Helena Solberg Cineclub

JANUARY SCREENING

FIRST TAKES: EARLY SHORT FILMS BY GREAT BRAZILIAN DIRECTORS

22 January 2025, 6pm (doors open)

Alberto Cavalcanti Auditorium | Embassy of Brazil
14-16 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL

There will be drinks to welcome the audience, kindly provided by Go Brazil Wines & Spirits, and the screening will start at 6.30pm

RSVP link here

First Takes

The HELENA SOLBERG CINECLUB welcomes the 22nd London Short Film Festival! In the programme FIRST TAKES, we’ve delved into the depths of five beloved Brazilian filmmakers’ careers to find the short films that are most indicative of their nascent talents, displaying initial glimpses into their genius, themes, aesthetic interests, and a hint of the filmmaking greatness that was to come. We’ve brought together the (relatively unknown – outside of Brazil) short films that put the now big names of Anna Muylaert, Cao Hamburger & Eliana Fonseca, Ana Luiza Azevedo & Jorge Furtado, Marcelo Gomes and Sandra Kogut on the map. Nowadays, they are synonymous with the best of contemporary Brazilian cinema, which turns heads at the ritziest of international film festivals.

Amidst the political and economic turmoil of the late 1980s and early 1990s – which all but saw the end of public support for national cinema, almost entirely paralysing production – these directors throve with thrilling little treasures that are well worth checking out. An extraordinary window into both their approach to filmmaking when they were just starting out and the evolution of a signature style.

The London Short Film Festival is the UK's leading short film festival, founded in the early 1990s and now a BAFTA and BIFA qualifying, internationally-regarded independent festival. Each January, it hosts ten days of short films, live events, Q&As and multidisciplinary curation, in addition to an industry offering of workshops, panels and discussion for filmmakers and workers. LSFF exists to spotlight a multiplicity of filmmakers, visual artists and creatives, across intersections and with a commitment to peripheral voices, giving screen-space and visibility to unconventional and thoroughly independent filmmaking. In 2025, LSFF will run from the 17th to the 26th of January in several venues across London, such as the Embassy of Brazil, the ICA, BFI Southbank, Rich Mix, Rio Cinema, Curzon Soho, The Garden Cinema, among others.

THE FILMS

Frankenstein Punk
Dir. Cao Hamburger & Eliana Fonseca | 1986 | Brazil | 11 min
The story of Frank, a different creature who was born to the sound of “Singin’ in the Rain” and sets out in search of happiness.

Barbosa
Dir. Ana Luiza Azevedo & Jorge Furtado | 1988 | Brazil | 13 min
A frustrated man travels back in time to change the outcome of the football match that changed his life forever.

Maracatu, Maracatus
Dir. Marcelo Gomes | 1995 | Brazil | 14 min
The cultural differences between several generations of the rural maracatu: an Afro-Indigenous ritual originated in the sugar mills of the state of Pernambuco.

The Origin of Babies According to Kiki Cavalcanti | A origem dos bebês segundo Kiki Cavalcanti
Dir. Anna Muylaert | 1995 | Brazil | 16 min
A comedy about the love life of a not-so-loving couple, through the childish eyes of their 6-year-old-daughter, Kiki.

Here and There | Lá e cá
Dir. Sandra Kogut | 1995 | Brazil, France | 29 min
A documentarish narrative about the desire to be somewhere and elsewhere at once. Focusing on a lively working-class woman played by Regina Casé (one of Brazil’s leading actresses), who wanders around popular neighbourhoods in Rio de Janeiro, vacillating between her wish to stay where she is and her dream of joining her sister in the upscale Zona Sul.

Total running time: 83 minutes. All the films have English subtitles

THE DIRECTORS

Cao Hamburger

Cao Hamburger (São Paulo, 1962) is a film and TV director, screenwriter and producer. Earlier in his career, he directed five short films that won several international awards. Hamburger co-created and directed the acclaimed children’s TV series Castle Ra-Tim-Bum (Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum, 1994-1997), which marked generations of Brazilian kids. His first feature film Castle Ra-Tim-Bum (1999) was based on the series, followed by The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (O ano em que meus pais saíram de férias, 2006), which competed at the Berlin Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Foreign Film at the Oscars. His third film was Xingu (2012). Hamburger has won two International Emmy Awards: for the series Young Hearts (Malhação: Viva a diferença, 2017-2018), and for Pedro & Bianca (2012-2014). He produced, created and directed other successful series in Brazil, including Sons of Carnival (Filhos do Carnaval, 2006-2009) and The Five (As Five, 2020-2021). In 2000, he worked with Ragdool Contents in the UK, and in 2012, he was the creative director of the Flag Passing Ceremony at the 2012 London Olympics.

Eliana Fonseca

Eliana Fonseca (São Caetano do Sul, 1961) has worked in cinema, theatre and television for over 40 years as an actor, director and screenwriter. On television, she made soap operas and several comedy shows, acted in the early days of Casseta & Planeta (1986-2010), participated in It’s Up to You (Você decide, 1992-2000), Normal People (Os normais, 2001-2003), Big Family (A grande família, 2001-2014) and several children’s and youth programmes, notably the acclaimed Ra-Tim-Bum (1990-1994) and Castle Ra-Tim-Bum (Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum, 1994-1997), among many others. In cinema, she directed and wrote five short films awarded worldwide, and feature films such as Eliana and the Secret of the Dolphins (Eliana em: O segredo dos golfinhos, 2005), 13 Floors (13 andares, 2016), and PMS, My Love! (TPM, meu amor!, 2023). Eliana is also a teacher at SENAC University, in addition to offering actors workshops for several institutions across Brazil. She is the creator of the project É Nóis na Fita, a free film course for young people from the outskirts of São Paulo, which has received thousands of students and produced dozens of films since 2014.

Ana Luiza Azevedo

Ana Luiza Azevedo (Porto Alegre, 1959) is a film director and screenwriter. Co-founder of the Casa de Cinema de Porto Alegre – Porto Alegre Film House. She directed the feature films Before the World Ends (Antes que o mundo acabe, 2010) and Through Ernesto's Eyes (Aos olhos de Ernesto, 2019), the TV series States of Grace (Mulher de fases, 2011), Sweet Mother (Doce de mãe, 2014), Great Scenes (Grandes cenas, 2017), Only for Love (Só se for por amor, 2022) and DR4G0N (2024), the documentaries Liberation (Ventre livre, 1994) and Who Is Primavera das Neves (Quem é Primavera das Neves, co-directed with Jorge Furtado, 2017), the short films Three Minutes (Três minutos, 1999) and Miss Cristina Loses Her Memory (Dona Cristina perdeu a memória, 2002), among many others. As an assistant director, she has worked with filmmakers such as Jorge Furtado, Carlos Gerbase, and Carlos Reichenbach. She was a programmer at Cine Santander Cultural, in Porto Alegre, from 2001 to 2011. She is currently developing her new feature film Maria do Socorro.

Jorge Furtado

Jorge Furtado (Porto Alegre, 1959) is a film and television director and screenwriter. He began his professional career in the 1980s on a local channel as a reporter, presenter, editor, screenwriter and producer, where he created the TV show Quizumba, with a very audacious language for Brazilian public television. In the 1980s, he created the production company Luz Produções alongside José Pedro Goulart and Ana Luiza Azevedo, where he made his first short films and produced theatre plays, in addition to TV commercials. In 1987, he was one of the founders of the Casa de Cinema de Porto Alegre – Porto Alegre Film House, one of the most active cinema hubs in Brazil. Among his early works, Island of Flowers (Ilha das Flores, 1989) stands out, having received numerous national and international awards, including the Silver Bear for best short film at the Berlin Film Festival. Since the mid-1990s, he has directed TV series and films, such as Two Summers (Houve uma vez dois verões, 2002), The Man Who Copied (O homem que copiava, 2003), My Uncle Killed a Guy (Meu tio matou um cara, 2004), Basic Sanitation (Saneamento básico, 2007), Sweet Mother (Doce de mãe, 2014), Real Beauty (Real beleza, 2015), and Rend Your Heart (Rasga coração, 2018). In 2008, the Harvard Film Archive promoted a retrospective of his works.

Marcelo Gomes

Marcelo Gomes (Recife, 1963) is a director and screenwriter. At the end of the 1980s, he created the landmark film club Jurando Vingar, which screened 35mms daily and promoted debates. In 1991, Gomes won a scholarship to study film at the University of Bristol; upon his return to Brazil, in 1993, he founded the production company Parabólica Brasil in partnership with Cláudio Assis and Adelina Pontual. His first short film Maracatu, Maracatus (1995) was awarded the top prizes at the Brasília Film Festival, and Gomes has become a prolific and influential filmmaker, having directed world-acclaimed films such as Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (Cinema, aspirinas e urubus, 2005), I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You (Viajo porque preciso, volto porque te amo, co-directed with Karim Aïnouz, 2009), Joaquim (2017), Paloma (2022) and Portrait of a Certain Orient (Retrato de um Certo Oriente, 2024).

Anna Muylaert

Anna Muylaert (São Paulo, 1961) participated in the creation of television children and youth shows such as World of the Moon (Mundo da lua, 1991-1992), Castle Ra-Tim-Bum (Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum, 1994-1997) and A Very Nutty Boy (Um menino muito maluquinho, 2006). As a screenwriter, she worked on several television series and feature films. She directed multiple short films, such as São Paulo Rock (Rock paulista, 1988) and Our Father (O nosso pai, 2022). She made the feature films Durval Records (Durval Discos, 2002), Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (É proibido fumar, 2009), Collect Call (Chamada a cobrar, 2012), The Second Mother (Que horas ela volta?, 2015 – winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and a Berlin Panorama Audience Award), Don’t Call Me Son (Mãe só há uma, 2016 – also awarded at the Berlinale), Alvorada Palace (Alvorada, co-directed with Lô Politi, 2021), and The Business Women’s Club (O clube das mulheres de negócios, 2024).

Sandra Kogut

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Sandra Kogut (1965) works and lives between Brazil, France and the US, and began her career as an artist in film and video before turning to documentary and fiction films. Her early work includes the multi-award winning Parabolic People (1991), followed by A Hungarian Passport (Um passaporte húngaro, 2003), Mutum (2007 – premiered at Cannes and went on to numerous film festivals including Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam and others, receiving more than twenty awards worldwide and being commercially released in more than thirty countries), Campo Grande (2015) and Three Summers (Três verões, 2019). Her work has been featured in venues such as the New York Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, Guggenheim Museum, Harvard Film Archive, Forum des Images and many others. She has also been working in television since the 1990s, directing several shows for Canal Plus in France, and for Globo Network in Brazil, being the creator, for example, of Brasil legal (1995-1997), a primetime hit on Brazilian television. For years a lecturer at the École des Beaux-Arts (Strasbourg, France), Kogut has also taught at Princeton, Columbia and UC San Diego. She was a visiting scholar at New York University, at Bard College, and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard, all in the US.