High Art

The six-minute film is shot in just two locations: an old movie theater in the city of Miguel Pereira (RJ) and a multiplex in the New York City Center, in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. In front of the old movie theater, the embolistas Castanha and Caju (actually Cajuzinho, the replacement for the original Caju, who died in June 2001) unravel an extremely biting and funny "embolada", which spares no Hollywood idols: from Stallone to Leonardo DiCaprio.

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

Thirteen-year-old Marcielle lives on Marajó Island in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. To break a terrible cycle that imprisons the women around her in an isolated region, she must do the impossible to liberate herself and her younger sister from a dark abyss of silence held by her own family.

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

A woman married to a former politician during the 1971 military dictatorship in Brazil is forced to reinvent herself and chart a new course for her family after a violent and arbitrary act.

Dayse, a Brazilian playwright known as Cyclone, wants to study in Paris. Having a career in theater is unthinkable for a woman in São Paulo in 1918. But her director doesn’t want her to go, as he would lose his mistress and ghostwriter. When she becomes pregnant by him, her dream starts to fade. An artist’s struggle for self-determination in a patriarchal society, based on the true story of Daisy Pontes and modernist Oswald de Andrade.

Based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he and best friend Alberto Granado had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.

Clara, a vibrant former music critic and widow with flowing tresses is the only remaining apartment owner in a beautiful older building targeted for demolition by ruthless luxury high-rise developers. Clara proves to be a force to be reckoned with as she thwarts the builders plans to kick her out of the apartment.

When the inmate Maria do Socorro Nobre reads an article about the Polish artist Franz Krajcberg in Veja magazine, she decides to write a letter to him. Socorro was sentenced to more than twenty-one years in a prison for women in Salvador, Bahia, while Franz is a tormented artist that lost his family and lived his childhood in a ghetto in Poland but survived the Holocaust. Franz moved to Brazil and recovered life wish living close to nature and inspires Socorro to dream with life again.

In northern Brazil, Hermila patiently waits for her husband. However, he has abandoned her. Sexy, restless and resolute, she raffles off "a night in paradise" with herself. This beautifully-shot portrait doesn't shy away from the burdens of a young scarred woman, but it also celebrates her courage to live according to her own rules.

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

A pair of mice attempt to board Noah's Ark: Vini, a charismatic poet with terrible stage fright, and Tito, a talented and charming guitarist. When the rains come, only one male and one female of each species is allowed on Noah's Ark. With the help of an ingenious cockroach and fate's good luck, Vini and Tito sneak their way onto the Ark and together avert a showdown among the ships carnivores and plant eaters. All the while, the animals perform a series of classic songs inspired by world renowned poet, Vinicius de Moraes. Can these talented stowaways use music to break the tension and help these cooped up creatures survive the 40 days and 40 nights together?

In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro of the 1930s, João Francisco dos Santos is several things — son of slaves, ex-convict, thug, homosexual and adopted father for a number of pariahs. João expresses himself on the stage of a cabaret as Madame Satã.

Friends of the recently deceased Quincas take their pal's body on one last tour of his favorite spots in Brazil's Bahia.

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to choose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

María Margarita is the youngest of four siblings in a family living in a mining town in the Atacama Desert (Chile). The most special time of the week for this family is Sunday, when they all go to the movies to enjoy stories that let them escape their everyday lives by transporting them to other worlds. The girl’s parents soon realise that the little girl has a very special gift: an almost uncanny ability to recount movies. The girl’s extraordinary talent will spread throughout the village, changing the fortunes of her family as the country is transformed forever.