Mãos Vazias

Writer and poet Clarice Lispector investigates and develops the old question of what came first, the egg or the chicken.

Enterprising youths live many adventures when they decide to start a business specializing in making video clips for rock groups.

In the 17th century, to guarantee the possession of the region, disputed with Spanish and Dutch pirates, the Portuguese built a fort at the point where the dark waters of the Rio Negro meet the clear waters of the Rio Solimões, forming the Amazon River. Around the fort, the city of Manaus was born. Alli lived the Manaús Indians, warriors who worshiped Manari, the Good, and from him they received the order to fight all the invaders of the forest.

After being fired from his job and have his unemployment insurance money robbed, a young man decides to become a robber himself. While escaping authorities, he meets a female teacher of whom he takes hostage. Things get complicated when they fall in love with each other.

In the 1970s, in the midst of a military dictatorship, composer Jards Macalé and filmmaker Luiz Carlos Lacerda (Bigode) shared a house in Rio de Janeiro - which became a center of convergence for musicians, filmmakers and writers, and where they performed classic films and songs of Brazilian culture.

Biography of Brazilian congressman Tenório Cavalcanti, who used to appear in public carrying a machine-gun, and wearing a black cloak.

An ubiquitous folk singer narrates the tale of a young boy, who apparently becomes immune to gunfire after his mother arranges for him to have an amulet bearing Ogum's blessings. As time goes by, he becomes a valuable member of a mobster's hit-team, but ends up joining a group of people who resist his original employers.

A group of eccentric people gather at a popular bar in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro.

In 1594 Brazil, a frenchman becomes a prisoner of the Tupinambás. While waiting to be executed, the foreigner learns the habits of the indigenous people and joins a woman who tries to help him escape.

A tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini's centenary. The film tells of his visit to Rio de Janeiro in 1970, returning from Argentina in the company of singer Maria Callas, when he met the young soldier Joaquim.

After the collapse of their relationships with other people, Maria and Paulo embark in an intense relationship in order to shield themselves from loneliness.

The life of Brazilian actress Leila Diniz.

1943, World War II. The northeastern coast of Brazil is an strategic region for the Allies. Giancarlo, an Italian immigrant married to a Brazilian woman, lives nearby the Parnamirin Field, the largest military base built by the USA outside of their territory. In this new base, Brazilian recruits who speak English suddenly find themselves reaching privileged positions.

Police investigator Galvão is pursuing two trails, one professional and one personal. While he looks for a serial killer, he also searches for his estranged daughter, Sandra, whom he kicked out of the house. Lives intersect when the serial killer, Toninho, befriends Sandra, now an exotic dancer and prostitute living and working in the seamy underside of late 1970s Rio.

The critical success in France of How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman made possible dos Santos’ delirious science-fiction vision of free love in a post-apocalyptic wilderness besieged by flesh hungry zombies contaminated by an unnamed nuclear attack. Who is Beta? follows two statuesque survivors drawn irresistibly together only to be entranced by the arrival and sudden disappearance of a third, the bewitching raven haired Beta. With its cartoon-like depiction of extreme violence and desire, Who is Beta? offers a heady Pop-infused companion to Hunger for Love. Yet beneath its giddy play of surfaces, dos Santos' underappreciated film gradually reveals a darkly ambiguous metaphoric dimension. -Harvard Film Archive

Biography of a Brazilian dancer who lived on an island and practiced nudism when it was forbidden by law.