RESSACA / VERTIGE DE LA CHUTE
A film by Vincent Rimbaux and Patrizia Landi
(Brazil/France, 2018, 84 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
After years of growth and hope, Brazil collapsed. From 2009, the year when Rio de Janeiro won the dispute to host the Olympics, to 2017, chaos replaced the prospect of a glorious future. The last 15 years have been marked by the expectations that the big events would be the peak of Brazil’s economic growth and bring international recognition as a world power, but it has never happened. Ten days after the end of the games, the country saw the former president Dilma Roussef undergo an impeachment process and since then, there has been a major political and economical crisis, the worst since the dictatorship period.
All regions have felt the impact, specially Rio. The city, which is a worldwide reference, is bankrupt. Ressaca, in black and white, chooses as its characters, the artistes and the public employees of the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theater to show the dark side of a city in contradiction with its clichés.
Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal is the jewel of the nation’s opera scene but it is on the brink of collapse: the state is bankrupt and can no longer pay the employees’ salaries. The workers resist with all their might and try to save the theatre.
Just before the 2020 International Emmy Awards ceremony, we are pleased to invite you to discover Ressaca, a moving documentary on the story of the financial crisis in Brazil, nominated in the Arts Programming category at the IEMMYS.
The film is available to stream for free through end of November on Vimeo.
Join us for a talk on November 22nd, at 3PM ET, with filmmakers Patrizia Landi and Vincent Rimbaux; subject Marcia Jaqueline, ex Principal dancer in Rio de Janeiro Ballet; producer Stéphanie Lebrun; Catherine Alvaresse, Director of Documentaries at France Télévions, moderated by Cinema Tropical’s Mary Jane Marcasiano. The talk will be streamed on French Culture Facebook page.
This event is organized by French Culture with Cinema Tropical, the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States and Babel Studio, French producer of Ressaca, news reports, and other documentaries that address a world that is in a constant state of flux.
