SNEAK PREVIEW
Under the Clouds (2016, 74 min., Directors: Marco Antonio Gonçalves and Eliska Altmann)
Wednesday, April 27, 6:00 p.m.
KJCC, Auditorium, 53 Washington Square South
SNEAK PREVIEW
Under the clouds (Das Nuvens Pra Baixo)
Directors: Marco Antonio Gonçalves and Eliska Altmann
Sneak preview of a documentary by Marco Antonio Gonçalves and Eliska Altmann based on the published diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus, a resident of a favela in São Paulo. Fifty years following the publication of the diary, the filmmakers engage with her account by documenting conversations with five Rio de Janeiro favela residents. The film will be followed by a conversation with Marco Antonio Gonçalves, moderated by filmmaker and CLACS professor Peter Lucas.
About the film:
In 1961, for the first time in Brazil’s history, a woman, Carolina Maria de Jesus, living in a slum in São Paulo, writes about her daily life and has her diary published. Fifty years later the directors of the film, inspired by this diary, go to look for characters that somehow dialogue with Carolina. In the slum Complexo da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro, five women reveal different experiences and visions of their life in the slum, thus creating continuities and discontinuities with the poetic and critical vision of life expressed by Carolina de Jesus. The voices and visions of these women, Geandra, Iraci, Edilma, Maria da Paz and Vanessa, provide an revigorating and poetically rich image of life in the slums that escapes from the current themes of violence and male dominance, revealing a slum literally lived through a feminine soul. Through the voice of Geandra, an actress, the words written by Carolina gain a new life, in dialogue with the contemporary voices of the other equally strong characters of the women from the Maré complex.
Discussion:
Marco Antonio Gonçalves is a Brazilian Anthropologist and filmmaker, Professor at the Graduate Program of Anthropology and Sociology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Director of Nextimagem (Centre of Experimental Image and Ethnography). He published several books and articles on the subject of Image and Anthropology (such as ‘The Imagined Real: Ethnography, Cinema and Surrealism in Jean Rouch; Sensorial Thought in Eiseinsten´s oeuvre: Perspective, Cinema and Anthropology.
Peter Lucas teaches at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), the Draper Progam, and Tisch Open Arts. His publications include,Viva Favela: Photojournalism, Visual Inclusion, and Human Rights in Brazil and Action for Disarmament: Ten Things you Can Do. In 2012, Peter Lucas was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his film projects. In 2015 he was invited to the Sundance Film Festival as a Documentary Fellow. He is the creative producer for Hooligan Sparrow, the opening night film at the upcoming Human Rights Watch Film Festival this June.
Co-sponsor: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
*The conversation will be held in English.
This event is free and open to the public. ID is required to enter the building.