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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, April 4, 2013

Brazilian filmmaker's visit to IU Bloomington first stop in U.S. tour

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2013

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Cinema will screen six films by Brazilian filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos, who will also give a free lecture while visiting the Bloomington campus this month. The stop is his first on a short U.S. tour arranged by IU, which includes visits to UCLA, the Wexner Center at Ohio State and the City College of New York.

The only Brazilian filmmaker honored as a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, dos Santos is a recipient of Indiana University's Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion, which honors individuals who exemplify the values of IU and the universal academic community. IU President Michael A. McRobbie and Vice President for International Affairs David Zaret presented dos Santos with the award during a November 2012 visit to South America designed to strengthen IU's ties with leading universities and political leaders as well as connect with alumni.

IU officials signed an agreement during that visit with the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the organization's first with a U.S. university and a partnership made possible through years of work in the area by IU professor of Portuguese Darlene Sadlier.

"Indiana University's partnership with the Brazilian Academy of Letters significantly expands scholarly engagement between IU scholars and Academy members, among Brazil's most distinguished figures of the literary arts," Zaret said. "We are honored to have dos Santos inaugurate the partnership with his visit to Indiana University."

Dos Santos will deliver a Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture at 3 p.m. Monday, April 15, at the cinema. The event is free, and tickets are not required. The lecture series is made possible by the support of the Ove W Jorgensen Foundation. Sadlier will introduce dos Santos and lead the interview-format lecture, which will be simultaneously translated to English.

"This is a very important visit for IU Cinema," IU Cinema director Jon Vickers said. "Nelson Pereira dos Santos is revered by contemporary Brazilian filmmakers, and even his films from the 1950's still resonate today."

IU Cinema will screen six of dos Santos' films, all of which are in Portuguese with English subtitles:

• 3 p.m. April 14, "Rio, 100 Degrees F."-- Five peanut vendors from a hillside shanty town work in the fashionable tourist sites.
• 6:30 p.m. April 14, "Tent of Miracles" -- A stunning critique of racism in Brazilian society, loosely based on Jorge Amado's best-selling novel.
• 7 p.m. April 15, "Barren Lives" -- A year in the life of a poor cowhand and his family in the drought-ridden sertão of the Brazilian northeast.
• 7 p.m. April 16, "Music According to Tom Jobim" - Follow the musical trajectory of the great Brazilian composer, and the power, beauty and poetry of his bossa nova music.
• 3 p.m. April 21, "How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman" -- The story of a French adventurer captured by members of the Tupinambá tribe and readied for the community's ritual consumption.
• 6:30 p.m. April 21, "Memoirs of Prison" - An adaptation of leftist intellectual Graciliano Ramos' memoir of his imprisonment in the 1930s by the right-wing regime of Getúlio Bargas.

Dos Santos is scheduled to be present for screenings of "Rio, 100 Degrees F.," "Tent of Miracles," "Barren Lives" and "Music According to Tom Jobim." All 35mm prints are courtesy of Regina Filmes and the national archive, or Arquivo Nacional.

Tickets for all six films are free and can be obtained at the IU Auditorium Box Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; one hour before any screening at the cinema; or by phone at 812-855-1103 for a $10 service fee per order.

The "Fifty Years of Brazilian Cinema" film series is sponsored by the departments of Spanish and Portuguese, Communication and Culture and African American and African Diaspora Studies; Office of the Vice President of International Affairs; College of Arts and Humanities Institute; the College of Arts and Sciences; School of Global and International Studies; the Film and Media, African, American and Latino studies programs; Black Film Center/Archive; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; and the Brazilian Association at IU; as well as the Brazilian consulate in Chicago and Sadlier.

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