FIM second edition will be held entirely online from November 10th to 17th, 2020. Get ready!
FIM20 celebrates the centenary of writer Clarice Lispector in its opening and closing sessions
FIM believes in the potential of cinema to inspire trajectories, fight stereotypes and consolidate new thoughts from the larger presence of women on and off screen.
The 2020 edition of the Festival celebrates the centenary of the birth of one of the most emblematic writers in our literature, Clarice Lispector, presenting in the opening and closing sessions two films inspired by her work, which shows the power of women’s narrative in literature and cinema.
Clarice Lispector is considered in the art world one of the most important Brazilian authors of the 20th century and the most influential Jewish writer since Franz Kafka. She was a woman ahead of her time, both as a writer, portraying her characters’ stream of consciousness so intrinsically that her second novel was identified with Jean-Paul Sartre`s existentialism; as well as a Laws student, journalist, translator and proofreader (her first occupations in the literature environment).
Clarice passed away on the eve of her 57th birthday, on December 9, 1977. December 2020 would be the month of her 100th birthday.
Born in Ukraine, raised and naturalized Brazilian (she came to Brazil at the age of 2 and never considered herself from Eastern Europe), Clarice was a transgressive woman, an exponent of modernism in Brazilian literature and the intellectual scene of her time, being compared to James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
In her debut novel, at age 23, she was critically acclaimed with Near to the Wild Heart (1943), for which she was awarded the Best Debut Novel by the Graça Aranha Foundation in the year following its publication. In addition to this, throughout her career, Clarice was awarded the Carmen Dolores Barbosa Award (1961), two Jabutis (1961 and 1978, posthumously) and the Order of Cultural Merit (2011).
To celebrate her life and prestigious work, the second edition of FIM - International Women’s Film Festival presents, in its opening and closing sessions, two feature films inspired by her lyrical universe, in which no gesture or event is irrelevant.
The opening session features Hour of the Star (1985), paying a double tribute, both to Lispector and her penultimate novel, and to director Suzana Amaral, who passed away in June this year. Suzana was nominated for a Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival (1986) for her work. The film also won the Havana Film Festival (1986) as Best Film and the Brasília Festival in the categories Best Film, Director, Actor (José Dumont), Actress (Marcélia Cartaxo), Cinematography (Edgar Moura) and Editor (Idê Lacreta) .
Narrating the discovery of love between an elementary school teacher and a philosophy teacher, and scheduled for the closing session of the festival, Book of Delights (2020), by Marcela Lordy, is an adaptation of the novel An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasure, published by Clarice in 1969.
The female characters conceived by Clarice reflect beyond her time, inspire reinterpretations and influence new generations of writers, filmmakers and artists of various styles. In 2020, the festival celebrates the writer`s centenary and her connections with female protagonism on and off screen.
In addition to these sessions, FIM20 will also promote, through its formative activities, meetings and debates on the author`s legacy, her multiple and complex female characters and the correlations between Clarice`s literature and the cinematic universe. Follow FIM on social media and check the full calendar soon.
Long live Clarice!