Homenagens e Tributos no FIM20

The actress, playwright, director and writer Grace Passô is the great honoree of FIM20. At the age of 40, the artist born in Minas Gerais and based in São Paulo collects awards, not only in theater, where she started her multiple career, but also in cinema, representing the strength of black women and the future of the arts in Brazil.

Her multiple artistic expressions can be seen in the works selected for the festival. The medium-length Dazed Flesh, in which she works botth as an actress and the director - in partnership with Ricardo Alves Jr. -, is an adaptation of the monologue written, directed and performed by her on stage, embracing several voices that “take over” her body and highlight the identity prejudices of our society. Shell RJ and Cesgranrio Award for Best Script in 2016, it had its film version released directly in streaming in May this year.

Dazed Flesh is part of the artist`s film screenings, along with the short film Republic (2020), created, directed and performed by her in her own home, during the pandemic, and the short film Wingless (2019), by Renata Martins. “I am very happy with the FIM tribute. To be able to celebrate it with other people, to watch everything I made, gives me more breath to create and, therefore, to live. And joy has never been more important than now”, says Passô. She will also carry a dialogue circle on the movements of black women in the arts and cinema in Brazil, with mediation by Janaína Oliveira.

French director Claire Denis is also featured on the programming. Born in Paris, raised in Cameroon and with Brazilian relatives, she is a crucial filmmaker for the seventh art scene in the last 30 years. “Her films express a true desire to get to know people, with narratives about intimacy, sexuality and non-belonging”, explains Beth Sá Freire, curator of FIM.

She started as an assistant to directors like Jacques Rivette, Costa-Gavras and Wim Wenders until she made her own path, which has 14 feature films. The 2nd edition of the festival pays tribute to this trajectory, screening two of her great works: Let the Sunshine In (2017), a romantic comedy in which Juliette Binoche lives a woman in search of fulfillment in love and in life; and 35 Shots of Rum (2008), the story of father and daughter who have lived in an almost closed relationship with the world since they lost their wife and mother, with Alex Descas in the cast, an actor who worked in eleven of her films.

FIM20 features a masterclass by Claire Denis, mediated by educator and specialist Robert Milazzo from the Modern School of Film in New York, and created exclusively for the festival. Directly from her home, the filmmaker talks about her daily life, the human and social challenges brought about by the pandemic, her childhood in Cameroon and her Brazilian origins, with ancestors from the state of Pará. She also permeates her own work, the relationship with actors, the financing of her productions, the choice of themes and curiosities about her memorable films.

The 2nd edition of the event also celebrates the 100th birthday of Ukrainian writer, naturalized Brazilian, Clarice Lispector (1920 - 1977). Two feature films based on her work and made by women filmmakers were chosen to open and close the festival: the award winning The Hour of the Star (Brazil, 1985), by Suzana Amaral, and the unpremiered The Book of Delights (Brazil | Argentina, 2020) , by Marcela Lordy, respectively.

Check out the full calendar here on the website soon!