The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is currently presenting the special virtual series ‘Streaming Spotlight: The New Brazilian Cinema,' running January 21–March 7, 2021 and presenting five recent Brazilian films in conjunction with Film Quarterly’s recently-published dossier on new Brazilian cinema edited by João Luiz Vieira and B. Ruby Rich with texts by Janaína Oliveira, Fábio Andrade, vone Margulies, and Bruno Guaraná, among others.
The series features the films I Remember the Crows / Lembro mais dos Corvos (2018) by Gustavo Vinagre on transgender actress and director Julia Katharine, who tangles fact in fiction as she reflects on her relationships and her passion for cinema in this prizewinning portrait; and two documentaries by indigenous filmmakers from Brazil: Bicycles of Nhanderu (2011), depicting everyday life among the Mbyá-Guarani, and Guardians of the Forest (2019), observing the challenges of defending the boundaries around Indigenous lands.
The series also features two films by André Novais Oliveira: Long Way Home / Temporada (2018), an ode to camaraderie that focuses on the newest member of Contagem’s Dengue fever control crew (Grace Passô) as she adjusts to life in a new city while gradually shedding the sadness that followed her there; and his debut feature She Comes Back on Thursday / Ela Volta na Quinta (2014), a heartfelt film (performed by the director’s own family), and “a hymn to the enduring rhythms of working-class life” (Frieze) that depicts the long-simmering dissatisfaction of a married couple and its effect on the lives of their two adult sons.
The films are available to stream to audiences across the U.S. on BAMPFA’s online platform through March 7. For more information visit www.bampfa.org/watch-from-home/streaming-spotlight-new-brazilian-cinema
