Theresa Jessouroun

From the perspective of people who live in Complexo do Alemão, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Direito de Sonhar reveals how the absence of the State in Brazil, violence, racism and difficult access to education and culture affect lives and dreams of children and young people and what alternatives they create to overcome these challenges, which reveals their fight for their rights as citizens. The documentary shows the difficult reality of Brazil's favelas, unknown to most of the world.

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It is a documentary about the trajectory of the liberation of the Brazilian woman's body and exposes the differences of this trajectory to white and black women. The film presents interviews, archive images that illustrate some of the factors that contributed to this liberation in Brazil - such as music, dance, fashion and the contraceptive pill - and proposes a discussion about feminism through the deconstruction of the masculine. The film incorporates fictional scenes where men do not realize their macho and racist behavior and full of class prejudices, rooted and accepted by society.

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Point Blank is an investigative documentary on police violence and corruption perpetrated in Rio de Janeiro in the past 20 years. It vividly portrays the most emblematic incidents that occurred during this period through the perspective of family members, witnesses, survivors, and other people who were directly involved in such cases. The film starts with the notorious Vigario Geral Massacre of 1993 and culminates with the executions ordered and carried out by law enforcement agents in 2012 and 2013. These brutal facts are presented based on witness reports that reconstruct the memory of the few who survived the slaughters.

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Narrated in the first person and based on the story of the director's mother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, the documentary presents reflections and questions about the meaning of life and coping with death. The documentary alternates between footage filmed with her mother and reenactments featuring actress Laura Cardoso.

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A Woman's Soul unveils the world of Rio de Janeiro's travestites - these mythological figures who have opt for sexual ambiguity. Caricatures of women who live in marginality. The documentary shows that behind the stereotypes, exoticism and flamboyancy that involve the travestites, there are human beings with dreams, rights, ambitions and frustrations - as everybody else. The film recieved the Honorable Mention at the XXV Jornada Internacional de Cinema da Bahia in 1998. It was also exhibited in New York and at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts.

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From the perspective of people who live in Complexo do Alemão, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Direito de Sonhar reveals how the absence of the State in Brazil, violence, racism and difficult access to education and culture affect lives and dreams of children and young people and what alternatives they create to overcome these challenges, which reveals their fight for their rights as citizens. The documentary shows the difficult reality of Brazil's favelas, unknown to most of the world.

Open details →

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A Woman's Soul unveils the world of Rio de Janeiro's travestites - these mythological figures who have opt for sexual ambiguity. Caricatures of women who live in marginality. The documentary shows that behind the stereotypes, exoticism and flamboyancy that involve the travestites, there are human beings with dreams, rights, ambitions and frustrations - as everybody else. The film recieved the Honorable Mention at the XXV Jornada Internacional de Cinema da Bahia in 1998. It was also exhibited in New York and at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts.

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Three stories of female action in social movements, close in their struggle but distant in the geographical space: the Jardim Uchôa Residents Association, in Recife; the Rancho Fundo Residents Association, in Rio de Janeiro; and the Popular Legal Prosecutors group in Bom Jesus, Porto Alegre.

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Six stories of children and adolescents who had their rights violated, and the reality of the Rights Councils and Guardianship Councils (newly created in 1995) of two Brazilian cities, Blumenau and Belo Horizonte.

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