Meu Brasil

Three characters: Gaúcha, whose dream it was to be a singer, works as a cook in the home of Roberto Marinho’s family and becomes politicized; Carlos, a diving instructor who has lost all because of unrequited love, tries to recover his self-esteem by working towards better citizenship in the slum shanty towns; and Juliana, a transvestite who assumed his homosexuality with his family at the age of 17 and now struggles to implant a third bathroom in the city of Três Rios. Gaúcha, Carlos and Juliana are community leaders and believe a better world is possible. In search of their ideals, they join the leaders of the shanty towns and popular movements in Rio de Janeiro and make their way to the Social World Forum in Porto Alegre, the most important global event for the debate on issues pertaining to social justice. Within this setting - amid talks and speeches by Leonardo Boff, Eduardo Galeano, José Saramago, Frei Betto, Gilberto Gil, Presidents Lula and Hugo Chavez - the threesome share their projects with world leaders. Back again in their own communities, they are stronger in their struggle for citizenship and for an end to social, racial and gender discrimination. The film was awarded the Prize from the Popular Jury at the Ibero-American Cine Video Festival - Cinesul - in Rio de Janeiro.

Born in São Paulo, she has a Master’s degree in journalism by Berkeley University in California. From 1986 until 1996, she worked as a reporter for several publications in São Paulo. In 1997, in California, she worked as reporter, producer and editor in the CNS News program on Channel 25 (Berkeley) and was video and content editor for Streetspace and Looksmart companies. In New York, she studied Digital Video production at NYU New York University and directed a short film If I Go Totally Bananas: The Percussive Life of Cyro Baptista (2002). In 2003, she was awarded a grant by Ford Foundation to make her first feature documentary, A Voz da Ponta - A Favela Vai ao Fórum Social Mundial, which she co-produced, co-directed, photographed and wrote. She founded VideoForum Filmes, an audiovisual project with a social focus. My Brazil is her second feature. She was awarded a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation to make her next documentary.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA