Cacaso

The historical, political, and social context of Brazil in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and the impact of each decade on the life and work of the acclaimed actress Marília Pêra.

Two years of research and visits to collections, cinematheques and museums; almost seventy interviews that generated 30 hours of recorded material; more than two hundred scanned photos and more than one hundred films watched. In total, more than a thousand hours of work were needed to prepare Brazilian Cinema in the 20th Century. The work is a fascinating journey through all the cinematic cycles that Brazil lived, from the pioneering Belle Époque, through the great studios like Atlântica and Cinédia, Cinema Novo, the urban comedies of the 70's, until the resumption in the late 90's. The documentary is unique, it gives the floor to who really wrote and lived this story intensely.

An abandoned tumbledown theater in the outback of Paraíba state is the initial setting of a film about cinema, which explores the testimonials of the novelist and playwright Ariano Suassuna and other filmmakers such as Ruy Guerra, Julio Bressane, Ken Loach, Andrzej Wajda, Karim Ainouz, José Padilha, Hector Babenco, Vilmos Zsigmond, Béla Tarr, Gus Van Sant and Jia Zhangke. They all respond to two basic questions: why do they make movies and why do they serve the seventh art. The filmmakers share their thoughts about time, narrative, rhythm, light, movement, the meaning of tragedy, the audience‘s desires and the boundaries with other forms of art.

When the inmate Maria do Socorro Nobre reads an article about the Polish artist Franz Krajcberg in Veja magazine, she decides to write a letter to him. Socorro was sentenced to more than twenty-one years in a prison for women in Salvador, Bahia, while Franz is a tormented artist that lost his family and lived his childhood in a ghetto in Poland but survived the Holocaust. Franz moved to Brazil and recovered life wish living close to nature and inspires Socorro to dream with life again.

As head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Brazilian diplomat José Bustani became an obstacle in America’s march to war with Iraq. Ousted from his position, he now revisits the chilling events that marked a turning point in global power structures.

João Goulart (known as Jango) had been democratically elected president of Brazil, but was expelled from office after the coup of April 1, 1964. After that, Jango lived in exile in Argentina, where he died in 1976. The circumstances of his death in the neighboring country were not well explained today. His body was buried immediately after his death, raising the suspicions of premeditated murder. This documentary brings the issue back to the fore and tries to publicly clarify some obscure facts of the history of Brazil.

In 1965, a year after the military coup in Brazil, an oasis of freedom opened in the country's capital. The Brasília Film Festival: a landmark of cultural and political resistance. Its story is that of Brazilian cinema itself.

Through performatic acts and some exposition, a group of poets of that 1980's generation make great use of words, poems and rebellious acts criticizing the then current generation and its lack of admiration for the poetic works that were being created.

Documentary about the brazilian poetess Ana Cristina Cesar, icon of the Mimeógrafo Generation and "Poesia Marginal", books like A Teus Pés, her aspirations, her life e her creative proccess. Artists, friends and researches remembers the poetess.

“Naked Eye” is a film-documentary of long-length of the artistic and existential universe of the singer Ney Matogrosso, which proposes to recreate through archive’s images in counterpoint with the current production of the artist, thirty-five years of career marked for inventive and transgressing spectacles, always symphonize with its time. Through a coherent boarding with its intransigent trajectory, the film intends to translate the language musical-corporal of Ney Matogrosso, trying audiovisuals resources that express signs evoked poetical politicians and in the repertoire of the singer. A film-song that that looks for to, ultimately, embody the voices of an artist who searches for a nation.

It portrays the work of Carlos Filho, Cafi, a photographer from Recife, who for more than 40 years has dedicated himself to recording a large part of the events of dance, theater and Brazilian popular music. Recordings, concerts, tours and rehearsals by important artists passed through Cafi's lens.

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

When a doctor decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo – Carandiru, he meets the future victims of one of the darkest days in Brazilian history.

Eldorado, a fictitious country in America, is sparkling with the internal struggle for political power. In the eye of this social convulsion, the jaded journalist Paulo Martins opposes two equally corrupt political candidates: a pseudopopulist and a conservative. In this context, Paulo is torn between the madness of the elite and the blind submission of the masses. But, in this complex tropical reality, nothing really is what it seems to be.

In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro of the 1930s, João Francisco dos Santos is several things — son of slaves, ex-convict, thug, homosexual and adopted father for a number of pariahs. João expresses himself on the stage of a cabaret as Madame Satã.

In northern Brazil, Hermila patiently waits for her husband. However, he has abandoned her. Sexy, restless and resolute, she raffles off "a night in paradise" with herself. This beautifully-shot portrait doesn't shy away from the burdens of a young scarred woman, but it also celebrates her courage to live according to her own rules.

Before his compulsory retirement, on his last day of work, Marshall, JFK airport's chief Immigration officer, detains a group of Latin Americans and expose them to a series of humiliating situations. Blinded by prejudice, Marshall ends up by causing the death of a young Brazilian. After a period in prison, Marshall goes to Brazil, deadly ill and in a desperate search in order to purge his guilt. In his quest, he is guided by Bia, a young prostitute.

Brazilian badlands, April 1910. Tonho is ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother. The young man knows that if he commits this crime, his life will be divided in two: the twenty years he has already lived and the few days he has left to live, before the other family avenges their son's death. He is torn between fulfilling his ancestral duty and rebelling against it, urged by his younger brother Pacu. That's when a tiny travelling circus passes through the vast badlands where Tonho's family lives.

Four love stories which portray a wide gamut of emotions and desires against the backdrop of Rio de Janeiro. "Elephant's Stomp" : the story of a highway patrol officer who is infatuated with a mulatto dancer at a local nightclub. "Drao" : a publicity man and a boutique owner who face a crises in their marriage. "You Are Beautiful" : two homeless teenagers seek love amidst their personal misery. "Samba of the Great Passion" : a book maker who is charmed and captivated by the voice of a female singer coming from a building across the street. Characters in search of love in order to escape from the boredom, loneliness and helplessness of their lives.

Fifteen year ago, Carlos went to the cinema to meet Júlia, his university colleague with whom he was in love. She never showed up. Carlos was left waiting in the lobby alone. While he waits, something happens which will change his life. A scene, an encounter, an unfinished sentence... Something insignificant, but which will determine the character's life. Fifteen years later, we follow three completely different versions of Carlos's life. In one, he is a man divided between the stability of a secure life in a lukewarm marriage, and the growing desire to live a great love affair. In the second, he is homosexual and places passion above all else. In the third possible life, Carlos is a man who hasn't yet discovered love, and lives through successive disastrous relationships in search of the perfect woman. One of them is his real life. Another is not his life. And a third is the life he'd like to lead. Which is his true life ?

Inspired by the moving book “Só as Mães São Felizes”, by Lucinha Araújo, Cazuza's mother, the film covers a little more than 10 years of the singer’s crazy and brief life – from the beginning of his career in the Circo Voador venue, in 1981, to the huge success and the apotheosis of his shows with the Barão Vermelho band, his solo career, his relations with his parents, friends, lovers and passions, and the courage he had to face his final years, with HIV, until his death, in 1990.

Little Indian boy survives his tribe massacre, growing up together with his wish for revenge and his quest for his own identity. Based on a true story.

Jessica, Sabrina and Daiane have dreams, just like all young people of any social class or place in the world. They live in a low-income neighborhood in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro and find in prostitution a way to survive and satisfy their consumer desires. However, even faced with the trials of absolute uncertainty and lack of hope, Jessica, Sabrina and Daiane insist on loving, having fun and planning their future.

A couple is charged with murdering a friend after discovering a fraud scheme at a data-processing center. They hide in a van, where they set up a clandestine station, so they start to report the fact, seeking to mobilize public opinion until it becomes a national scandal.

A new incarnation of Cangaceiro bandits, led by Coirana, has risen in the badlands. A blind landowner hires Antônio to wipe out his old nemesis. Yet after besting Coirana and accompanying the dying man to his mountain hideout, Antônio is moved by the plight of the Cangaceiro’s followers. The troubled hitman turns revolutionary, his gun and machete aimed towards his former masters.

Five friends meet for lunch. Nothing could be more mundane, but for some reason, no one stayed for dessert.

A comedy addressing the issues of being single in Rio de Janeiro.