A few months ago, my friends at Cinema Tropical – a non-profit dedicated to the promotion of Latin American cinema in the U.S. – reached out to me with the idea of programming a series of Brazilian films. Carlos Gutierrez and Mary Jane Marcasiano had the same impression I had: Brazilian cinema had been generating […]
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 […]
Vitalina Varela (2019), Pedro Costa: a conversation with Juliano Gomes
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS My work on film and criticism intertwines with the work of filmmaker and critic Juliano Gomes in many ways. In 2005, we founded a film club together at our alma mater PUC-Rio, where we consolidated a habit and a practice of critical discussion. Since then, we have written for the same publications, […]
Copacabana Mon Amour (1970), Rogério Sganzerla
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS * Originally written for a spoken introduction before the screening of Copacabana Mon Amour at Spectacle Theater, New York, November 6, 2019, and revised for this publication. Copacabana Mon Amour is, roughly, the fifth film directed by Rogério Sganzerla, following the shorts Documentary (Documentário, 1966) and HQ (1969), and the two brilliant features […]
Brazil: News from the Front
Signs of Chaos: the films of Rogério Sganzerla
On Friday, November 1, Spectacle Theater launches a two-month long retrospective of the great Rogério Sganzerla. It’s hard to stress enough the importance of Sganzerla’s work in Brazilian cinema – it would be no exaggeration to list him as one of our top-3 greatest filmmakers of all time, which I guess I just did – […]
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 […]
Nathaniel Dorsky at NYU 10th Experimental Lecture
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS “One of the few good things about getting older is that your mind gets smarter than you are.” “The reason I have so many trees in my films is that I’m shy with people.” “This kind of filmmaking has a lot to do with listening to the wind.” “I don’t have modern […]
“The Yellow Night” with other Brazilian films at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
The Yellow Night (A Noite Amarela, 2019), a “spiritual slasher” directed by Ramon Porto Mota that I had the joy of editing, will have its U.S. premiere this Sunday at Cobble Hill Cinema, 7:15pm, as part of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. The film premiered at the Bright Future Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam […]