Ela Pode Tudo
Ela Pode Tudo is a transformative and powerful film directed by Daniele Souza and Spike Luu.
Ela Pode Tudo (2023) is about a black Brazilian woman who faced all the social difficulties imposed and threw herself into the film industry dominated by white men and worked to become a filmmaker. This woman's path is full of challenges, but also a lot of resistance. The film has a strong connection with black cultures, such as beliefs, art, aesthetics. From this, with the recovery of her ancestry, the film's protagonist manages to strengthen herself to break the social barriers against black Brazilian women.
With a decolonial vision of success, the film's protagonist has very strong collective values and because of this, she achieves her goal. Through her story, she wants to inspire women to do anything and everything they dream of accomplishing.
By Emily M.
Kbela
Kbela (2015) is a short 20-minute film directed by Yasmin Thayná that aims to uplift and embrace Black beauty and natural hair while at the same time portraying how Eurocentric beauty standards and racism in Brazil groom Afro-Brazilian women into self-hating, harmful antiblack expectations on what “beauty” is, which results in harmful practices such as skin bleaching and rejection of natural hair styles. The word "Kbela" is a mashup of the words cabelo and beleza, which mean hair and beauty in Portuguese, to signify that Black hair and beauty go together and how Black women do not need to conform to Eurocentric standards to be considered beautiful. The film shows Afro-Brazilian women rejecting these racist expectations through a 20-minute collage of striking scenes that have minimal dialogue that show the embracing and celebrating Black hair, skin, and Afro-centric culture.
By Emily M.
Rainha
Rainha (2016) is a short film directed by Sabrina Fidalgo. Rainha is a 30-minute black and white drama set in Brazil in which an Afro-Brazilian woman named Rita strives to reach her dream of becoming the drum queen of her community’s Samba school. Throughout the film, Rita keeps losing the drum queen dance competitions to the other Afro-Brazilian dancer until she finally wins…but winning comes with bullying, physical violence, and the mystical dark forces of her internal and external world. After Rita is jumped by a group of bullies from her school, she arrives at carnival devastated to see the old drum queen back in her spot. Samba is an Afro-Brazilian dance which dates back to when enslaved Africans from the Congo and Angola were trafficked into Brazil due to slavery imposed by European colonizers. This film shows the significance for Afro-Brazilians like Rita to practice and embrace their African culture and roots.
By Emily M.
Um Dia com Jerusa
Um Dia Com Jerusa is a drama set in São Paulo, Brazil, and follows the lives of two very different Afro-Brazilian women, Silvia and Jerusa. Silvia is a young woman who feels a sense of precariousness about her future. Underemployed, she works as a market researcher for a soap brand. She knocks on the door of Jerusa, an old woman living in the Bixiga neighborhood, who invites her in. She is about to celebrate her 77th birthday and is waiting for her family. Silvia asks Jerusa questions about soap, and each question makes her recall a memory. Silvia is a medium, and as Jerusa shares her experiences, their strong connection enables the two of them to travel back in time. They travel beyond Jerusa’s lived memory and enter the collective memory of her enslaved ancestors. The film highlights the power of Afro-Brazilian ancestral memory, showing that although the two women are very different, they have strong historical connections that enable them to form a bond with each other. Although their histories are marked with prejudice, violence, and grief, the two women experience great joy and have big dreams for their lives, which the film says is one of the greatest acts of resistance.
By Kristine W.
Café com Canela
Set in Bahia, Café com Canela is a drama that focuses on the friendship between two Afro-Brazilian main characters, Violeta and Margarida. The movie begins with Margarida in a state of deep grief after the death of her husband and her son. Violeta had been Margarida’s student when she was a child, and she visits her one day to say hello. Margarida invites her in for café com canela, and the women start to embark on a tentative friendship. Through talks over coffee, the sharing of memories, and the experiences they build together (such as teaching Margarida how to ride a bike), Violeta tries to lift Margarida out of her grief. The film uses the symbol of a flower to evoke the image of a life coming to bloom. Violeta––Margarida’s flower––helps her come back to life. Although the film has a mostly Black cast, it rejects the notion that the only representation of Afro-Brazilians on screen should be fighting to survive. Instead, the characters narrate their highs and lows and share stories about love and life. With the women’s friendship at the center of the film, the film illustrates the power and transformative nature of female friendships.
By Kristine W.