The name of Brazil’s biggest airport, Guarulhos, references the fact that it was built on indigenous territory. In a blend of realistic and stylised scenes, the film follows a member of the ground staff as she seeks her roots beneath the runway.
Justino, a 45-year-old member of the indigenous Desana people, is a security guard at the Manaus harbor. As his daughter prepares to soon depart to Brasília, Justino comes down with a mysterious fever.
Nuria, 12, Fabio, 9, and their mother arrive on a small island in the middle of the Amazon, bordering Brazil, Colombia and Peru. They fled the Colombian armed conflict, in which their father disappeared. One day, he mysteriously reappears in their new home.
Ariel Kuaray Ortega returns to his hometown to visit his grandfather in a region of Brazil bordering Argentina. He wants to finally hear the full story of Canuto, a fellow villager who turned into a jaguar and then died a tragic death. A plan soon arises to make a film about the mysterious Canuto, with the villagers playing all the roles.
The ghosts of Boca do Lixo. Ido Oliveira still walks through Triumpho St.
Documentary about the life of three families living in the city of Boa Vista, north of Brazil. Some of them look for a more intense daily life going to parties, work and dealing with family trouble, others want to get back to the tribe. Personal crises and the search for their own identity are aspects that reveal great relevance.
Greasy hair; grooved and unshaven face; emanating alcohol fumes. Raúl just doesn't care anymore. In the opening scene of Death Inhabits at Night, the unemployed writer pours himself another glass of cheap wine as an upstairs neighbour leaps to his death. His girlfriend is clearly more upset by the incident. A little later, she finds a letter by the door reminding them to pay the rent or be evicted. Raúl shrugs and suggests going back to bed. But all of this dismissiveness changes following a meeting with a troubled young girl.
After the largest mining dam break in history, further collapses threaten millions of Brazilians. A state councillor challenges the government’s modus operandi, while dam refugees resist the mining companies’ abuses in their threatened communities.
Invented by the post-New Wave, the exercise is well-known: put a filmmaker in the frame, make him talk about his career, evoke his admirations, rummage in his methods, and add words to silences, spoken images to seen images. It’s always very instructive. As is the case here too. Chantal Akerman, passing through South America, talks about herself for an hour, and it’s fascinating. Even if her recalling of the relationship between the cinema and time makes up only a few rare minutes.
