Xapiri is a Yanomami term that characterizes the shamans, male spirits (xapiri thëpë) and also auxiliary spirits (xapiri pë). Xapiri is an experimental film about Yanomami shamanism that was filmed during a meeting of 37 shamans at the Watoriki Reserve, Roraima, in March of 2011. The film was designed to take into account two different notions of image: those of the Yanomami and ours. Therefore, it does not set out to explain shamanism, its methods or procedures, but to allow different cultures to visualize and feel the way in which the shamans “embody” the spirits, their bodies and voices.
The Central Prison of Porto Alegre was considered the worst in Brazil by a commission of inquiry of the Chamber of Deputies in 2008. Now, the place opens its doors to expose the poorly maintained structure and the life of penitentiaries in unhealthy conditions. Prison officials, detainees, and relatives of prisoners tell how their daily lives are in jail and propose a reflection on the condition of the Brazilian penitentiary system.
During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history: international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes: a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.
Chacrinha's legacy on TV and excerpts from his personal life are revealed through testimonials and archive images, which tell the story behind the cameras, the behind the scenes that consolidated a new way of communicating Brazil and the facets of a man who is one of the most interesting contemporary characters on the national cultural scene.
Brazilian singer Maria Bethania has a 40-year singing career. A documentary shows her concerts and famous family.
Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this groundbreaking new documentary uncovers the UN sanctioned war on drugs, charting its origins and its devastating impact on countries like the USA, Colombia and Russia. Featuring prominent statesmen including Presidents Clinton and Carter, the film follows The Global Commission on Drug Policy on a mission to break the political taboo and expose the biggest failure of global policy in the last 50 years
Documentary by Portuguese Silvino Santos, about the Amazon, its flora, fauna, its inhabitants and among other wonderful images from the beginning of the 20th century with alternating close-up shots of caimans, jaguars and tropical flora with footage of Indigenous rituals--including some of the earliest known moving images of the Indigenous Witoto people--and longer sequences showcasing the region’s extractive industries: rubber, the Brazil nut, timber, fishing, even the egret feathers that were a staple of women’s fashion at the time.
City of God – 10 Years Later investigates what happened to the actors who took part in the award-winning film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. This documentary shows what City of God’s worldwide success meant to their lives. Were the actors prepared for the film’s success? Did the social background of some of them prove stronger than the opportunity that came their way?
Cássia Eller Rejane. Cássia Eller. Cássia. A powerful restless force on stage, shined herself out of it. One of the greats of Brazilian music, Cássia Eller marked the 1990s and shocked the country with her early death in 2001. A film about the singer, the mother, the woman who exposed her personal life and broke barriers, leaving a beautiful social and artistic legacy.
In 1977, BBC music presenter Bob Harris was given exclusive and extensive access to the Queen. Conducting insightful interviews with all four band members as well as filming them at work in the studio as they were planning and rehearsing their forthcoming North American Tour, and then following them as they performed across the US, Bob captured a band attempting to replicate their huge domestic success on the global stage. To mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the News of the World album, the footage has now been carefully restored and revisited to compile this hour-long portrait of a group setting out to take the next step on their remarkable journey to becoming one of the biggest bands on the planet.
The Morning Sun Shines is a fiction-documentary film by Kenji Mizoguchi and Seiichi Ina. The film is a combination of a drama about a reporter, and documentary footage about newspaper production. Only 25 minutes of footage has survived.
A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. But it doesn’t end there: Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear.
The work mediated by digital apps and platforms is growing worldwide. But the advance of the “gig economy”, called in Brazil “uberization”, has aroused debates about the precariousness and intensification of work.
An uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters who live and work in the garbage quoting Machiavelli and showing us how to recycle ourselves.
UFO experts claim that after the explosion of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was an increase in the number of sightings of UFO'S (Unidentified Flying Objects) worldwide. Just over two decades later, the Brazilian medium Chico Xavier confided to close friends that when man reached the moon on July 20, 1969, happened a meeting with the celestial beings of our solar system to check the progress of humanity. They decided to grant a period of 50 years for humanity to evolve morally and live in peace, without provoking a third world war. If we live in peace until the Deadline, humanity would be ready to enter a new era of its existence, and magnificent feats would be checked everywhere, including our brothers from other planets would be expressly authorized to present themselves publicly and officially to Earth's residents.
The filmmaker Juan Pinzás goes on a physical and also inner journey, in search of some lost images that he filmed in the 80s. The journey takes him from Madrid to Galicia and on the search for these images he meets with various characters who will help him in his undertaking, such as the actors Paul Naschy and Javier Gurruchaga whose personal worlds will be examined in the film. Finally in Vigo, his home city, of which he presents a remarkable portrait, he finds an old film in Super-8mm with the missing images. The catharsis is produced with the viewing of the old film which turns out to be a tribute to cinema and this means the end of the filmmaker's introspective journey.
Hello, Hello, Terezinha! is a feature-length documentary about the country's biggest communication phenomenon. Politically incorrect, radical, renewing, Chacrinha changed Brazilian television forever and expressed a Brazil that was around it, but was not perceived. The film tells the great adventure of Abelardo Barbosa through the eyes of the presenter. It gathers the nuclei of its constellation - chacretes, fledglings and artists who passed through its programs - to identify their individualities and their emotions.
A city that has been living for two years with the law that prohibits "clandestine parties". A youth who, when reunited, risks receiving a police raid on their doorstep, in the street, in the park or in the square. Spatial segregation, denial of the right to the city and public space for the leisure of the poor, black and peripheral. Willingness to make art, create music, lyrics, poetry, beats, hits and spread culture in this repressive scenario.
Tells the stories of six national soccer titles won by São Paulo Futebol Clube, from the point of view of the fans.
As Cartas Psicografadas Por Chico Xavier