The duo teamed up with Maxximal and MC Hollywood, two powerful players in Brazil’s music scene, to breathe new life into the ’70s classic.
Brazil is sending a queer love story to the Oscars.
Private Desert (Deserto Particular), Brazil’s submission for this year’s Academy Awards, tells a love story between a gender nonbinary youth and a disgraced ex-cop in a society that doesn’t accept them.
The film’s director, Aly Muritaba, sat down for a post-screening Q&A at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens on November 20.
Muritaba began by answering whether Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, would appreciate the film. “I believe Bolsonaro would not be happy, especially with his history of homophobia,” he said via a translator.
He said the film received funding before Bolsonaro’s administration. But now that he is in power, Muritaba said LGBT art has faced more “censorship.” In response to Bolsonaro’s crackdown, Muritaba said the film is “fighting fascism with love.”
Muritaba — who identifies as a straight, cis man – discussed how he had aimed to be respectful and authentic to the experiences of his characters. He said he consulted with many trans women and made sure to have the actor who played the nonbinary lead be nonbinary themselves. He said LGBT people worked in front and behind the camera. “The [LGBT] community was present all the way,” he said.
Muritaba was asked about how his previous job as a prison guard informed his storytelling. “Listen to people,” the director said.
After a special screening of Petra Costa’s critically acclaimed documentary “The Edge of Democracy,” the director discussed the tragedy that is Brazilian democracy in its current state, and how she balances the personal with the political in her storytelling.
“A film about a future that looks as bleak as our darkest past.”
On Wednesday, December 19th, UMA founder and designer Raquel Davidowicz unveiled re-editions of the iconic series “Os Bichos” by mid-century Brazilian artist, the late Lygia Clark. The event took place at the new UMA location at 13 Crosby Street in New York City.
On October 18th, UMA by Raquel Davidowicz celebrated the opening of a new store. Once located on Bleeker Street, the family-owned brand has relocated to 13 Crosby Street which calls for more room to showcase the contemporary, classic womenswear manufactured in Sao Paulo.
The function, a classy mixer, gave guests and press a chance to rome through the store and go through the clothing racks as Sao Paulo native and DJ, Beco Branoff, provided music. Although hors-d’oeuvres were provided by SoHo’s The Smile, Davidowicz was sure to include flavors from Brazil, paying homage to the place her parents were born. Traditional Brazilian cocktails called caipirinha were served while sweet desserts, known as Brazil’s national truffle, called brigadeiro sat on their own pedestal near the entrance waiting for guests to indulge
Amongst the crowd, enjoying the food and cocktails was Emma Ferrer, Elle Dee, and Alexia Bontempo, as well as Lolita Cros and Lily Mortimer who both wore a white, zip-up jumpsuit from UMA’s current collection.
“I make clothes for women of all ages, mostly for women who are involved in art and women who like to work,” Davidowics explains as she points to the wrap sweater she’s wearing. “This collection was all about the refugees all over the world,” she continues, “the fashion show was in Sao Paulo’s Museum of Immigration, it’s the place immigrants were received in Brazil during the 30’s and 40’s.”
Davidowicz is from Poland, but uses fashion to pay tribute to refugees, like her grandparents who migrated to Brazil, by creating clothes with simple colors, black, white, blues, and earth tones; that are easy to travel in and can be worn in many different ways. At first each piece looks laid back, however, they can be dressed up or down easily.
Although there is only one UMA located in New York, consumers can head to the UMA website where the current and future collections can be shipped internationally. Be sure to check out the new location and shop the latest.
The economic and security crisis in Venezuela has forced Latin America to react as Venezuelans look for new opportunities elsewhere. The response has been varied: from highly coordinated to nearly nonexistent.
In perhaps the best foreign-language film of the year, Bingo the clown transforms Brazilian TV while indulging in whiskey, cocaine, and supermodels, all set to a glorious 80s soundtrack.
Last Saturday, Galeria Melissa brought ‘Baile funk’ to Manhattan for an unforgettable celebration of Brazil’s booming funk music scene.
New pro development soccer team, New Jersey Teamsters Football Club (NJ Teamsters FC) has named Javier Velasco as head coach and held its second tryout on Saturday at the Stephen R. Gregg Park in Bayonne, New Jersey, to identify and hire the top players from New Jersey and abroad.
The United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) announced the hiring of Coach Velasco on Aug. 2, and Northeastern Conference Owner Alex Geraldino, a certified United States soccer agent and former NFL – Europe Cornerback confirmed the news on the teams site and said, ” We are excited that Javier Velasco has accepted a head coach position with New Jersey Teamsters FC. Javier has a USSF credentials and is a NSCAA member who’s committed the sport of soccer. He is a New Jersey native who has many years of experience recruiting, training and coaching players, and evaluating and assessing opponents. He’s a good fit for us.”
Players from Great Britain, Venezuela, Africa, Haiti, Brazil, Colombia and the New York metropolitan area came out to audition for the fastest growing sport in America and for a team that is not a Major League Soccer team. The Wall Street Journal wrote a descriptive subtitle, apart of a broader story about various levels within professional soccer that read, “Beyond Major League Soccer, there is explosive growth in the lower rungs of American professional soccer.”
The team held it’s first tryout at late July at Pennington Park in Paterson, New Jersey and will hold tryouts all month until they find players that can play football at the professional level. Coach Velasco told The Knockturnal, “Our second tryout was a success, we had about 45 players. We will bring most of them back next Sunday and invite some experienced professional players that will make the level more demanding, and will give the new players an idea of where we need to be to compete at the highest level.”
So far, the NJ Teamsters FC is off to a great start. They secured practice and home fields for matches and will host international friends and exhibitions. “We’re a new team and we’re off to a great start. This month we’re holding tryouts, next month we’re delegates at SoccerEx – the largest soccer convention in the world with over 450 team front office staff members, so our goal is to team up with a European premier team” and ” As a soccer owner, I’m looking toward Europe and South America. We are fortunate to be members of UPSL, a league that promotes and relegates. This is an important element for pro soccer and we are the only US league that has this concept, which is the popular concept all around the world, except the U.S.A. Promotion and relegation is what makes fans go crazy about soccer and this is one of our goals. Our Director of Operations, Joe Santella, Head Coach Velasco and I are on the same page. The first goal is to identify and develop the best talent, and then it’s to win soccer matches, go on to compete at a high level at the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and borrow and loan out players.” Film and coaching company S.A.C.C. WOLVES was therefor the play by plays.
We’ll stay tuned, as the MLS has major competition with other American soccer leagues. They’ll all compete against one another at the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the Super Bowl of Soccer!
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