The Brazilian short film Saudade by Denize Galiao has been announced as the winner of the President’s Award for Best Student Film at the 24th edition of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. The award comes with a cash prize of $5,000.
When Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Galiao starts feeling that sorrow of loss again, her father sighs and says, “Forget about saudade and carry on.” An old Brazilian legend says that the African gods created the feeling of sauda to remind people where they come from and where they are. And that’s just what she’s suffering from. Twenty years ago Galiao to Germany, where her dream of becoming a filmmaker came true. But the papayas there never taste as good as in Brazil. Galiao’s parents live in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, and thanks to Skype her birth country is never far away.
Now that her parents need more support, the sense of dislocation is really making its presence felt “You are physically present, while your mind is somewhere else.” This short film explores and defines the feeling in various ways, both positive and negative. Saudade, a richly layered film about emigration and identity, and about how culture forms one’s worldview, was also the winner of the Student Award at the 2019 edition of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, IDFA.
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival was originally scheduled to run April 2–5, but was canceled amid COVID-19 concerns.
