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Viva Procrastination

@vivaprocrastination

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Gringo perspectives on Brazilian cinema

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5 months ago

Cidade Baixa / Lower City is one of 40 films in the @britishfilminstitute's thoughtfully curated Brazil on Film season throughout May and June - what a treat for this gringa to finally see it on the big screen.

The toxic love triangle peers into the murky world of three young adults, muddling their way through life on the underside of Salvador, Bahia. Sérgio Machado's electrifying drama explores the dilemma of three people hopelessly obsessed with each other; increasingly willing to betray each other; and completely unable to walk away.

At the same time, it's an unflinching look into the violent and exploitative realities of life for young men and women with slim chances in an urban environment riven with economic inequality.

Read the full review at the link in our bio.

And if you can, explore more from the Brazil on Film season at the BFI - curated by @renata_de.almeida and @a.rouanet to offer a rich overview of 90 years of Brazilian cinema.

#cinemabrasileiro #braziliancinema #lowercity #cidadebaixa #lázaroramos #alicebraga #wagnermoura by @vivaprocrastination

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5 months ago

Kleber Mendonça Filho and his northeastern hometown, Recife, are indivisible from each other. From early shorts to feature films, much of his filmmaking studies this ever-changing coastal metropolis, the currents that underpin it, and how its evolution shapes people's lives.

His 2023 documentary, Pictures of Ghosts, traces the Pernambucan city's rich cinematic past and what lives on today, real or spectral, as well as his own experiences as a director, making films in its streets and his childhood home. It's an evocative journey through time with occasional forays into magical realism: part historical meander, part scrapbook, part homage to the great art of cinema and to his own beloved city.

In digging into Recife's past, Mendonça Filho would also write his near future, developing the ideas and motifs in Pictures of Ghosts that would coalesce into his blockbuster political thriller @thesecretagentfilm.

Read the full review at the link in our bio ☝️

#picturesofghosts #klebermendonçafilho #cinemabrasileiro #cinemanordestino by @vivaprocrastination

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7 months ago

Pernambucan director Daniel Bandeira's unusual hostage thriller explores what happens when the insecurities of people in starkly different situations collide. On one side, a workforce of disenfranchised, live-in staff facing homelessness and the sudden recall of local debts. On the other, Teresa: the traumatised, white, well-off wife of the owner, hiding from the world as she recovers from a violent incident.

Propriedade (Property) asks necessary and uncomfortable questions about class, labour and inequality in Brazil, exploring what Bandeira calls 'the fear machine' of heightening, mutual societal mistrust and extreme polarisation.

Read the review at the link in our bio ☝️

#propriedadefilme #danielbandeira #cinemabrasileiro #braziliancinema by @vivaprocrastination

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7 months ago

Though Brazil missed out on Oscars hardware last night, its contenders enjoyed a blistering awards season. @thesecretagentfilm, @petracostal's Apocalypse in the Tropics and Train dreams cinematographer @adolphoveloso picked up 99 awards between them, compounding last year's Ainda Estou Aqui success to swell international awareness and national pride in Brazilian cinema to spectacular levels.

So today we're watching Kiss of the Spider Woman. In Brazilian director Héctor Babenco's thoughtful and moving 1985 prison drama, two cellmates form an unlikely bond in the shadow of the dictatorship. A rare English-language entry on Viva Procrastination - but we had to do it, and not just for its 🇧🇷 production credits.

Like The Secret Agent, it earned a Cannes Best Actor gong, four Academy nominations (and a Best Actor win for its American lead) - and even features a legendary Brazilian actor playing multiple roles. 👀

History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes – and as the 21st century tropical wave goes from strength to strength, we know Brazilian cinema will be back at the Oscars again, and doing the damn thing around the world until then.

Read the review at the bio link ☝️

#kissofthespiderwoman #héctorbabenco #cinemabrasileiro #braziliancinema oscars202 by @vivaprocrastination

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7 months ago

We took a couple of weeks off to go to Carnaval (and explore Recife and @thesecretagentfilm's filming locations), and then we took a couple more weeks to recover. Now, back to reality, and better yet, escaping it by exploring Brazilian cinema's treasures...

Auteur Mário Peixoto’s sole cinematic work, first screened in 1931, is a haunting silent film following three people who’d rather die at sea than continue on land. If you’re looking to trace the roots and reach of Brazilian cinema, Limite must be on your path.

Read our thoughts at the link in our bio.

#limite #braziliancinema #máriopeixoto #experimentalcinema #cinemabrasileiro by @vivaprocrastination

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7 months ago

Karim Aïnouz’s neon-lit 2024 thriller is his most visually distinctive work yet. Motel Destino stirs up a tense, caged love story and an increasingly dangerous power struggle in the surreal environs of a seedy roadside motel, with painterly, giallo-influenced cinematography and production design that trap its characters in something between a dream and a nightmare.

Aïnouz’s work communicates a fascination with sexuality, power and alienation, and how they influence and warp each other. Many of his films explore characters who push these boundaries; the situations aren’t remarkable, but Aïnouz’s handling of them elevates them into compelling character studies.

Read our review at the link in our bio 🔗

#moteldestino #karimaïnouz #cinemabrasileiro #braziliancinema by @vivaprocrastination

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9 months ago

@letterboxd listed @mariannabrennand's Manas as its fourth highest-rated underseen movie of 2025. Underseen is certainly true. Here in the UK, there's only been one screening so far (organised by @cine.brazil, who you should be following if you're UK-based and looking for exposure to Brazilian cinema!)

So while The Secret Agent is reaching a global audience, many haven't yet seen Brennand's moving and disturbing feature film - based on 10 years of research into a real-life cycle of abuse in rural Brazil. Brennand is also an experienced documentary filmmaker, and that sensitivity and human curiosity is abundant here. And star @jamilli.correa's performance is arresting, accusatory and haunting.

As with much contemporary Brazilian cinema, by zeroing in on the trauma of one small community, Brennand raises questions that the world should be asking. Manas highlights networks of abuse, victims’ voices dismissed, and the urgent need to break the cycle. Exquisite storytelling that is as timely as it is beautiful and devastating.

Read the full review at the link in our bio.

#manas #mariannabrennand #jamillicorrêa #braziliancinema #cinemabrasileiro by @vivaprocrastination

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9 months ago

Huge day for Cinema Brasileiro - four Oscar nominations for @thesecretagentfilm! @oagentesecreto_filme is nominated for:

💛 Best Picture
💛 Best International Feature Film
💛 Best Actor in a Leading Role
💛 Best Casting (…the Dona Sebastiana effect?)

It surpasses even I’m Still Here’s three nominations last year, and makes Wagner Moura the first male Brazilian actor to be nominated for an Academy Award 👏

The casting award is a new category for 2026. It’s great to see recognition here for Gabriel Domingues’ ensemble casting, which prioritised evocative, believable faces over household names. (No “iPhone face” here…)

Brazilian cinematographer Adolpho Veloso is also recognised for his richly textured work on Train Dreams.

We’re sad to see Petra Costa’s timely documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics (about the pervasive influence of evangelical Christianity on Brazilian politics) miss out on a nomination.

But what a huge day for Brazilian cinema! Will it translate into awards in March?

#oscars #oscars2026 #thesecretagent #braziliancinema #wagnermoura by @vivaprocrastination

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9 months ago

From time to time, where a film so thoroughly blows our minds, we’ll publish a longer essay about it. Here’s the first of those, exploring the themes and contemporary relevance of @oagentesecreto_filme , currently selling out theatres and pocketing awards.

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s slippery 70s thriller, following an academic on the run during Carnaval, is a crafty meditation on the structural violence of dictatorship: not just the harm itself but the rewriting of the rules and the way that society is co-opted en masse into direct violence and betrayal, or silence and forgetting.

@thesecretagentfilm is a study of what happens when morality is inverted, and the perils that stalk people who present corruption with a mirror instead of a door. Though rooted deeply in Brazil’s recent history, its resonance with people navigating today’s horrors and absurdities has made it an international must-see. 
Read the full piece at the link in our bio - and let us know your thoughts. Have you seen The Secret Agent yet? What did you think?

#thesecretagent #oagentesecreto #klebermendonçafilho #braziliancinema #cinemabrasileiro by @vivaprocrastination

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9 months ago

@olazaroramos' fiercely intelligent dystopian thriller (2020) unpacks the racist past and present with a nightmare scenario in which Brazil tries to excise its Black population with a mass deportation order.

It's always been essential viewing, and ongoing events in Minnesota now add fresh resonance for viewers in the northern hemisphere.

Read our thoughts at the link in our bio ☝️

#executiveorder #medidaprovisória #lázaroramos #braziliancinema #vivaprocrastination by @vivaprocrastination

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9 months ago

2025 has been a striking year for international cinema, yet the pattern across awards season has been one of omission and naked disrespect, even when awards have been forthcoming.

But with authoritarianism, racism, political instability and state violence all spiking, it's never mattered more to hear the voices and stories of our neighbours.

Read this story at the link in our bio and share your thoughts in the comments 🔗

#internationalcinema #goldenglobes #criticschoiceawards #awardsseason #vivaprocrastination Text in image: Awards season omits and disrespects international cinema. But in the face of authoritarianism, racism, political instability and state violence, we urgently need to hear our neighbours’ voices and stories. by @vivaprocrastination

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9 months ago