Doc no Rio Through the Eyes of Curator Maria Mendes

How did the idea of presenting the Doc no Rio showcase of Brazilian documentary, a part of which is available exclusively online at DAFilms.com, come about? Why does it make sense to be interested in Brazilian film? The curator of the programme Maria Mendes has answers!

How did the idea of presenting the Doc no Rio showcase of Brazilian documentary, a part of which is available exclusively online at DAFilms.com, come about? Why does it make sense to be interested in Brazilian film? The curator of the programme Maria Mendes has answers!

Brazilian cinema little known in Portugal: such is the motto behind the programme Doc no Rio proposed to Doclisboa. Ever since I came to live here, I realised the more authorial, more independent, freer and more reflective cinema made in Brazil still seldom gets here. The language that brings us closer also still runs into plenty of noise, which makes it hard to understand the state of these two countries that are so far away.

Film has the power to reverse that, offering transversal, non-obvious, subjective looks, outside what’s “news”. The curatorship is based on a selection of what’s most recent and unseen, including productions from different points in Brazil, thus illustrating the country’s cinematic diversity.

In case of the short films, there’s a greater time span, with films from the beginning of the 2000s and onwards. The chosen feature films are, in turn, more recent and unreleased productions; from stop motion animations (Green Vinyl by Kleber Mendonça Filho, Pernambuco) to poetic and dreamlike films (From the Window of My Room by Cao Guimarães, Minas Gerais); from short films with striking narratives erasing the border between reality and fiction (Ghosts by André Novais, Minas Gerais) and shady, magical themes (The White Sheet by Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra, São Paulo) to personal documentaries (Elena by Petra Costa, Minas Gerais) and to the strong and political cinema from Ceilândia, the outskirts of the capital Brasília that has been the subject of debate (Hood Movie: is the City only one?, by Adirley Queirós), and also from São Paulo (Necropolis Symphony by Juliana Rojas), Doc no Rio offers a first small overview of what one can’t miss in contemporary Brazilian cinema.

Maria Mendes / Showcase Curator

Watch the film programme Doc no Rio online for free from June 29 to July 5 at DAFilms.com and learn more about the Lisbon screenings on the website of Doclisboa festival!

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