João Atala

Apocalypse in the Tropics

When does a democracy end and a theocracy begin? In Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa investigates the increasingly powerful grip Christian evangelical leaders hold over politics in Brazil. She gains extraordinary access to the country’s top political leaders, including President Lula and former president Bolsonaro, as well as to Brazil’s most famous televangelist: a magnetic pastor who aspires to play puppet master to the far-right leader.

Lula

An intimate and revelatory portrait of one of the world’s most influential political figures, Lula explores the rise, fall and triumphant return of beloved Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, chronicling his extraordinary journey in 2022 to regain the Brazilian presidency after spending nineteen months in prison.

The First Women

The documentary presents a group of women who are close to the 60s and share a common past: they were the base of the first women’s soccer team in Brazil.

Our Dream

The life story of Claudinho e Buchecha, greatest icons and most successful duo of the Brazilian funk melody in all time, showing how the rhythm and poetry of the periphery conquered Brazil.

171

171 - It fools me that I like. It is a documentary about short stories and storytellers with almost hypnotic gifts to involve the listeners, the peculiar figure of the "171" (Brazilian embezzlement criminals), who can be as much a criminal swindler as a guy with good speech

Jaguar Man

Two moments in the life of Pedro. First in 1997, he lives with his family in Rio de Janeiro and works at Gás do Brasil, a company that is undergoing a tough restructuring process, with layoffs and early retirements. Soon, privatization will come. In the second moment, two years later, Pedro lives retired in his hometown Barbosa, in the company of his childhood memories, his dog and his girlfriend. By interweaving these two moments in time, we put ourselves in Pedro's skin and experience his fears and delights.

Medusa

By day, Mari and her friends broadcast their spiritual devotion through pastel pinks and catchy evangelical songs about purity and perfection, and by night they form a vigilante girl gang, prowling the streets in search of sinners who have deviated from the rightful path. After an attack goes wrong, leaving Mari scarred and unemployed, her views of community, religion, and her peers begin to shift.

Atravessa a Vida

While a group of high school seniors from an impoverished area of Brazil prepare for an exam that can change the course of their lives, a journey of anxiety and personal drama unfolds before the camera.

The Edge of Democracy

A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.

The Edge of Democracy

A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.

Copacabana - Auschwitz

A retiree attempts to describe his routine as a resident of Copacabana, but the memories of his imprisonment in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp invade his narrative.

Valentina

As a young archivist labours on the reassembly of a long-lost film print, her emotional life spirals into a tumultuous state that is mirrored in the degradation of the frames she so painstakingly works upon.

Kill Me Please

Barra da Tijuca, West Side Zone of Rio de Janeiro. A wave of murderers plague the area. What starts off as a morbid curiosity for the local youth, slowly begins to spoil away at their lives. Among them is Bia, a 15-year-old girl. After an encounter with death, she will do anything to make sure she is alive.

A Morte Diária

The end of that land. The end of that time.

I Do

Junior prepares a big surprise to ask his boyfriend to marry him, but not everything goes as planned.

Rio de Fé - Um Encontro Com Papa Francisco

The documentary talks about World Youth Day, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. The event was Pope Francis' first trip abroad and brought together more than 3 million young people from around the world. The film shows the confluence between Rio de Janeiro and the message transmitted through the Christian faith, listing similarities and specificities from the point of view of five aspects: the Church, the pilgrim, the city, the favela and other religions.

VINTE - RioFilme, 20 anos de cinema brasileiro

The documentary VINTE - RioFilme, 20 anos de cinema brasileiro is a celebration of these two decades of Brazilian cinema, revealing the role of RioFilme in its recent history. Created in late 1992, shortly after the impeachment of Fernando Collor and shortly before the Audiovisual Law, RioFilme is the daughter of our democratic consolidation and the mother of the recovery, which contributed to and often inaugurated different phases of Brazilian cinema, until the current strengthening of its economy and the multiplication of the diversity of its films.

The Living Dead

Rio de Janeiro, May, 2012. João waits for Bia in front of the women’s restroom. However, she mysteriously disappears. Now, he doesn’t know if she died, was raptured or just fell in love with somebody else.

Chantal Akerman, From Here

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.

Handball

Bia is a teenager just like the others: she's into rock, handball and blood.