Cléa Simões
Set to the intoxicating rhythms of Brazil, "Woman on Top" is a spicy, sexy comedy about the magic of food, love and music. Meet Isabella, a sultry enchantress born with the special gift of melting the palates and hearts of men everywhere. When she decides to break free from her rocky marriage and the stifling kitchen of her husband's restaurant in Brazil, she spirits off to San Francisco in pursuit of her dreams of a real culinary career.
A documentary film about the taboos, stereotypes, and struggles of black actors in Brazilian television "soaps". Based on his own memories and on a sturdy body of research evidence, the director analyses race relations in Brazilian soap operas, calling attention to their likely influence on Brazilian African-Americans' identity-forming processes.
Laços de Família is a Brazilian telenovela produced and aired by Rede Globo in its 8 P.M. schedule, from June 5, 2000 to February 3, 2001. With a total of 209 chapters, it was written by Manoel Carlos, in collaboration with Maria Carolina, Vinícius Vianna, Flávia Lins e Silva and Fausto Galvão, and directed by Moacyr Góes and Leandro Neri with general direction of Ricardo Waddington, Rogério Gomes and Marcos Schechtman. It starred Vera Fischer and Carolina Dieckmann and actors Reynaldo Gianecchini, José Mayer, Tony Ramos, as the respective protagonists of the plot, and actress Deborah Secco as the main antagonist of the story.
Three American college students, Dick, his sister Jessica, and her British boyfriend Kevin, are traveling through Brazil on vacation when Dick, after attending a bizarre voodoo ceremony, develops strange powers. When their jeep breaks down near a small plantation in the jungle outside Rio, the site of a former slave rebellion 150 years ago, Dick uses his powers to raise the dead of six executed Negro slaves whom target the college kids and the residents of the plantation to seek revenge for their deaths
A Deusa Negra is a love story that spans two centuries. In 18th century Yorubaland, Prince Oluyole is taken prisoner in the course of internecine warfare fanned by overseas slave traders. He is sold into slavery in Brazil. In present day Nigeria, at his father's deathbed, the young Babatunde promises to go to Brazil and search for traces of their once-enslaved ancestors. Beginning with a Candomblé ritual, his journey takes him ever deeper into this culture and, in a dream-like sequence, affords him a deeper understanding of his ancestors' suffering and powers of resistance. Balogun effortlessly links present with past, real with magical worlds and discourse with trance. The hypnotic atmosphere is also heightened by the music of the Nigerian drummer Remi Kabaka, which plays with repetitive patterns and distortions.
After assaulting a Hollywood film crew, a group of residents of a community in Rio de Janeiro decided to produce a film that would express the reality of Brazil - with the theme of Inconfidência Mineira.
Jorge de Oliveira is an Afro-Brazilian poet who works in a publicity agency in São Paulo. Torn between his rich white lovers and his black family and friends, Jorge's situation serves as a springboard to a discussion about racial issues in Brazil.
"Como É Boa a Nossa Empregada" is an erotic comedy from the 70's (called "pornochanchada" genre) divided in three segments: 1) "Lula e a Copeira": Lula uses frogs, bats and spiders to scare the ugly kitchen maid of his house and force her to quit the job. When his parents put an advertisement on the newspaper to hire a new maid, he waits the candidates outside the house to choose one very hot, telling lies about his family to the others. They hire the sexy Clara, who is subjected to a sexual harassment from Lula's father Rivadávia, the family's friend Dr. Ricardo and Lula, leading the trio to troubled situations. 2) "O Terror das Empregadas": The sixteen years old Bebeto chases all the maids of his house and neighborhood trying to have intercourse with them. His mother takes him to the psychologist Dr. Leonel, who convinces her that her son needs to have a sexual experience with a whore to help his self-esteem, and suggests the sexy and expensive prostitute Leila Sandra.
A writer who specializes in exposing fake witchcraft journeys to Brazil to investigate a voodoo cult.
