Feature Films

Perfumed Ball   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Lirio Ferreira & Paulo Caldas
Feature   93 minutes   1997
With English subtitles
Based on a true story, Perfumed Ball tells the story of one of Brazil's most infamous outlaws "The Cangaceiros". Set in the 1930's, the film follows Benjamin Abrahao, a Lebanese immigrant. A filmmaker and photographer, Abrahao sees an opportunity for fame and fortune in the elusive Lampiao, one of the "cangaceiros'" infamous leaders. Abrahao manages to track down Lampiao at his camp and talks him into becoming the subject of a documentary film. Abrahao captures Lampiao's private life on film from the blood thirsty murders to leading his fellow cangaceiros in prayer. Abrahao returns to Rio de Janeiro where his film is an immediate success. However, he soon finds his life in danger when one of his backers claims the film is unpatriotic. An entertaining and fresh film filled with hilarious dialogue and top-notch performances.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00


Man Who Turned Into Juice, The   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Joao Batista de Andrade
Feature   97 minutes   1980
With English subtitles
A poet from the Northeast sells his handout fiction in Sao Paulo. Mistaken for someone else, he is forced to hide from the police. He becomes a construction worker, and is thus confronted for the first time with the exploitation and oppression of the working class.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95


Drought   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary     1991
With English subtitles
This video depicts the hard lives of impoverished Brazilians in the northeast of the country. Politicians in Brazil overwhelm these people with promises before elections, and then abandon them to literally starve to death. We see President Collor de Melo (who was later impeached) capitalizing on his northeastern background by campaigning in the drought-stricken sertao, making false promises and giving rice to the starving population (each family received only one portion of rice). The tape illustrates the hypocrisy of the government for ignoring the real needs of the people, paying lip service to them only at election time.
Purchase Price: $ 79.95


How Angels are Born   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Murilo Salles
feature   100 minutes   1996
With English subtitles
Branquinha is a young girl from a shantytown in the hills of Rio de Janeiro. Abandoned by her parents, she marries Maguila, a member of a drug-trafficking gang. When Maguila kills his boss and the rest of the gang comes after him, the couple must flee for their lives. They end up in an upscale part of Rio. Maguila decides he needs to use the bathroom, he approaches an American businessman coming out of his driveway. His bodyguard, suspects a mugging and jumps Branquinha, provoking a gunfight. It erupts into a hostage situation which ends in tragedy.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00

The Work of Synapse

Pierre Fatumbi Verger-Messenger Between Two Worlds   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Luiz Buarque de Hollanda
Documentary   90 minutes   1998
With English subtitles
Photographer, ethnographer, author, world traveler, Parisian playboy, friend to kings, initiate of secret religious societies, Pierre Verger was a Frenchman driven by his own personal demons and the power of the African deities to devote his life to the study of the reciprocal cultural influences between Brazil and the Yoruba and Fon regions of West Africa. But the story is not just Verger’s – his life is used as an entryway into an exploration of the complex religious traditions that were brought from Africa to Brazil with slavery and live on in the cultural resilience and deep spirituality of the African and Afrobrazilian people. This sumptuously-filmed documentary is narrated by renowned Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil, who takes us from Brazil to France, Benin, and Nigeria, where priests and kings, friends and colleagues, comment on the significance of Verger’s life and the cultures he immersed himself in. The film shows us not only the dances and divination ceremonies of Africa and Brazil, but demonstrates the deep and pervasive ties of faith and family that exist between a people that even an ocean and the rupture of slavery cannot divide.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00


Gandhi's Sons   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Luiz Buarque de Hollanda
Documentary   55 minutes   1999
With English subtitles
A documentary about the history of the carnival in Bahia seen through the eyes of "Gandhi's Sons," the biggest carnival group in Salvador. The video narrates the story of the group since its foundation in 1949 up to the present day, in which the group has more than ten thousand participants, including Grammy Award-winning musician Gilberto Gil as Vice President.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00


Anesia - A Flight Through Time   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Ludmila Ferolla
Documentary   52 minutes   1999
With English subtitles
Anesia - A Flight Through Time shows theimpressive life of the first female aviator in Brazil: Anesia Pinheiro Machado. Her life story takes the viewer on a flight that goes from the beginning of the century to the present day using a mixture of interviews with both Anesia and other Historians, as well as re-enactments and aerial scenes.
Purchase Price: $ 149.95

Documentaries

All is Brazil   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Rogerio Sganzerla
Documentary   90 minutes   1999
With English subtitles
The culmination of the trilogy that began with IT'S NOT QUITE ALL TRUE and WELLES' LANGUAGE, this fast-paced, fact-packed film presents Welles' presence on Brazilian cinema and radio during 1942. It evokes a clear pictures of the times - as Welles makes IT'S ALL TRUE a cultural project meant to strengthen ties between American allies during wartime. It also demonstrates Welles' impact on those times and Brazilian society through testimonies of friends and collaborators including Grande Othelo, Carmen Miranda, Edmar Morel, Paula Lima, H.G. Wells, Robert Wise, Richard Wilson and others.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00

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• Asian Diaspora (April 2004)
  
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• Jewish Studies (April 2004)
  
• Classic Latin American Cinema (March 2004)
  
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