Pictures of Ghosts (2023)
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho Run Time: 93 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2023
Starring: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Lucrecia Martel, Maeve Jinkings, Rubens Santos, Sônia Braga
Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese
About the film:
World Premiere at 2023 Cannes Film Festival and Brazil’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
The classic movie palaces of central Recife, Brazil are all but gone now. It was at film theaters such as Art Palácio, Trianon, and São Luiz that director Mendonça Filho discovered the art form that would shape his life. Recife has changed dramatically, and the filmmaker has come to take stock of its cinematic ruins. This moving and playful film, as much about the architectural and social structures of a city as about the movies that inspire and haunt us, honors the personal spaces that are also the communal lifeblood of our urban centers.
“A heartfelt love letter to filmmaking and film watching the world over.”
—Lee Marshall, Screen Daily
About the filmmaker:
Born in Recife, Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho became a film programmer and critic while making award-winning short films. Neighboring Sounds, Mendonça’s first feature film, had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2012 and was Brazil’s entry in the race for the Academy Awards. The New York Times listed it among the ten best films of the year. His second feature film Aquarius (2016) was in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival before being nominated for a César and an Independent Spirit Award. In 2019, Mendonça co-directed Bacurau with Juliano Dornelles, a film which screened in competition at Cannes and was awarded the Jury Prize. He is also a film programmer for Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and the artistic director of Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife.
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