The body as the territory of disputes and constructions is at the heart of the 18 national works forming the exhibit Ó, meu corpo! Uma coleção de filmes incorporados [Oh, my body! A collection of incorporated films]. Invited by Bienal, curator and researcher Amaranta Cesar outlines in the production of the last decade works that emerge with aesthetic and political strength, combining audio-visual and performing potentials. Not by chance, ideas of the psychiatrist and writer from Martinique, Frantz Fanon, and the French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud sharpen the reception to these contemporary creations, a call to shifts of all types.
Oh, my body! A collection of embedded films
By Amaranta Cesar
“I do not accept that I did not make my body myself”. This famous phrase by Antonin Artaud is a dazzling bearer of a possible translation for what offers a bond to this collection of films: the question implied in the figuration/presence of bodies, central to filmic forms that have emerged with aesthetic and political force in Brazil in the last ten years. Artaud’s phrase expresses the productive/performative tension between the surface of cultural-historical overdetermination that haunts the bodies and the background of subjective indetermination that animates them, impelling them to contest history and intervene in its course.
By saying “I do not accept that I did not make my body myself”, it is as though Artaud found, in astonishment and anguish, “my body is not mine”, “before me, my body already exists”. The result of a web of ancestral stories and deep-rooted structures that embrace it as it moves, the body does precede and surpass the subject. The body is a story of many. A story that is still, for certain bodies, an inheritance and threat of violence and trauma. But it is this recognition – that the body is, to a large extent, dispossession – that entails the retaking that here finds forms and filmic narratives, in which the struggle is to regain the body for oneself. What we find in this collection of films is, thus, the contestation of historical and cultural determinism and its oppressions, towards the retaking of oneself for oneself. A retaking that finds its motto in Grace Passô’s voice and body, in Vaga carne (Vague Flesh): “And that nothing has the right to invade your body. And if anything invades your body, that it asks your permission.”
The desire for authorship and autonomy is enunciated here, from one work to the next, as a pulsation, a movement of incorporation in which freedom and healing are woven and claimed at each level. Through diverse narrative and sensitive strategies, the films collected here express multiple movements through which bodies seek forms of self-invention, which are not, however, forged in solitude, but, instead, are constructed in community, in conjunction with spirits, forces of nature, children, animals, the cities, the ruins, the sisters, the kin, the cosmos.
Film by film, we watch, in this collection, the continuous process, the endless movement of tearing the bodies from their heritages of control and oppression to inscribe them in a present of invention and in a future of freedom, in an infinite expansion. A task translated in all its magnitude by Frantz Fanon, in the final sentence of Pele negra, máscaras brancas (Black Skin, White Masks): “Oh my body, always make of me a man who questions! A conjecture that is presented here as an invitation to dance and act with cinema: Oh my body, always make me a man who questions!
CURATOR’S MINI BIO
Amaranta Cesar: Teacher of the Cinema and Audiovisual Course at Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia (UFRB), Cinema and Audiovisual doctor from University of Paris III – Sorbonne-Nouvelle (2008), post-doctor from New York University and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; the ladder is ongoing. She is the idealizer and coordinator of the Cachoeiradoc – Cachoeira (BA) Documentary Festival and coordinator of the Group of Studies and Practices in Documentary. She has been participating in countless festivals as a curator, member of the judging panel, lecturer, speaker.
FULL AND MEDIUM-LENGT FILMS
YÃMIYHEX – AS MULHERES-ESPÍRITO = [The Spirit-Women]
(Brazil, 2019, 71 min.)
After spending some months in Aldeia Verde, the Yãmĩyhex (spirit-women) get ready to leave. During the party, a crowd of spirits crosses the village. The yãmĩyhex go but always come back missing their fathers and mothers. “When I am filming in the middle of the ritual, dancing, I am not filming; I am also participating. It feels like I am not with the camera filming; it feels like I am dancing, playing, in movement, in the middle of the movement,” the co-director Isael Maxakali declared in August 2020.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Sueli Maxakali e Isael Maxakali
Direction Assistance: Carolina Canguçu e Roberto Romero
Montage: Luisa Lanna em colaboração com Carolina Canguçu e Roberto Romero
Sound Completion: Pedro Portella
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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VAGA CARNE – [Vague Flesh]
(Brazil, 2019, 45 min.)
A weird voice takes over a woman’s body. Together, voice and body seek belonging and their own identity while questioning their roles within society. The film is a transcreation of the theater act by actress and playwright Grace Passô.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Grace Passô e Ricardo Alves Jr.
Procuction: Nina Bittencourt
Photography: Andrea Capela
Montage: Gabriel Martins
Sound: Marcela Santos
Soundtrack: Pedro Durãe
Producing Companies: Universo Produções, Grãos da Imagem and Entre Filmes
Cast: Grace Passô, Zora Santos, Dona Jandira, André Novais, Sabrina Rauta, Helio Ricardo, Aline Vila Real, Tásia d’Paula, Valeria Aissatu Sane and Ronaldo Coisa
Age Recommendatigon: 16 year old
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UM FILME DANÇA – [A Dance Movie]
(Brazil, 2013, 90 min.)
“What about the black people? Where are the black people?” The question exposed in a Nelson Rodrigues chronicle in the 60s of the last century still resonates in Brazil of the XXI century. This question’s echo in the Brazilian performing dance was the starting point for the performance of the Um Filme de Dança [A Dance Movie]. Combining dances and interviews held in Salvador, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and New York, the work shows the trajectory, the thinking, the beautiful, and the overwhelming work of some of the most acting dance black creators from different generations. The film is an homage to the perseverance of men and women dancers and choreographers. A tribute to the black body, owner of its own dance.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Research, script and direction: Carmen Luz
Executive Production: Carmen Luz
Photography: Gustavo Gelmini
Edition: Isabel Castro
Camera: Gustavo Gelmini, Rowena Baines and Guido Marcondes
Sound editing and mixing: Coletivo Duophono, Rodrigo Brayner, Marcos V. Ferreira and Gabriel Martins
Original Soundtrack: Rodrigo Brayner
Direct sound: Fábio Black
Production (Brazil): Carmen Luz and Diogo Oliveira
Production (USA): Carmen Luz, Gustavo Gelmini and Lais Morgan
Production Assistance: Guido Marcondes, Jorge Gonzaga, Amanda Correa, Fanny Castro and Gloria Coutinho
Post Production: Guilherme Hoffmann and Guido Marcondes
Still: Rodolfo Lo Bianco
Cast: Balé Folclórico da Bahia, Mercedes Batista, Gilberto de Assis, Marlene Silva, Charles Nelson, Rubens Barbot, Elisio Pitta, Mestre King, Augusto Omolu, Augusto Soledade, Cia. Étnica de Dança, Amanda Corrêa, Elton Sacramento, Valeria Monã, Luciane Ramos-Silva, Evandro Passos, Junia Bertolino, Cia. Bataka, Isaura de Assis, Mestre Manoel Dionísio, Nem Britto, Nildinha Fonseca, Rui Moreira, Andre Bern, Zebrinha, Clyde Morgan, João Carlos Ramos, Paula Souza, Cia. Aérea de Dança, Alcione Carvalho, Daniel Jofre Vieira, Édio Nunes, Renato Belo, Firmino Pitanga, Edileusa Santos, Amélia Conrado, Bando de Teatro Olodum, Cia. Laso de Dança, Carlos Laerte, Tiago Oliveira, Maria da Lapa, Fernando Ferraz, Carlos Afro, Natan Rodrigues, Associação Cultural Lemi Ayo, Beto Pacheco, Bloco Afro Cultural Orunmila, Bloco Afro Cultural Olodumarê
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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AGORA – (Now)
(Brazil, 2020, 68 min.)
The film invites artists to launch themselves into an empty box, a device that materializes the confinement in the present time. Is the body free to improvise?
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Dea Ferraz
With: Adelaide Santos, Cris Nascimento, Dante Olivier, Flávia Pinheiro, Joy Thamires, Kildery Iara, Lívia Falcão, Lucas dos Prazeres, Orun Santana, Raimundo Branco, Rosa Amorim, Sílvia Goes and Sophia William
Producers: Carol Vergolino, Cezar Maia, Dea Ferraz, Dida Maia, Fernanda Ferrario, Marcelo Barreto and Neusa Rodrigues
Executive Production: Carol Vergolino, Neusa Rodrigues and Fernanda Ferrario
Photography direction: Marcelo Lacerda
Light Design: Natalie Revorêdo
Montage: Joana Collier
Production Direction: Lu Teixeira
Direct Sound: Simone Dourado
Cast production: Bruna Leite
Cast preparation: Livia Falcão and Silvia Goes
Sound Design: Kiko Santana
Mixing: Gera Vieira
Color: Pablo Nóbrega
Visual identity: Clara Moreira
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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SHORT-FILM SESSION 1
NOVO MUNDO – [New World]
(Brazil, 2020, 21)
A black woman walks through forests and ruins, recognizing a territory built on the blood of many people. This recognition could have paralyzed her with fear but inspires her with acts of bravery.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Cast: Mohana Uchôa
Narration: Zezé Motta
Scrip and Direction: Natara Ney and Gilvan Barreto
Executive Production: Frida Projetos Culturais
Production: Aline Ribeiro, Thamires Vieira
Production Assistance: Luisa Acetti and Leonardo Portilho
Photography: Lilis Soares
Camera Assistent: Hugo Lima
Cast Preparation: Sol Miranda
Direct Sound: Evelyn Santos
Montage: Natara Ney, edt.
Art Direction: Ananias Caldas
Stage Manager: Fernando Brigadeiro – Buda
Search: Mariana Sgarioni, Mariana Luiza and Cibele Pixinine
Sound Edition: Carlos Trilha
Color Correction : Fabricio Batista
Finalization, DCP: Andre Farkatt
Visual programming: Yana Parente
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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PARA TODAS AS MOÇAS – [For All the Ladies]
(Brazil, 2019, 2 min.)
I will now talk to all the ladies. I will now spank, for all the ladies. For the travesty, for all of them. I will now make a macumba for all the fags. For all the female testicles, for all of them.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Montage and Direction: Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro
Images: Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Rodrigo Jesus, Larissa Brasileiro Silva and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Percussion: Centro Espírita Caboclo Sete Estrelas do Mar no bairro de Santíssimo, Rio de Janeiro
Voice and Text: Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro
Age Recommendatigon: 10 year old
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YÃY TU NUNÃHÃ PAYEXOP: ENCONTRO DE PAJÉS – [Shaman Reunion]
(Brazil, 2021, 26 min.)
In July 2020, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, around 100 tikmῦ’ῦn-maxakali families left the Aldeia Verde reserve (Ladainha – MG) in the quest for new land. The tension caused by isolation made the need for land rich in forest and, especially, water more urgent to strengthen the relationship with the people-spirits yãmĩyxop, through the singing, rituals, parties, and games.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Sueli Maxakali
Images: Sueli Maxakali
Montage: André Victor and Cris Araújo
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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NASCENTE – [Spring]
(Brazil, 2020, 5 min.)
A river and its affluents.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Camera and Direction: Safira Moreira
Original soundtrack: C AFRO-BRASILEIRA
Mixing: Rose Juam
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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SHORT-FILM SESSION 2
TUDO QUE É APERTADO RASGA – [Everything that is tight, tears]
(Brazil, 2019, 27 min.)
In the attempt of forging a tool capable of operating the cutout by justice, this film resumes and intervenes in archive images, restudying part of the national cinematography under the light of presence and agency of the black actor and actress.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Cast: Antônio Pitanga, Antônio Pompeo, Elida Palmer, Eliezer Gomes, Grande Otelo, Henrique Felipe da Costa (Henricão), João da Cunha, Jorge Coutinho, Lázaro Ramos, Léa Garcia, Lélia Gonzales, Luíza Maranhão, Mário Gusmão, Milton Gonçalves, Ruth de Souza, Watusi, Zezé Motta and Zózimo Bulbul
Montage, sound, script and Direction: Fabio Rodrigues Filho
Cards: Fabio Rodrigues and Danilo Scaldaferri
Translation (English): Anderson Henrique Gonçalves
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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AURORA
(Brazil/Cuba, 2018, 15 min.)
On the stage of a destroyed theater, Elizabeth, Mercedes, and Crisálida, three black women of different ages, relive and reinterpret their stories, conflicts, and losses, turning to monologues, boleros, and dance memories.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Everlane Moraes
With: Elizabeth Fuentes, Mercedes Rodríguez and Crisálida Páez
Production: Tatiana Monge
Photography: Pablo Ascanio
Direct Sound: Bianca Martins
Montage: Elena Cedeña
Distribution: Matheus Mello
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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ELEKÔ
(Brazil, 2015, 6 min.)
Looking at history from the port, in small Africa, to acknowledge and affirm the powers and the beauties. To give birth, from one’s own suffering and memory, to a horizon of freedom, support, and collaboration. To meet, in the presence of other women, the strength of the female and the sacred sense of being, until being able to celebrate life, in a female communion and society.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Coletivo Mulheres de Pedra
Photography Direction: Ana Rovati
Art Direction: Gaya Rachel
Script: Coletivo Mulheres de Pedra
Production: Erika Candido, Monique Rocco and Roberta Costa
Cast: Simone Ricco, Livia Vidal, Dai Ramos, Ana Magalhães, Dani Gomes, Angela Peres, Veronica da Costa, Eva Costa, Andrea dos Anjos, Míllena Lízia, Andrea Villas Boas, Fernanda Torres Lima, Leila Netto and Roberta Costa
Edition and montage: Amanda Palma and Adriana Bassi
Soundtrack: Ana Magalhães
Age Recommendatigon: 16 year old
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ARCO DO MEDO – [Arch of Fear]
(Brazil, 2017, 9 min.)
A report of insurgency. Male and female unravel in a black body that resists in the quest for freedom and time. Blurring the limits of gender in the attempt of simply being, a black body super lives.
Full Technical Data Sheet
With: Juan Rodrigues
Direction, argument, script, montage, sound and production: Juan Rodrigues
Photography Direction: Silvia Leme
Age Recommendatigon: 12 year old
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SHORT-FILM SESSION 3
QUEBRAMAR – [Breakwater]
(Brazil, 2019, 27 min.)
Young lesbians from São Paulo travel to the beach to spend New Year’s. There, they build a physical and emotional refuge for their bodies and affections through friendship and music. In this safe environment of mutual care, they can dance.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Cris Lyra
Production: Camila Gaglianone
Photography Direction: Wilssa Esser and Cris Lyra
Edition: Beatriz Pomar and Henrique Cartaxo
Sound edition and mixing: Daniel Turini and Henrique Chiurciu
Direct Sound: Marina Bruno and Tamis Haddad
Colorist: Henrique Renagatti
Age Recommendatigon: 12 year old
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CORPOSTYLEDANCEMACHINE
(Brazil, 2017, 7 min.)
“I walk for mystery, I live for mystery […] Our body is a machine, you either take care of it or you know how it goes, right?” Among memories from the nightclub and reports from daily lives resistances, Tikal, an important LGBTQIA+ personality from Recôncavo da Bahia, dances and confronts the rules.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction, photography, sound and montage: Ulisses Arthur
Production and Direction Assistance: Marvin Pereira
Color correction and Finalization: Thacle de Souza
Poster: Fabio Rodrigues
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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VEIAS DE FOGO – [Veins of Fire]
(Brazil, 2020, 18 min.)
A horde of demon women crosses the city towards hell, taking the faith in the apocalyptic word to their own bodies.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Direction: Coletivo Carnaval no Inferno (Darwin Marinho, Dhiovana Barroso, Dora Moreira, Eduardo Barrosa, Eduardo Moreira, Garu, Luana Barros, Marissa Noana, Monstra, Nara Sena, Peaug, Ridimuin, Raquel Gomes, Silvia Miranda and Sunshine Armstrong)
With: Coletivo Festa Crioula (Viúva Negra, Amanda Quebrada, Lolost, Mumu); Coletivo Becha Cearense Ball (Silvia Miranda, Sol Duarte, Bilry Kengaral, John7 Avalanx, Sully Ferrer and THAY); Andressa Barbosa, Bianca Bigbug, Bruno Lése, Carlinhos Freitas, Ed Borges, Emanuel Rodrigues, Janine Getúlio Abelha, Patrick Harley, Pedro Jefferson, Raylson Nogueira, Rick Silva, Rubens Lopes and Samara Camila. Sy Gomes, Tamara Lopes, Tayana Tavares, Thaiane Pinheiro, Vanessa Pereira and Ykaro Andrade
Script: Darwin Marinho
Montage: Darwin Marinho and Eduardo Barrosa
Sound Design: Dora Moreira and Lucas Carvalho
Analogics Photographs: Eduardo Barrosa
3D Sculptures: Garu
Videos: Eduardo Barrosa, Lilian do Rosário and Jorge Silvestre
Age Recommendatigon: 14 year old
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SHORT-FILM SESSION 4
SUBSIDÊNCIA – [Subsidence]
(Brazil, 2020, 7 min.)
Subsidence is a sinking of the soil, dissolution of this material structure inescapable to the eyes and feet. The pain of the subsidence caused by the predatory exploitation of rock salt in Maceió (Alagoas) is, in its turn, intangible and irreparable. With the soil, homes, neighborhoods, feelings of belonging, and a whole territory of affections also sunk, in which thousands of people have built their stories.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Actress: Gessyca Geiza
Script and Direction: Beatriz Vilela and Marcus José
Photography Direction: Renata Barachoand João Dias
Production Direction: Rose Monteiro
Sound Captation: Fábio Cassiano
Still Photography: Leonardo Amaral
Montage: Beatriz Vilela and Renata Baracho
Color: Pedro Krull
Original Soundtrack: Luis Fernando Galvão
Age Recommendatigon: All Ages
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ESTAMOS TODOS AQUI – [We Are All Here]
(Brazil, 2018, 20 min.)
Rosa, kicked out of home, needs to build her own shack. In the meantime, a project to expand the largest port in Latin America moves forward, not only over Rosa but all the residents of Favela da Prainha.
Full Technical Data Sheet
Script and Direction: Chica Andrade and Rafael Mellim
Scene Direction: Rafael Mellim
Actors Direction: Chica Andrade
Script Supervisor: Ana Souto
Script Collaboration: Ana Souto, Iná Camargo Costa, Thiago Cervan, Miriam Galdino, Luciana Alves, Patrick Aguiar and Rosa Luz
Photography Direction: Vinícius Andrade
Art Direction: Thiago Cervan
Direct Sound: Julio Galassi
Original Soundtrack: Martin Eikemeier
Production Direction: Juliana Soncini Salazar
Montage: Rafael Mellim, Chica Andrade and Coletivo Bodoque
Executive Production: Alexandre Mroz Tastardi
Production: André Gevaerd and Francisco Garcia
Sound Design: Filipe Maliska and Arthur Boscato
Cast: Rosa Luz, Ana Souto, Miriam Galdino, Chica Andrade, Rene Campos, Patrick de Aguiar, Chrisley de Aguiar, Christian Carlos de Aguiar, Christopher de Aguiar, Maria Gabriela Galdino, Bianca Nunes Fernandes, Vick Aliah, Renilda Nunes da Silva “Família” and Amauri Cerqueira
Interviewees: Luciana Alves, Cláudia Ferreira Marques, Renilda Nunes da Silva “Família” and Milena Aparecida da Silva Rocha
Age Recommendatigon: 14 year old
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CORPO POLÍTICO – [Political Bodies]
(Brazil, 2016, 4 min.)
In Brazilian TV, old speeches, fascist and sexist, shout retrocession and violence, while another scream takes shape on the streets. We are the new politics! Feminism is a revolution!
Full Technical Data Sheet
The Movement Women in the Audiovisual Pernambuco (MAPE) is composed by the filmmakers Dea Ferraz, Maíra Iabrudi, Lu Teixeira, Rapha Spencer, Sá Luapo and Camila de Carvalho.
Age Recommendatigon: 14 year old
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