Soul’s Window

“I asked God to let me be blind for some time, because there is so much that is bad that we can see, that our vision of things and of what we want to do in life is obscured.” This statement is from Hermeto Pascoal, one of the nineteen persons to whom the documentary Janela da Alma confers voice and soul, in answer to a request to talk about how they see themselves, how they see one another, and in what way they relate to the world. All have some degree of visual deficiency, in common, ranging from discrete myopia to total blindness: from Nobel Prize winner José Saramago to Councilman from Minas Arnaldo Godoy, German Director Win Wenders, neurologist Oliver Sachs and Franco-Slovene photographer Evgen Bavcar, who is completely blind. With humor and often poetry, they embark on personal, surprising, most revealing statements on divers aspects pertaining to a sense of vision.

Born in João Pessoa, Brazil, in 1947, Walter Carvalho is an award-winning Brazilian cinematographer who has worked in more than 70 short and feature films, such as Leon Hirszman’s Que País é Esse? (1976), Walter Salles’ Central Station (1998) and Behind the Sun (2001); and Claudio Assis’ Mango Yellow (2002). Many of his features as a director of photography were screened at the Mostra, amongst them To the Left of the Father (2001), Madame Satã (2002), Fabricating Tom Zé (2006) and The Rat Herb (2008). As a director, made the feature documentaries Soul Window (2001, Jury Prize and Audience Award at 25th Mostra), co-directed by João Jardim; Moacir Raw Art (2005) and Raul – O Início, O Fim e o Meio (2011, Audience Award for Best Brazilian Documentary at the 35th Mostra).

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA