The 14th edition of Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival takes place Tuesday, November 15 through Saturday, November 19, in Los Angeles. The festival will open with Gabriel Martins’ Mars One (Marte Um), which had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and is the official selection to represent Brazil for Best International Feature at the upcoming Oscars®.
“We are thrilled and honored to have Gabriel’s film open this year’s festival, as it is a great feeling when an artist that we have believed in since the start of their career reaches such great heights,” said Talize Sayegh, founder of the Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival. “This film is not only a great piece of cinema, but it marks a historic moment for Brazil as it is the first time that we have a Black filmmaker’s film as the country’s entry submission to the Oscars®.”
During the Opening Night festivities, the festival will present its annual Hollywood Brazilian Honors Award to writer, director, filmmaker and actor Wagner Moura for his producing and directing work. Moura produced Sergio about the chaotic aftermath of the US Invasion of Iraq and directed Marighella about Brazilian writer-turned-politician Carlos Margihella that opposed the Brazilian military dictatorship, in addition to being internationally known for playing Pablo Escobar on Netflix’s “Narcos.”
The event will also present the Hollywood Brazilian Raising Horizon award to Liniker, a widely known Brazilian singer-songwriter and former bandleader for Brazilian soul and Black music band Liniker e os Caramelows. Liniker is the star of Amazon’s “September Mornings,” a show about the journey of a trans woman who leaves her hometown and doesn’t comprise her goal to be free and independent. The HBR Horizon Award is given to Brazilian personalities that are breaking into the US market. Linker will also be performing after the Opening Night screening.
The festival will feature a special screening of the 4K restoration of Glauber Rocha’s Black God, White Devil (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol). The film was selected to be part of this year’s Festival de Cannes Classic section.
Saturday, November 20 marks the festival’s LGBTQ+ day featuring Pedro Henrique França’s Political Bodies (CorPolítica), a documentary about Brazil’s LGBTQ+ political candidates followed by Marcelo Gomes’ Paloma, a drama about a transgender woman who is a farm worker that will fight at any cost to make her dream come true of having a traditional church wedding.
In addition, the program will also include Flávia Neves’ Fogaréu, Júlia Murat’s Regra 34, Karim Aïnouz’s Mariner of the Mountains (O Marinheiro das Montanhas); Cristiano Burlan’s The Mother (A Mëa); and Daniel Rezente’s Tuma da Mônica: Liçöes.
The festival’s short film program includes Jorge Camarotti’s Ousmane; Carlos Segundo’s Sideral; André Hayato Saito’s Kokoro to Kokoro; and Érica Sarmet’s A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here (Uma Paciëncia Selvagem Me Trouxe Até Aqui).
The festival will take place in three different venues across the city: the Lumiere Music Hall, Linwood Dunn Theatre and the Los Feliz Theatre.
Feature Films
Black God, White Devil / Deus e o Diabo na Terra
Cowhand Manuel and his wife Rosa flee their home after he kills a rich local rancher who tries to swindle him. In the drought-plagued and violent Brazilian badlands, they meet two iconic figures: Sebastião, who claims to bedivine, and Corisco, who labels himself demonic. DIR Glauber Rocha.
Fogaréu
On the border between the real and the fantastic, between the colonial past and the overwhelming modernity of agribusiness, the city of Goiás is the stage of the meeting between the young Fernanda and her secret roots. DIR Flávia Neves
Mariner of the Mountains / O Marinheiro das Montanhas
Cannes Award winner Karim Aïnouz (“Invisible Life”) visits his father’s country for the first time, looking for traces of his family’s recent past. The viewer becomes beguiled with the Algerian history and its hinterland as they are privy to a personal travelogue, listening to the artist’s confession to his mother and becoming a participant in an elegy about the end of colonialism. Influenced by Godard’s later films and with a unique sense for the digital mediums employed, Aïnouz offers up nothing less than a visual existentialist poem. DIR Karim Aïnouz.
Mars One / Marte Um
A lower middle-class family undergoes a series of challenging and profound changes, reinventing themselves and their family ties along the way. DIR Gabriel Martins
The Mother / A Mëe
A single mother lives with her only son. She can’t find him when she returns from work. After a relentless search, she finds out that he was killed by the police and his body is missing. She begins a journey for the right to bury his body. DIR Cristiano Burlan.
Paloma
On a hot summer day, Paloma decides to fulfill her most cherished dream: a traditional wedding in a church with her boyfriend Zé. She is a devoted mother, a hard-working farmhand in a papaya plantation and has been saving to afford the celebration. The priest’s refusal to marry her and Zé will force Paloma to confront the rural society. She suffers violence, betrayal, prejudice and injustice but nothing shakes the faith and determination of this transgender woman. DIR Marcelo Gomes
Political Bodies / Corpolitica
At a time when the far right is ascending to power around the world, the 2020 Brazilian municipal elections saw a surprising and unprecedented record of LGBT candidates. This film follows four young queer politicians during their electoral campaigns and reveals their struggle to affirm their rights to exist and be heard. Dir Pedro Henrique França
Regra 34
Simone 23-year-old studies criminal law and advocates for women’s rights and at night she performs in front of a live sex cam. One night watching a film awakens her dark impulses for a more dangerous means of sexual gratification. DIR Júlia Murat.
Tuma da Mônica: Liçöes
Mônica, Jimmy Five, Maggy and Smudge decide to skip school, but they pretty quickly find out there’ll be some stiff consequences to face. In this new adventure, the gang learns the true meaning of friendship. DIR Daniel Rezente.