The
best of Brazilian queer film and video comes to Tokyo!
Since 1993 the MIX Brasil Festival has created a space for views
of gays and lesbians in Brazilian
society not commonly seen in the mainstream media. After an invitation
from the MIX New York Lesbian
and Gay Experimental Film Festival, eleven makers decided to
interrogate their varied experiences ofsexuality,
producing in the process a previously non-existent Brazilian
gay/lesbian cinema.
Founded to provide an outlet for this
new creative burst, MIX Brasil last year received fifty-six submissions,
forty of which were selected and screened
in eight cities throughout Brazil, and in Mexico and the US.
Representations of sexualities were so diverse that a "hetero"
film won the audience award in 1997,
shocking those with more orthodox views about what gay and lesbian
film should be.
This
program curated especially for the Tokyo L&G Film Festival
showcases five works
representing the diversity of languages, themes and styles presented
in the 1997 MIX Brasil Festival.
*Amà-la* is a hauntingly beautiful depiction of a woman's search
for native place and
of her longing for the motherland, desires fulfilled only in
the arms of another woman.
*A Case of Body Art* explores the line between
artistic self-expression and destructive self-mutilation.
The documentary *With the Whole Ocean to Swim* takes up the life
and work of the gay artist Leo Nilson,
while *Oneway* follows two male hustlers who fuck, then kill
their clients, only to come to
tragic ends themselves. Finally in *Monalisa*, we learn why DaVinci's
most famous portrait
subject has that knowing look in her eye. Come
enjoy this rare screening from MIX Brasil,
and celebrate queer Brazilian filmmaking with us!
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