Escolas De Samba - O Espetáculo

Francisco lives alone in an apartment in Rio de Janeiro. A collector of antique wooden furniture – for which he has a great fondness – he brings with him great stories, from his childhood and youth to a brief journey into the past, gifting us with accounts and historical recollections of a life full of struggle and resilience.

On 12 June 2000, in Rio de Janeiro, Ônibus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to kill all the passengers. Transmitted live on all national networks, this shocking and tragic event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the most terrifying examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.

​An unprecedented collection of pictures, characters and historical facts about the city of Rio de Janeiro, rescued by tv networks, documentary filmmakers and foreign journalists over the course of the 20th Century. The film reveals how Rio, its inhabitants and its cultural and natural attributes have been seen by foreigners. This is an opportunity to relive, through the eyes of a foreigner, social, political, technological and mundane events which Brazilians either did not manage to document audiovisually or whose works were lost.​

Todo Dia é Dia de Feira

The last days of summer captured on 16mm.

Founding a social Muay Thai project in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Mestre BG and his competitors face the adversities of an underfunded project and fight to win their place on the podium. The challenges intensify when one of the students, Raíssa Pacheco, secures a spot to compete in a South American championship in Uruguay.

Acústico MTV: Zeca Pagodinho

Baptismo de Terra

200 years of Cologne Carnival! The most colourful and loudest festival in Cologne celebrates a big birthday. In February 1823, a few men from Cologne's upper class founded the so-called 'Festordnende Komitee' - the forerunner of today's 'Festkomitee Kölner Karneval'. This 'big bang' was a reaction to the old festival getting out of hand in orgies and violence. Carnival was in danger. A ban by the Prussian rulers was imminent. The new committee wanted to control the wild goings-on, establish rules and organise the celebrations.

Gilberto Gil talks with friends and share his thoughts, influences and reveal his impact on brazilian music and vision of the black people.

Deixa O Samba Me Levar

A community daycare experience in Vila Kennedy, Rio de Janeiro, where resident mothers works in the neighborhood.

Fidel Castro no Rio de Janeiro, 1959

When radio host Milla (Katrin Bauerfeind) tells Sharronda, a listener to her new Break-up Show, live that her boyfriend Mufti doesn't want anything more to do with her, Sharronda (Alina Levshin) runs amok, raids the flower shop she used to work in, takes her ex-boss hostage and threatens to kill herself. To calm the situation, psychologist Lisa (Barbara Auer) disguises herself as a chemist and goes to the flower shop with the ransom money, only to learn from Sharronda that her brothers are right-wing radicals. Might they have forced her boyfriend to split up with her? A brand-new episode of Lars Becker's hit series.

Festive Land examines one of the largest and most extraordinary popular celebrations in the world, the week-long Carnival that brings more than two million people to the streets of Salvador, the capital of Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. Carnival is the most expressive showcase of the unique cultural richness of Bahia, where African culture has survived, prospered, and evolved, mixing with other Brazilian influences to create forms found nowhere else in the world. The film captures this unique cultural energy through extraordinary footage of musical performances, dances, religious manifestations, and street celebrations. At the same time, Carnival reflects the racial and social tensions of Brazil's heterogeneous society. At first glance there appear to be two million people chaotically mixed on the streets, but a more detailed look reveals how patterns of segregation driven by racial, social and economic differences continue in Carnival.

Documentary about Brazilian music circa 1969, with extremely rare scenes, such as the only color footage of Pixinguinha, images of João da Baiana, one of the fathers of Samba, Maria Bethânia rehearsing at Barroco nightclub, Baden Powell playing his acoustic guitar, Paulinho da Viola showing his masterpiece "Coisas do Mundo, Minha Nega", that he had just finished, and Márcia, a singer from São Paulo.

Samba de Memorias

For the first time ever, experience the work of a nation as it host the world and puts on a show like never before.

Documentary short that explores the meaning of the locals’ African identity through the Carnival festivities.

Corona shut everything down. Including Carnival. Filmmaker Frank van Osch from Den Bosch searches for the soul of this beautiful folk festival. Distinctive and seasoned carnival revelers talk about the deep-rooted spirit of the festival and the tears they shed when Carnival was canceled in 2021. The sadness of Carnival is about life, with laughter and tears, as reflected in Carnival, in the year it couldn't take place. This documentary is an ode to the most unique folk festival in the South.