As the Summer Olympic Games gets underway in Rio, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York is launching a season of women-directed films celebrating contemporary Brazilian cinema.
According to a press release, “O Brasil” is composed of works from “four women directors of different generations.” The program has been put together by guest curator Marcela Goglio, longtime programmer of the Film Society Lincoln Center’s annual Latinbeat film series. “O Brasil” is being presented in collaboration with the New York Latin American film institute, Cinema Tropical.
The series of screenings opens with the New York premiere of Vera Egito’s directorial debut, “Restless Love.” The film, described as “ a funny and endearing portrait of twenty-somethings in crisis,” follows the interconnected lives of three friends living in the same building in Sao Paolo.
It continues with another directorial debut, this time from actress Marina Person. Person’s “California” is a coming-of-age story which, unsurprisingly considering Person started her career as a presenter at MTV, promises “an evocative 1980s period soundtrack.”
Next up will be Anna Muylaert’s “The Second Mother,” a drama centered around a housekeeper caught between her job and her desire to help her daughter who, hoping to gain admission to the University of Sao Paolo, asks to move in with her mother at the house of her wealthy employers. The film won a Special Jury Prize for Acting at Sundance, and was selected as the Brazilian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards last year.
Finally, the series will close with the U.S. premiere of “Campo Grande,” with director and Rio native Sandra Kogut in attendance. Kogut’s film follows the lives of two children abandoned on a doorstep in Ipanema. The affecting work won Kogut the Best Director award at last year’s Havana Film Festival.
“O Brasil: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema” runs August 19-September 9 at the Museum of the Moving Image. See the museum’s website for the full schedule, and more information on the films.
