Deixa O Samba Me Levar

Documentary made to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the legendary Paulo Benjamin de Oliveira, Paulo da Portela.

On 12 June 2000, in Rio de Janeiro, Ônibus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to kill all the passengers. Transmitted live on all national networks, this shocking and tragic event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the most terrifying examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.

Brazil from the perspective of school pupils aged 14 to 19. Combining a documentary with a fictional approach, Hora do recreio addresses topics including violence, racism and drug dealing.

The Mangueira slum is the scenario where Tantinho and the old samba composers remember stories about the slums and samba.

Founding a social Muay Thai project in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Mestre BG and his competitors face the adversities of an underfunded project and fight to win their place on the podium. The challenges intensify when one of the students, Raíssa Pacheco, secures a spot to compete in a South American championship in Uruguay.

Documentary about the rise and fall of Leandro de Itaquera Samba School, a cultural organization from São Paulo east end that had a major role during the profissionalization of Carnival competition in the city.

A documentary about climate change in Brazil, especially at Atafona Beach (in the Campos de Goytacazes region), which is being swallowed up by the sea. Narrated by Sonia Guajajara and Sidarta Ribeiro, the film deals with the genocide of the native people of Goytacazes.

This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.

​An unprecedented collection of pictures, characters and historical facts about the city of Rio de Janeiro, rescued by tv networks, documentary filmmakers and foreign journalists over the course of the 20th Century. The film reveals how Rio, its inhabitants and its cultural and natural attributes have been seen by foreigners. This is an opportunity to relive, through the eyes of a foreigner, social, political, technological and mundane events which Brazilians either did not manage to document audiovisually or whose works were lost.​

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Click for full movie details & trailers.

Click for full movie details & trailers.

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A short film of lovely poetic, observational elements and interviews with the famed samba singer/songwriter Nelson Antônio da Silva, whose adopted last name ‘Cavaquinho’ refers to the small guitar-like instrument that he played and used to compose his songs.

Video presentation of the Vito Giannotti Occupation, located in the port area of Rio de Janeiro. This video was produced as part of the Luta Pela Moradia No Centro Da Cidade project, a 4-year ethnographic research project comparing different models of social housing in the central region of Rio de Janeiro. It involves a team of 8 international researchers from 3 universities: Syracuse University (New York), King's College (London) and Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro).

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An livid and comic presentation of Madureira in Rio de Janeiro.

Joseph Wilson meets the dance teacher fighting transphobic violence through voguing in Rio’s favelas.

An uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters who live and work in the garbage quoting Machiavelli and showing us how to recycle ourselves.

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