Social & External
Unknown Role
A documentary that focuses on two young male inhabitants of Recife (statistically, the fourth worst city in the world to live in) who have both reacted strongly to their situation. One has become a drummer in a rap/rock band. The other has killed forty-four people and is now in jail. Both use the term "Wicked Souls" to describe their enemies.
The cinema of Pernambuco is considered one of the most complex components of Brazilian cinema, particularly for its potency and creative style. The presence of women in filmmaking seldom holds the same historical notoriety as that of men, and the Pernambuco scene is no exception. In the context of "Amor, Plástico e Barulho" (Love, Plastic, and Noise), we find a film that serves as a testament to the marginalization of women in the creative industry, intertwining themes of consumption and the production of brega music. Hence, we use "Feminino e Barulho" (Feminine and Noise) as a means to share what we've learned. Renata Pinheiro has inspired us to craft a narrative that gives voice to those who need to be heard. We are here to showcase a glimpse of them and what they represent. "Feminino e Barulho" is a short film about love, femininity, sisterhood, and empowerment.
Amid the 2019 drought in Brazil’s Northeast, Madalena loses her mother in a tragic event that changes her life. Alone, she joins a rebellion at the Grajaú farm in Canudos, where a community rises against government neglect. A violent State response turns their hope into sorrow. Later, journalist Júlia returns to uncover the truth, hearing from people like Lúcia, a grieving mother. As Júlia investigates, hidden stories emerge: Madalena's forbidden love with rebel João and Pedro's thirst for revenge after losing his father to political violence. Their paths cross in a tale of justice, pain, and redemption. Inspired by Ariano Suassuna, famed for "A Dog’s Will", this short film is a prelude to "A Pena e a Lei", created by 9th-grade students from Escola SESI Cambona, in Maceió, Brazil. It was screened at the SESI Festival of Art and Culture in July 2023, touching audiences with its emotional and socially conscious narrative.
Dirlinho and his cousin’s childhood is marked by deprivation and violence. They try to escape by working as jockeys. While the punters bet on them, they gamble with their lives for a better future by riding doped horses.
Denise, Dilma and Teresinha are three women with visual impairment who live in Teresina. Each one with a type of impairment, they share their experiences, challenges and hopes as women who feel the world beyond what their eyes can see.
This short film follows Pelé, a retired nurse who looks back on his time as a Mateus in the century-old Bumba Meu Boi group, Boi Tira-Teima. As he builds a new boi for the festival, he revisits the defining moments of his journey as a performer, carnival artist, and son of Mestre Gerson, the group’s former patriarch. The film explores how the way we carry our memories of the past shapes who we become in the present.
In the neighborhood of Peixinhos, located between the cities of Olinda and Recife, fragments and pieces of memory are contested amid abandonment.
Short by Jomard Muniz de Britto
The Governor of Pernambuco, Sérgio Loreto, and politicians from his cabinet pose for the camera. The celebrations of the Centennial of the Confederation of the Equator included a Public Force parade (Infantry, Cavalry, and Fire Brigade), an open-air Mass celebrated by Archbishop Dom Miguel Valverde, and the laying of the foundation stone of the Palace of Justice.
A street performer in Recife (Brazil), decides to host a live broadcast with his followers to raise money for a new bluetooth speaker.
In order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of a convicted German war criminal, as a spy. As they begin to fall for one another, Alicia is instructed to win the affections of Alexander Sebastian, a Nazi hiding out in Brazil. When Sebastian becomes serious about his relationship with Alicia, the stakes get higher, and Devlin must watch her slip further undercover.
A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.
An astonishing journey revealing the awesome power of the natural world. Over the course of one single day, we track the sun from the highest mountains to the remotest islands to exotic jungles.
John Shepherd spent 30 years trying to contact extraterrestrials by broadcasting music millions of miles into space. After giving up the search, he makes a different connection here on earth.
A non-narrated documentary following the lovesome lives of four infants from birth to their first birthday. The babies featured are two from rural areas: Ponijao from Opuwo, Namibia, and Bayar from Bayanchandmani, Mongolia, as well as two from urban areas: Mari from Tokyo, Japan, and Hattie from San Francisco, USA.
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students.
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Lisbela is a young woman who loves going to the movies. Leléu is a con man, going from town to town selling all sort of things and performing as master of ceremonies for some cheesy numbers, such as the woman who gets transformed into a gorilla. He gets involved with Linaura, a sexy and beautiful woman who happens to be the wife of the most frightening hitman of the place. The hitman finds out his wife's affair and goes after Leléu, who has to leave in a hurry. In another town, he meets and falls instantly in love with Lisbela, who is engaged to Douglas, a hillbilly who tries hard to pass for a cosmopolitan Rio de Janeiro dweller.
After the India of Varanasi’s boatmen, the American desert of the dropouts, and the Mexico of the killers of drugtrade, Gianfranco Rosi has decided to tell the tale of a part of his own country, roaming and filming for over two years in a minivan on Rome’s giant ring road—the Grande Raccordo Anulare, or GRA—to discover the invisible worlds and possible futures harbored in this area of constant turmoil. Elusive characters and fleeting apparitions emerge from the background of the winding zone: a nobleman from the Piemonte region and his college student daughter sharing a one-room efficiency in a modern apartment building along the GRA.
An intimate portrait of the small shops and shopkeepers of the Rue Daguerre in Paris, a picturesque street that has been the filmmaker’s home for more than 50 years.
In this genre-bending tale, Errol Morris explores the mysterious death of a U.S. scientist entangled in a secret Cold War program known as MK-Ultra.
The extraordinary story of the planet’s most famous contemporary scientist, told in his own words and by those closest to him. Made with unique access to Hawking’s private life, this is an intimate and moving journey into Stephen's world, both past and present.
The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg, is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s film. Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this work, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome.
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
This remarkable journey across our planet and universe explores how meteorites, shooting stars, and deep impacts have awoken our wonder about other realms—and make us rethink our destinies.
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Bomman and Bellie, a couple in south India, devote their lives to caring for an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu, forging a family like no other.
The life of Mr. Spock, as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played him for almost fifty years, written and directed by his son: Adam.
In one single, epic camera move we journey from Earth's surface to the outermost reaches of the universe on a grand tour of the cosmos, to explore newborn stars, distant planets, black holes and beyond.
Years spent recording footage of creatures from every corner of the globe is bound to produce a bit of drama. Here's a behind-the-scenes look.
