Rachel is a girl, adopted by an upper middle class family, who rebelled at 17 and left her family and studies at a traditional college in Sao Paulo to become a sexy call girl. Shortly after starting work, she decided to write a blog about her experiences. Since some clients thought she looked like a surfer she adopted the name "Surfistinha" which means little surfer girl.
After being released from prison, Dr. Nise da Silveira is back at work in a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro where she refuses to employ the new and violent electroshock in the treatment of schizophrenics. Ridiculed by doctors, she is forced to take on the abandoned Sector for Occupational Therapy, where she would start a revolution through paintings, animals and love.
Three blind sisters, Regina, Maria and Conceição, earn their living by singing in front of churches, in Brazil... They tell their amazing stories, full of drama, heartache, rape, poverty, death and hope.
Located at the intersection of disability and queerness, this documentary enriches, implicates, and breaks open the conversation around sexual life in the disabled community. This film does not shy away from the complexities and challenges of queer life, but rather embraces them and in doing so, illuminates how they impact one another and bring new dimensionality to the position of the body within them. Resisting a normative lens, this filmmaker uses the observational power of the camera to document the raw sexuality, fantasies, and erotic expressions of a wide array of subjects with rare candor and vulnerability. Embodied sexual explorations are balanced against interviews that in their frankness and insightfulness criticize and deepen the lacking conversation around this intersection in the wider discourse.
Marcela’s world becomes strange and unfamiliar after her sister Rina dies. She feels lost in her own house, and her relationship with her husband and children seems to suffer. But when Nacho, a young friend of her daughter’s, unexpectedly drops by, she starts to talk and walk with him. Gradually Marcela begins to have conversations with relatives from another dimension.
On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Irene has only a few days to overcome her anxiety and renew her strength before sending her eldest son out into the world.
The story of Júlio Santana, a professional killer who was responsible for almost 500 hundred murders in Brazil.
A documentary on the career of Beth Carvalho, the Brazilian singer who became a well known samba legend from the 1970s onwards, edited together from hundreds of hours of footage and audio files kept (and partially recorded) by Carvalho herself during her lifetime.
Before entering a prestigious American university, Gabriel Buchmann decides to travel the world for one year. After ten months on the road with his backpack full of dreams, immersed at the heart of various countries, he arrives in Kenya determined to discover the African continent. Until he reaches the top of Mount Mulanje, Malawi, his final destination.
Serra Pelada's discovery in 1979 precipitated one of the world's largest contemporary gold rushes. In a matter of days miners could make hundreds of thousands of dollars as chunks of gold kilos in weight were found.
This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.
Dé, Adrianim and Martins are three black teenagers from Chatuba, Rio de Janeiro. When Dé receives the news that Almerinda, his grandmother, is in the terminal phase of Alzheimer's disease, he decides to enjoy the last days of her life together with his two best friends.
Brazilian soccer players Sócrates, Casagrande and Vladimir lead a historic movement in sports by adopting a democracy within their team, making a statement against the country's military dictatorship.
Rio de Janeiro, in the period in which the Police Pacification Units (PPUs) were beginning to be deployed in the city. Edna (Lilia Cabral) is the mother of Julio (Pedro Nercessian) and Silvio (Fiuk). One day she wakes up desperate to see that Julio just disappeared!
Documentary about three blind sisters who sing for money in the streets of Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil
Malu — a mercurial, unemployed actress living with her conservative mother in a precarious house in a Rio de Janeiro slum — tries to deal with her strained relationship with her own adult daughter while surviving on memories of her glorious artistic past.
How much theatricality is there in an interview-based documentary? On one side, someone answers. On the other side, someone asks questions – usually away from the camera eyes. But what would happen if also filmed the interviewers? And if the respondent also had the right to ask? And if the parties never met? What if instead of a glimpse into someone’s life, we had several? ‘Seven visits’ is a film about questions. And about the act of being interested in the other.
Documentary about the Portuguese language, and people who speak it around the world.
In this disarming and personal documentary, Gonçalves explores precisely what it is that is wrong with him. His physical disability is obvious, but doctors have never managed to provide a diagnosis. As he undergoes a series of tests, he paints a picture of his life today and looks back over his past, assisted by a vast collection of VHS videos, for which he sometimes provides commentary to explain the context.
Mixing archival footage and interviews with the band and its crew, this film celebrates the 40-year history of legendary rockers Paralamas do Sucesso.
