14 - 27, 2011 in the The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Manhattan, New York City.

A collaboration between MoMA and the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Premiere Brazil! introduces New York audiences to original and accomplished work by both new and established Brazilian filmmakers.

The Opening Night film is Riscado / Craft, directed by Gustavo Pizzi. This fictional portrait of the ups and downs of a talented, creative actress depicts "the casual cruelty of the competitive world in which we live". Pizzi will introduce the film and participate in a post-screening discussion.

Amor?
directed by João Jardim
The director amassed authentic interviews about love between couples gone terribly wrong, re-enacted verbatim by actors, in contrast with idealizations of male-female relationships. This international premiere will be introduced by Jardim.

Samba’s Evening / Noitada de samba foco de resistência
directed by Cély Leal
Under 1971 Brazil’s military dictatorship, Jorge Coutinho and Leonides Bayer "began holding weekly "Samba Evenings" at Teatro Opinião in Rio de Janeiro, importing popular musicians from the suburbs to entertain Rio’s elite. Radical in both concept and execution, the series transformed the theater into a symbol of political and cultural resistance."

VIPS
directed by Toniko Melo
A fictionalized look at real-life con artist Marcelo da Rocha, who realized a childhood dream of aviation by winding up flying for drug traffickers.

Chico Xavier
directed by Daniel Filho
Saint? Nut case? Whichever one thought of him, Spiritist medium Chico Xavier (1910–2002), receiver of messages from his spirit guide Emmanuel, was as controversial as he was zealous. He produced over 400 books through the use of "psychography" (spirit writing) and dedicated his life to philanthropy.

Santos Dumont: Pré-cineasta? / Santos Dumont’s Mutoscope: Early Cinema and Found Footage Film
directed by Carlos Adriano
Adriano uses an unknown reel of photo-cards, which he found and restored himself, from a mutoscope film shot in London in 1901. The reel depicts Santos Dumont, a Brazilian aviator and inventor who lived from 1873 to 1932, explaining his airship to Charles Rolls, the future founder of Rolls-Royce. Thus do early 20th century inventions go hand-in-hand.

Utopia e barbárie / Utopia and Barbarism
directed by Silvio Tendler
More found footage, as Tendler examines post-WWII utopias "that were born and brought to life -- and the barbarism that punctuated them -- with startling images and testimonies, creating a moving portrait of a generation that dreamed of changing the world and fought for freedom through a global movement."

Diário de uma busca / Diary, Letters, Revolutions…
directed by Flavia Castro
This is the story of Brazilian activist Celso Afonso Gay de Castro, the filmmaker’s father. Guided by her mother, Castro examines the day-to-day life of the leftist militant generation of the 1960s and 1970s as she traces her father’s personal history -- a story that began with a dream of political ideals and ended with a premature death shrouded in mystery.

Complementing the film festival is a retrospective of the works of artist and filmmaker Cao Guimarães. Several of the artist’s documentaries and film essays will be screened at MoMA, including:

• O Fim do sem fim / The End of the Endless – a feature-length documentary about the imminent disappearance of certain jobs and occupations in Brazil
• Ex isto / Ex It – his possible answer to poet Paulo Leminski’s question, "and what if René Descartes had come to Brazil along with Mauríco de Nassau?"
• Acidente / Accident – a beautifully photographed montage following Guimarães as he visits 20 towns in the state of Minas Gerais
• Andarilho / Drifter – a film about three lonely drifters following different paths, each establishing intimate relationships with various elements of a transitory world
• Alma do osso / The Soul of the Bone – a revealing look into the isolated existence of a older man living in a cave
• Rua de mao dupla / Two-Way Street – a documentary that follows strangers who exchange houses for a 24-hour period.

A selection of looped short films by Guimarães will be on view at MoMA PS1 throughout the first weekend of the festival. These short films focus on everyday events and quiet actions in both urban and rural settings -- from billowing tarps to an army of ants to soap bubbles.

For more information, visit www.moma.org/film.

Premiere Brazil!
July 14 - 27, 2011

The Museum of Modern Art
11 W. 53 Street
New York City
212-708-9400

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave.
Long Island City, NY 11101
718-784-2084

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