Jordana Berg

As head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Brazilian diplomat José Bustani became an obstacle in America’s march to war with Iraq. Ousted from his position, he now revisits the chilling events that marked a turning point in global power structures.

As head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Brazilian diplomat José Bustani became an obstacle in America’s march to war with Iraq. Ousted from his position, he now revisits the chilling events that marked a turning point in global power structures.

The São Francisco River crosses the Brazilian hinterland, lands marked by extreme aridity. This great river that was once impetuous and generous is now very fragile. Deforestation of its margins and overexploitation of land by intensive agriculture endanger the great diversity of its ecosystem. The lives of riverside dwellers are affected in its deepest integrity, as well as their areas. The São Francisco River is the vital flow of their existence and the central place of their hopes and imagination, but the general feeling is that if the river dies, everything will disappear with it. Women are at the forefront of resistance. They struggle daily to allow for the possibility of a future. Their children also claim this identity, which it is up to them to renew and make fruitful.

Eami means ‘forest’ in Ayoreo. It also means ‘world’. The story happens in the Paraguayan Chaco, the territory with the highest deforestation rate in the world. 25,000 hectares of forest are being deforested a month in this territory which would mean an average of 841 hectares a day or 35 hectares per hour. The forest barely lives and this only due to a reserve that the Totobiegosode people achieved in a legal manner. They call Chaidi this place which means ancestral land or the place where we always lived and it is part of the "Ayoreo Totobiegosode Natural and Cultural Heritage". Before this, they had to live through the traumatic situation of leaving the territory behind and surviving a war. It is the story of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode people, told from the point of view of Asoja, a bird-god with the ability to bring an omniscient- temporal gaze, who becomes the narrator of this story developed in a crossing between documentary and fiction.

For two decades, Cine Marrocos, a movie theatre in the heart of São Paulo, was one of the most popular and opulent of the city. After it was closed, in 1972, it was occupied by a homeless workers' movement. The documentary tells the story of the people who lived there, alternating scenes from an acting class with those of the movies exhibited there in the past.

In 1970, at the height of repression by the military dictatorship, five imprisoned guerrillas came to the public to renounce the armed struggle and praise the regime. With the repercussion of the declarations, the government decided to transform the retractions into a State practice. He started to torture opponents to make mea-culpa. Until 1975, around forty prisoners participated in the “repentances”, as they became known. Os Arrependidos recounts the little-remembered story of former militants who, very young, dropped everything to risk their lives for a cause, were arrested and tortured, and became a propaganda weapon for their enemies.

Nheengatu – The Language of the Amazon takes us on a journey along the Negro River, on the trail of this language imposed on indigenous people by the first Portuguese colonialists who landed in Brazil in the 15th century. Throughout the various encounters with local communities that still speak this language, the director faces the different cultural, historical and social issues that confront tradition and future.

Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso reflects on his imprisonment in 1968, during the military dictatorship.

The daily life and development of young models of an agency located in the Jacarezinho favela, North Zone of Rio de Janeiro.

Three Brazilians live different stages of the same choice: to be a warrior in a great army of a foreign nation. Discover stories of characters who have enlisted in the Foreign Legion, Israel and the United States.

A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.

In 2014, Andrea Beltrão, Malu Galli and Mariana Lima decide to make a theatrical spectacle. Maria Flor asks to attend the rehearsals and register with her camera the process of creating the piece. While observing the actresses on the scene and accompanying the construction of the work, the girl ends up identifying in the assembly the representation of the course of her own life and her profession

The Birth of a baby is a very special moment and it’s no different for the reborn moms, with the difference that their children come by means of storks. This is the name given to artisans who turn vinyl molds into hyper-realistic dolls. The narrative follows as a production line, going through the process of manufacturing, industrial and craft, which gives the dolls hyper-realistic features. And it approaches end consumers, collectors or people who adopt care routines, just like we give away to our children. A film about the pure and simple feeling of motherhood – and the market that grows around it.

The film is the life of a woman from birth to death. All scenes will be real. The character will be lived by several people, of different ages, in different regions of the country. Filmed as a documentary, it will be transformed into fiction through the manipulation of images.

One of the greatest neuroscience breakthroughs is having discovered that babies are far more than a genetic load. The development of all human beings lies on the combination of genetics, the quality of the relationships and the environment they are set on. The Beginning of Life invites everyone to reflect: are we taking good care of this unique moment, which defines both the present and future of humankind?

Born in Arcoverde, in the backlands of Pernambuco, the lonely boy who was raised by his father after his mother left, João Silva soon discovered a passion for the northeastern rhythms, such as the baião, xote and forró. He went to Rio de Janeiro when he was still a little boy to meet the idol Luiz Gonzaga. Both men, who were not very fond of each other when they first met, became not only great friends but also partners in many hits like “Doutor do Baião”, “Nem se Despediu de Mim” and “Pagode Russo”.

Born in Arcoverde, in the backlands of Pernambuco, the lonely boy who was raised by his father after his mother left, João Silva soon discovered a passion for the northeastern rhythms, such as the baião, xote and forró. He went to Rio de Janeiro when he was still a little boy to meet the idol Luiz Gonzaga. Both men, who were not very fond of each other when they first met, became not only great friends but also partners in many hits like “Doutor do Baião”, “Nem se Despediu de Mim” and “Pagode Russo”.

Made from interviews with young Brazilian students by filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho before his death (in February 2014), the film seeks to understand how teenagers think, live and dream nowadays. The footage was edited by Coutinho’s longtime partner, film editor Jordana Berg, and the final cut is signed by João Moreira Salles.

The story of seven free women who remain captives in the name of love. In love with inmates, they live the limitations of the relationship and the hope of one day starting a family outside. The film addresses this universe through emotional confidences, letters lovingly decorated and a privileged access to the intimacy of the couples.

After an initial meeting in 1964 interrupted by military dictatorship and a new meeting in the early 1980s to end the film "Twenty Years Later", Eduardo Coutinho once again find Elizabeth Teixeira, survivor of peasant struggles.

Documentary on ethnic relations in Brazil.

Sixty-six adolescents, residents of Favela da Maré, were selected to participate in a dance show led by the choreographer Ivaldo Bertazzo, which incorporated their own daily experiences. Ten years later, directors David Meyer and Helena Soldberg search for some of the participants of this experience.

Today, one third of Brazilian children are overweight. This is the first generation to introduce diseases previously restricted to adults, such as depression, diabetes and cardiovascular problems. This documentary examines the case of childhood obesity in the country especially, but also in other countries in the world, interviewing parents, school representatives, and government officials responsible for food advertising.

Zulmira is an old mistress who lives in the neighborhood of Estacio, in Rio de Janeiro. One day she wakes up obsessed with the idea of dying. All she needs is a good coffin. A tribute to Leon Hirszman's "The Deceased", the first film starred by Fernanda Montenegro.

Simple, emotionally compelling documentary that delves into the songs that hold meaning in people's lives. It is composed of 18 sessions where the director engages his subjects in conversation about the song they picked. The end product is deeply personal stories about music and its intimate connection to memory, love, loss, self-discovery, regret, death, and life.

A documentary on the life of renowned Brazilian musician Marcelo Yuka, who was shot nine times in the streets of Rio de Janeiro in 2000 and became one of the main voices of social justice and peace in Brazil.

Divided in five segments, "Todo Mundo Tem Problemas Sexuais" follows the story of different couples, each having various problems in bed.

If you thought TV shows in which audiences and juries judge musical acts were a relatively new phenomenon, you'd better think again. In the 1970s, such "festivals" were incredibly popular in Brazil. They were recorded before a live studio audience, and usually featured a number of elimination rounds. They also formed the springboard for the career of many a big-name star, such as Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Roberto Carlos and Gilberto Gil. Appearing on such a program was no cakewalk, however: audiences could be as wild in their condemnation as in their appreciation of an artist. Extensive archive footage (including performances and behind-the-scenes interviews) from a turbulent final of the Festival of Brazilian Popular Music one evening in 1967 paints a fascinating picture, not only of the transformation of Brazilian music into real "festival" music, but also of a society starting to buck against the yoke of military rule.

Six people, one family, ten years later. Dois Tempos resumes the narrative of the lives of the Braz, created in 2000, in the documentary A Família Braz. In 2010 the same directors return to the same house to update the portrait of the six characters. A decade later, what has been done with your expectations of the past, how you live life in the present and what to provide for the future.

Continuing the exploration of the thin line between truth and performance, Eduardo Coutinho turns his attention to the drama generated during rehearsals for the Galpão Theater Company’s performance of Chekov’s The Three Sisters. As he shoots scenes from the play, Coutinho attempts to capture the very moment in which reality becomes fiction and vice versa—whether through the actors’ bodies and words or in backstage scenes of a performance that will exist only on film.

Following a newspaper ad, ordinary women tell part of their life stories to director Eduardo Coutinho, which are then re-enacted by actresses, blurring the barriers between truth, fiction and interpretation.

A documentary made to coincide with Niemeyer's 100th birthday. The renowned architect talks about his long life, his inspirations, and his aspirations towards a just Brazil, and the ways he tried to help that along in his spectacular and beautiful buildings.

A film that began from zero. Without any previous research, characters, locations or established themes, a film crew arrives at the Paraiba backlands in search of people with stories to tell. In the town of São João do Rio Peixe, they discover the Araçás Farm, a rural community where 86 families live, the majority connected by family ties. Thanks to the mediation of a young woman from Araçás, the residents – consisting mostly of elderly people – tell their life stories, marked by popular Catholicism, hierarchy, a sense of family and honor. A world on the verge of disappearing.

What makes a free woman choose a prisoner to develop a loving relationship? “The Visit” is a film about love in this special condition. Among the characters, some met their partners in the penitentiary; others had been visiting their husbands for decades. They feel valued by them and say they are well loved. They are women who insist on a relationship full of constraints and privations, even suffering various consequences of this option on a daily basis. In this film the prison universe is almost exclusively present in the report of the women, and never from the point of view of the husbands.

An accident involving a flying manhole cover leads to a chance meeting between two childhood friends: a widow and the owner of a beauty parlor. Thus begins an entertaining game of seduction that brings memories and hidden desires to the surface - furtive passions that end up threatening the hairdresser's de facto marriage.

In 1979 and 1980, workers in São Paulo’s metallurgical industry organized a series of strikes that changed the face of union politics in Brazil. In the process, they established the groundwork for Brazil’s Worker’s Party and brought to the national spotlight union leader Luís Inácio Lula da Silva. Metalworkers is a feature-length documentary about the stories of 21 of these workers who took part in these historic strikes but remain in relative anonymity today.

"Master" is the name of a 12-story apartment building in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro's neighborhood for nightlife. Over the course of four weeks in 2001, Eduardo Coutinho's film crew rented one of the 276 apartments and used it as home base to make a film about the building's residents. We get to know the building manager, who succeeded in turning the troubled residence into a family complex within just a few years. Using interviews and a few stolen moments in the corridors of the building, Coutinho explores this world. Most of the building's residents come from the lower middle class and are just getting by, but that's just about the only thing they have in common - so many people, so many stories, sometimes told in a self-confident tone, sometimes with averted eyes. The fact that a film crew is interested in their stories puzzles some of them. Hope, fear, dreams, memories, love and loneliness all appear from behind the doors of this average apartment building.

Gilberto Gil's 2002 album combines Brazilian pop with roots reggae. Featuring 11 of Bob Marley's greatest hits recorded in Tuff Gong Studios, Kingston, Jamaica. Includes special guest appearances from members of Bob Marley & The Wailers group. 16 tracks. Warner Music Latina.

Documentary on poor people living in a slum in Rio de Janeiro, on the occasion of New Year's Eve of 1999.

An overview of brazilian spirituality and religions.

Six stories of children and adolescents who had their rights violated, and the reality of the Rights Councils and Guardianship Councils (newly created in 1995) of two Brazilian cities, Blumenau and Belo Horizonte.

Nowadays technology has become the center of pregnancy experience, guiding expectants steps and dominating their lives during the months of child-bearing. Medical exams have been transformed in a show, motivating a range of fetus souvenirs creations, like pendants and other paraphernalia. Brazil is pioneer in transforming three-dimensional intrauterine images into objects for different purposes.