I have an article in the new issue of the peer-review journal Zapruder World – An International Journal for the History of Social Conflict, a special issue on cinema and social conflict edited by André Keiji Kunigami, Daniel Fairfax, and Luca Peretti. The article is titled “Brazil in Social (Un)Rest: Cinema in a Provisional State,” […]
Articles in English
An interview with André Novais Oliveira
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS A mark of the everyday In April 2019, André Novais Oliveira was in New York for the screening of his latest feature, Long Way Home (Temporada, 2018) at New Directors/New Films, after its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. I’ve been following Novais’ work since 2010, when his astounding short film Ghosts […]
Beyond the future
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS The year starts with good news for researchers interested in contemporary Brazilian cinema: Mostra de Tiradentes, the first big event of the Brazilian festival calendar, has uploaded this year’s main roundtables as podcasts on Spotify. Of course, understanding Portuguese (and, for one of the podcasts, Spanish) is required, but I’ll take this […]
The Moving Creatures (O Que se Move, 2013), Caetano Gotardo
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS * Originally published at Cinética in May, 2013. Half-open window The Moving Creatures, Caetano Gotardo’s debut feature film, begins with Pedro (Wandré Gouveia) seated in bed, with his back turned to a half-open window – open enough to allow a poisonous breeze to come in and spread across the whole film. We’ll […]
Ne Change Rien (2009), Pedro Costa
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS Originally published at Cinética in December 2010. Fixating process At the time Ne Change Rien premiered at Cannes, Eduardo Valente wrote at Cinética that the film was about two essential components of cinema: light and sound. More than a disagreement, I would suggest taking a step back: Ne Change Rien is definitely […]
Horse Money (Cavalo Dinheiro, 2014), Pedro Costa
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS * Originally published at Cinética in January 2016. The inner outside Only a few minutes into Pedro Costa’s Horse Money (2014), a disembodied voice off-screen questions Ventura, who’s wearing a robe and socks. Perhaps because of the sparse furnishing, the white walls, and my own lack of imagination, I imagine it’s the voice […]
Neighboring Sounds (O Som ao Redor, 2012), Kleber Mendonça Filho
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS * Originally published at Cinética in March 2013. Political movements Neighboring Sounds is a movie of exceptional adherence. Its actions stick to the world with a grip that finds few parallels in recent cinema – and not only in Brazil – and that explains part of its public resonance (a very significant part […]
A tribute to Luiz Rosemberg Filho
My friends at Cinema Tropical asked me to write a short tribute to the great Luiz Rosemberg Filho, who passed away 10 days ago. Here’s a Portuguese translation of the piece. Uma vida inconformada: Luiz Rosemberg Filho (1943-2019) A trajetória do cineasta Luiz Rosemberg Filho é marcada pelo ritmo de um passo que atravessa o compasso. […]
“Ava Yvy Vera” at the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities website
I’m thrilled to join Dana Khromov, Valeria Meiller, Sebastián Figueroa, and Ashley Brock in a series of articles called “Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinan Cinema,” published at the website of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities. My piece explores the use of landscape in the 2017 film Ava Yvy Vera […]
Permanent contradiction: a conversation with Adirley Queirós
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS * Originally published at Cinética on August 2015. Interview by Fábio Andrade, Filipe Furtado, Raul Arthuso, Victor Guimarães, and Juliano Gomes. In 2014, we got together with Adirley Queirós during the Olhar de Cinema festival in Curitiba for a conversation that lasted two and a half hours. From a journalistic point of […]