Stories Our Cinema Did (Not) Tell

In a period of isolation, far away from each other, 2 friends reconnect through video-letters, inspired by the poetic gaze of women experimental filmmakers: Marie Menken, Joyce Wieland, Gunvor Nelson, Yvonne Rainer. Fernanda is a Brazilian living in São Paulo, Adriana is a Mexican-Brazilian living in Los Angeles. They both share their inspiration while capturing the reality of these times.

In 2001, Fernanda was a 15-year-old Brazilian foreign exchange student in Mesa, Arizona, considered the most conservative city in the United States. Fifteen years later – and two months before Donald Trump’s election – she’s back to understand her experience there.

Two friends respond to the challenges of the present by connecting through a playful provocation. Separated by America’s hemispheres, one in Brazil and the other in the U.S, they communicate strictly through video letters during a year. As a rule, each letter is formally and thematically inspired by a woman experimental filmmaker. As life unfolds, they express on film what they want to share with each other: the experience of being a recent immigrant, the expectations of political elections in both countries, their fears and hopes, all while observing the different women around them.

In 2021, hundreds of thousands of people took over the streets in Brazil, in the midst of a pandemic, to protest against the Bolsonaro government. Inspired by Joyce Wieland's 1973 film of the same name, “Solidarity” portrays these manifestations by focusing on the expressiveness of human hands rather than Wieland's feet. Gestures of affection, resistance, protection, joy or repression are revealed in these images made in super 8mm ektachrome.

Is the revolution alive? Can we envision alternatives to a capitalist world? Did socialism fail? An internationalist (time) travel through seven countries that had revolutionary experiences in the 20th century is followed by a voice reciting Rosa Luxemburg’s last text, written one day before she was murdered in 1919.