Helena Solberg Cineclub
Running since 2012, and after a brief hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cineclub of the Embassy of Brazil in London resumed its monthly programme of Brazilian and Brazil-related film screenings in April 2023. With a new curatorial approach, this cycle of the Cineclub aims to showcase a broad spectrum of films based on a variety of themes, from various periods with distinctive aesthetic and narrative styles, bringing fresh insights into Brazilian film production from the past and the present.
In its current phase, the film club has been named Helena Solberg Cineclub, as a homage to the exceptional filmmaker who has been part of Brazilian film history since the 1960s. Solberg has developed a seminal body of work which stands out for her feminist and social commitment, her attentive look at inequalities in an intersectional way, and her approach to Brazilian culture and identity. She directed her first shorts, The Interview (A entrevista, 1966) and Noon (Meio-dia, 1970), when Cinema Novo was emerging, positioning her as the only female director to participate in that movement. Upon moving to the United States in the 1970s, she directed the Women’s Trilogy with the International Women’s Film Project collective. Throughout the 1980s, she made a series of documentaries on the US interference with authoritarian governments in Latin America for PBS (the Public Broadcasting Service), including the Emmy winner From the Ashes... Nicaragua Today (1982). On her return to Brazil, she directed several acclaimed documentaries and fiction films, such as Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business (1994), Diary of a Provincial Girl (Vida de menina, 2004) and Jandyra, a Brazilian Tragedy (Meu corpo, minha vida, 2017). To learn more about Solberg’s career trajectory, read the article The Emerging Woman.
Keep an eye on this page and our social media channels (Instagram | Facebook | Twitter) in order not to miss our first-rate lineup. For updates, you can subscribe to the Helena Solberg Cineclub mailing list at cultural.london@itamaraty.gov.br.
The screenings are planned to take place monthly. Admission is free, but RSVPing is required through our Eventbrite page.
WHAT'S ON
APRIL SCREENING
INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE, by Eliza Capai
17 April 2024, 6pm (doors open)
Alberto Cavalcanti Auditorium / Embassy of Brazil
14-16 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL
RSVP link here
There will be drinks and nibbles to welcome the audience,
and the screening will start at 6.30pm
The documentary Incompatible with Life, to be screened this April at the HELENA SOLBERG CINECLUB, brings a heart-wrenching portrait of maternity and pregnancy, where grief and pain are the starting point for a mature reflection on reproductive rights in Brazil.
THE FILM
INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE | INCOMPATÍVEL COM A VIDA
Dir. Eliza Capai | 2023 | Brazil | 93 min. | Portuguese with English subtitles
From her personal experience of pregnancy with a diagnosis of fetal malformation incompatible with life, the director Eliza Capai sheds light on women who have gone through similar situations in Brazil, where abortion can lead to prison. Her process of terminating an unviable pregnancy intertwines with visceral conversations with these other women, creating a choir of voices reflecting on motherhood and prenatal grief through poetic lenses.
Exposing one’s pain in front of the camera is nothing new, but Capai makes a courageous and generous move, reinvigorating the “genre” of first-person documentary, usually made in very traditional ways. The film is introduced as an intimate investigation into pregnancy and painful journeys, gradually opening up the scope and revealing a political and urgent discussion blurred with moralism.
Incompatible with Life won the prizes of Best Film and Best Editing at It’s All True Film Festival, the most important documentary festival in Brazil, and Best Direction at FICViña (Chile).
Watch the trailer here.
Read the powerful piece Eliza Capai wrote about the film for the Piauí magazine (in Portuguese): Porque decidi filmar meu aborto.
THE DIRECTOR
Eliza Capai (São Paulo, 1979) has a degree in journalism from the University of São Paulo – USP and was a fellow at MIT Open Documentary Lab. Before releasing the intimate documentary Incompatible with Life, she built her career filming realities that were very different to her own: in Here Is So Far (Tão longe é aqui, 2013), she told stories of African women. In The Tortoise and the Tapir (O jabuti e anta, 2016), she investigated the impact of gigantic hydroelectric plants built in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. In Your Turn (Espero tua [re]volta, 2019) – premiered at the Berlinale, where it was awarded the Amnesty International and the Peace Film prizes, being screened afterwards at more than a hundred festivals worldwide – she followed the student movements that took over Brazil in 2015. She also directed the first Netflix Brazilian true crime series, Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime (Elize Matsunaga: Era uma vez um crime, 2020).
COMING SOON
MAY SCREENING
I'LL RAFFLE OFF MY HEART, by Ana Rieper
22 May 2024 / 6pm (doors open)
Alberto Cavalcanti Auditorium / Embassy of Brazil
14-16 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL
There will be drinks and nibbles to welcome the audience, and the screening will start at 6.30pm
Open your hearts and your ears! We have an extraordinary event this May at our beloved HELENA SOLBERG CINECLUB. Our friends from the Brazilian choir group Nossa Voz will introduce the screening with a sneak peek of their fabulous brand-new show Music from Brazilian Movies! Following the tune, the documentary I’ll Raffle Off My Heart will take over with a bunch of classics from the Brazilian romantic popular songbook.
THE FILM
I'll Raffle Off My Heart | Vou rifar meu coração
Dir. Ana Rieper | 2011 | Brazil | 78 min. | Portuguese with English subtitles
A journey into the Brazilian lovey-dovey, erotic and affective imagination based on the work of the leading composers in romantic popular music, also known as brega (cheesy). Their lyrics unravel the chronicles of the true dramas and joys of a love life, being catalysts for the fascinating stories being told by ordinary people. The patchwork of characters is completed by alluring stars such as the singers Agnaldo Timóteo, Wando, Amado Batista, Nelson Ned, and Rodrigo Mell, among others.
This look at the world of love, passion and sex brings a more complex and ambiguous perspective that can be both moralistic and transgressive, challenging the prejudice that often relapses in the brega music universe and its fans.
I’ll Raffle Off My Heart has travelled extensively from the prestigious Brasília Film Festival to Atlantidoc (Uruguay), Guadalajara International Film Festival, Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse, IndieLisboa, and Brazilian Film Festival of Vancouver, among others. It won the Best Film award at In-Edit Brazil Music Documentary Film Festival.
Watch the trailer here.
THE DIRECTOR
Ana Rieper (Rio de Janeiro, 1975) has directed and scripted films and series addressing the relationship between music, popular culture and society in Brazil. She directed the shorts Saara (1998), Velvet (Veluda, 2005), They Killed My Cat (Mataram meu gato, 2006), Sissi (2022) and the full-length docs On the Stream (Na veia do rio, 2002) and Five Times Chico: The San Francisco River and Its People (5x Chico: O velho e sua gente, 2015, co-directed by Gustavo Spolidoro, Camilo Cavalcante, Eduardo Goldenstein & Eduardo Nunes). Her best-known work is I’ll Raffle Off My Heart, with which she started her in-depth exploration of Brazilian music, followed by Clementina (2018) and Nothing Like Before (Nada será como antes: A música do Clube da Esquina, 2023).
"NOSSA VOZ"
Nossa Voz aims to show the richness and diversity of Brazilian popular music to the British public, including songs from many composers and eras in our repertoire, taking our audiences on a musical journey. What links us all is our love of singing Brazilian music and celebrating Brazilian culture within an original and slightly unconventional project, mixing voices and musical arrangements with theatrical elements, even though most of the group had never set foot on a stage before. Founded in 2003, Nossa Voz is an excellent opportunity to meet people from diverse backgrounds and have fun singing music together. Gui Tavares, the creator and musical director of Nossa Voz, is a Brazilian maestro, songwriter, and musical arranger trained as a classical guitarist and with a Bachelor’s Degree in Composition and Conducting from the University of Campinas. With a great history of performances led by various themes, the vocal group’s current spectacle, Music from Brazilian Movies, is a tribute to Brazilian cinema and will include songs from films such as The Old Lady Spinning (A velha a fiar, Humberto Mauro, 1964), Bye Bye Brazil (Cacá Diegues, 1979), and Brainstorm (Bicho de sete cabeças, Laís Bodanzky, 2000), among others. For the performance at the Embassy of Brazil in London, Nossa Voz will have two songs from I’ll Raffle Off My Heart specially harmonised for the occasion. For further information and auditions, visit www.nossavoz.org
PREVIOUS SCREENINGS
Screening date | Film title | Director | |
20 March 2024 | All Together Now: Sisterhood in shorts by Brazilian women filmmakers | Various directors | download pdf |
7 February 2024 | The Wizard and the Sheriff (1983) | Fernando Coni Campos | download pdf |
17 January 2024 | The Book of Delights (2021) | Marcela Lordy | download pdf |
13 December 2023 | The First Fallen (2021) | Rodrigo de Oliveira | download pdf |
29 November 2023 | The Silence That Sings for Freedom (2022) | Úrsula Corona | download pdf |
10 October 2023 | ÔRÍ (1989) | Raquel Gerber | download pdf |
20 September 2023 | Welcome Back, Farewell (2021) | Marcos Yoshi | download pdf |
16 August 2023 | Three Summers (2019) | Sandra Kogut | download pdf |
19 July 2023 | Crossings: Afro-Brazilian Women Filmmakers Now (2015-2020) | Various directors | download pdf |
21 June 2023 | The Devil Queen (1974) | Antonio Carlos da Fontoura | download pdf |
24 May 2023 | A Yellow Animal (2020) | Felipe Bragança | download pdf |
13 April 2023 | Carmen Miranda: Bananas is my Business (1994) | Helena Solberg | download pdf |