Discoveries from Brazil World Cinema

A poor community in Salvador organizes a resistance against the destruction of the Água de Meninos street market.

A succession of modern songs, from Iê-iê-iê to Bossa Nova, mix with the record of the tastes and customs of the youth of the time.

A film essay that approaches cinema as a water current, revisiting a body of previous essay films through the recurring image of water—rivers, seas, tides, and flows—to explore cinema as a fluid space of memory, movement, and transformation.

One day in the land of Oz, Cap'n Bill enlists the aid of the Scarecrow to help him take young Trot to her new home in Jinxland, only to find it’s been taken over by an evil king.

In a forgotten corner of the vast Brazilian bureaucracy, a psychotic boss uses a time machine to enslave his lazy employees and increase productivity.

"A Day with Jerusa" follows Silvia, a young, mediumic market researcher facing the hardships of underemployment while awaiting the result of a public exam, and Jerusa, a gracious 77-year-old lady, eyewitness to the daily life on Bixiga, a neighborhood filled with ancestral memories. On Jerusa's birthday, while she waits for her family's arrival, the encounter between her deepest memories and Silvia's mediumship allows them to travel through time and realities common to their ancestry.

Marcelo, a 40-year-old dandy, has a memory like no other. Monologuing between coffee and gay hookups, he holds court on a wide range of topics: his status, his Catholic grandmother, and his unusual sexual fantasies. At times, he takes himself for Genghis Khan or poet-philosopher Novalis.

Abril tries to find meaning in her own life. In the process, her perception changes; her skin transforms to the point of becoming a new one.

A poor college student becomes a homosexual millionaire's lover in order to get ahead in life. The latter marries a woman for convenience, and the newlyweds end up sharing the young man.

Rio de Janeiro crooks rove about, performing petty tricks to survive, and get involved with a woman who steals cars.

A tribute to Paulo Autran with historical interviews and archive material from the actor, including previously unpublished testimonies from artists who worked with him.

Milton Nascimento is a singer, a songwriter and a connoisseur of multiple instruments. Music is at the core of his being. He is also considered one of the most important Brazilian artists in its history, with musical partnerships (and friendships) with all of Brazil’s greats, and several Grammys to his name. The artist’s history and legacy are explored in this film, whose starting point is Nascimento’s farewell tour.

A boy invites his friend to embark on an adventure to hunt gnomes, which he assures exist after watching a suspicious video. However, they encounter a peculiar figure in the middle of their journey.

In response to Marielle Franco's execution, the 2018 elections turned into the biggest political upheaval led by black women that Brazil has ever seen, with candidacies in all states. In Rio de Janeiro, Mônica Francisco, Rose Cipriano, Renata Souza, Jaqueline de Jesus, Tainá de Paula and Talíria Petrone applied for the positions of state or federal deputy. The documentary accompanied these women in their campaigns, showing that a new way of doing politics in Brazil is possible, transforming mourning into struggle.

A CIA agent discovers a document about a Brazilian crazy scientist that transformed dead Nazis, including Adolf Hitler, into mummies.

Arlindo works delivering the clothes that his wife washes. During a working day, he finds a customer's cat, who offers a reward to whoever returns it. To deliver the animal, he ends up going through a lot of confusion.

Nathalie inherits an island, Xavana, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Even with the warnings that something bad is waiting for them, given by a saint's mother, they decide to leave and get to know the place. On the island, over 100 years ago, Xavana, a farmer's only daughter, fell in love with a foreigner. Faced with her father's opposition, she decides to run away with her boyfriend to a desert island, where they live happily, in harmony with nature. One day, hallucinated, Xavana went into the sea and never came back. On the enchanted island, many surprises await them both

Young Ênio is having to deal with a lot at home. His family is falling apart, whilst his sister's friends bully him at school. Over the course of one fateful night Ênio goes on an adventure, in a tour-de-force debut about growing up.

A young man on leave from prison, his straitlaced brother, his best friend, a rookie cop and a young actress collide over the course of 72 hours.

A humble farmer aspiring for richness leaves his land to become a prospector. He finds a precious gem and hides it from his employer, for which he ends up beaten and tortured. After being released, he kills the perpetrators and flees to the big city. There he finds some criminals who will end up transforming him into the most powerful drug dealer and pimp of the underworld.

A boy and a girl go to a nightclub. He must kiss as many girls as possible to be accepted by his friends. She can't find her place in that superficial environment and fears to end up alone. Looking for social approval, they feel how hard it is to top expectations when you are a teenager.

The quiet city of Veredas is home to Casa Rosa, a famous brothel in the backlands of Minas Gerais managed by Ismael's mother, known to everyone as O Filho da Puta. Tired of his life, the young man leaves with his dog towards the coast in search of the father he never knew. Along the way, he finds himself faced with situations that, at the same time as they transform him, insist on reminding him of the fate he is fleeing.

I'm afraid of planes and even living next to an airport, I couldn't film almost any flying around here. I have to fly in a few months and the film is a kind of tool to pretend that I have control over whatever happens. I'm already talking about myself, I'm sorry.

People from different areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, try to answer the following question: for you, what is it like to live in the Marvelous City?

Manicurist finds out she's the daughter of a rich baroness, and inherits her fortune. Now, she'll have to fight her mother's parents, with help from some of her friends.

Poor and beautiful girl is hired by a sales promoter to advertise a new brand of soap. The success is immediate, but the need for a new face hinders her way to stardom.

At the countryside town of Piratini, in the far south of Brazil, an elderly couple has a life filled with everyday activities. In the midst of an ordinary day, they recall the past, their roots, those who are gone and their connection to the southern countryside, in wich they have lived their entire lives.

Erotic comedy in 3 segments: "A B. de Ouro" (The Golden A..), "O Homem dos Quatro Chifres" (The Man with Four Horns) e "O Homem, a Mulher e o Etc. Numa Noite de Loucuras" (Man, Woman and Etc in a Crazy Night). All three stories are about single, married and divorced men, and their sexual adventures with women.

After years of dating women, Simone meets Pedro. He's charming, intelligent and attractive, and he's appeared at a time when Simone's relationship with her live-in girlfriend is falling apart. Tormented by uncertainties and doubts that test everything Simone thinks she knows about herself, she must make a decision. But in the end is it really a question of gender? This is a film about sexual expression and choice, and about the importance of following your heart.

After twenty years running a parish with more debt than parishioners, Father Steve ends up officiating the wedding of his high school sweetheart, Isabel. But when the groom bolts, Isabel is left homeless – and Steve takes her in, with one catch: only nuns are allowed to live in the church. What starts as a holy disguise soon stirs up old feelings, and Steve must choose between his vows to God… and his heart.

A trip overseas will change the lives of three brothers. Stumbling over a secret device that contains information about the rapture, they were led from Brazil, over Israel, to Egypt. Soon they realize the danger of this trip and face an old organization.

Dom Salvador & Abolição is a documentary about jazz pianist and composer Dom Salvador, who have been playing for 42 years at The River Café in Brooklyn. One of the architects of Bossa Nova in Brazil and a busy studio session musician and arranger, during the 60’s, Salvador played with the country's best. The man who is credited to be the pioneer of many musical styles, a name in more than a thousand records and the leader of the seminal band Abolition. After recording only one album, Salvador abandons a promising and successful journey with the band to pursue his passion for jazz, moving to New York in the early 70’s.

Felix, oppressed by his daily life with Caio, discovers a place to escape, where he meets Naim.

Ubirajara, chief of the Araguaias, is engaged to Jandyra. One day, however, he falls in love with Aracy, daughter of Itaquê, chief of the Tocantins and sister of Pojucã, his prisoner. He frees Pojucã so he can declare war on Itaquê and retrieve his daughter. Itaquê is wounded by other enemies and goes blind. The two tribes unite and elect Ubirajara as chief.

A young couple in a homoaffective relationship faces tension when one of them introduces their partner to their family, sparking conflict and prejudice. The story explores the challenges of love, acceptance, and the struggles faced by homoaffective families within a judgmental society.

Glória Hartman, a mature woman going through an existential and financial crisis, returns to her hometown, which is undergoing a process of abandonment. Through a crack in the ruins of where the writer Clarice Lispector once lived, Glória begins to see fantastic scenes that will change her life.

Years after a rough separation, a couple meets again and travel to a wild region of Brazil that was once the scenery of their passion. Slowly they find out both have changed and must ask themselves if love has resisted the passage of time.

A beautiful young woman living in an isolated fishing community on an island falls in love with an outsider, a train machinist. But her father, a violent religious fanatic interferes.

In a huge and empty neoclassical mansion surrounded by an indefinite war, the daughter of a bourgeois family returns from Europe bringing a Kafkaesque toy. Because of this object without specific usefulness, everyone in the family begins to discuss life and discover their own weaknesses and follies. This process of self-discovery will lead them to meet phobias, hypocrisies and prejudices, but also their most intimate truth.

An incoherent film diary.

Anna and Klara are a couple and they love each other, but Anna still hasn't fully accepted herself, she still doesn't accept herself as she is.

Luna and Gabriela meet again after years without seeing each other and decide to travel to Itaparica, a city in the state of Bahia, where they enjoyed childhood vacations. On this journey, they know each other for the second time, talking about their fears and ambitions while strolling through places full of memories and love.

A word or phrase whose meaning does not change whether spelt backwards or forwards. A young man loses everything he has in one day. He is fired from his job, kicked out of his hotel, betrayed by his colleagues and turned down by an old flame. We see this ordinary tale told backwards in time

A mysterious health condition emerged in late 2022: dozens of people go to sleep and never wake up, entering a deep coma popularly known as "The Sleep Plague." Ester, a psychology student burdened with guilt over her recent loss of her mother, finds herself involuntarily living in her own dreams. With the chance to reunite with her mother, Ester will discover that living in her mind may not be as pleasant as it seems.

Heartless Mrs. Mavilda runs an orphanage where kids live in miserable conditions because she keeps all of the donation money for herself. She hires a new assistant who, along with Santa, helps children finally have a merry Christmas.