Running Nov 27-30 at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 91 Charles W. General admission $10 ($8 Autoshare members; $6 students & seniors). Call the box office at 1-888-222-6608 or go to
www.brazilfilmfest.net for listings and info.
BRAFF is no longer just the surname of some actor you thought was cute before he got old and you realized The Shins were actually kinda lousy. It’s also a handy acronym for one of the city’s newest film festivals. Now in its second year, the Brazil Film Fest showcases works from South America’s most populous country at the Isabel Bader Theatre through to Sunday (Nov. 30). Since so few of Brazil’s cinematic exports make it onto local screens (Jose Padilha’s controversial Berlin prizewinner Elite Squad recently went straight to video), BRAFF is an invaluable opportunity to investigate its wares.
Bossa Nova
And given the worldwide fame of the nation’s musical styles, it’s not so surprising the fest has a strong rhythmic bent. The opening selection is Bossa Nova (Nov. 27, 6:30pm), a romantic comedy set to the songs of Tom Jobim. The musical theme continues with Out of Tune (Nov. 29, 8:30pm), a drama about a fictional bossa nova band eking out a living in the politically tumultuous ’60s, and Vinicius (Nov. 29, 4pm), a documentary portrait of songwriter and poet Vinícius de Moraes.
Vinicius
Though not so musically inclined, Window of the Soul (****; Nov. 28, 11am) is nonetheless a documentary with an unusually lyrical bent. In this 2002 film by Joao Jardim and Walter Carvalho (co-presented at BRAFF by Hot Docs, and pictured at top), luminaries and deep thinkers such as Jose Saramago, Oliver Sacks, Wim Wenders and Agnes Varda offer their thoughts on the nature of vision and perception. We also hear from interview subjects whose visual impairments range from mild to severe but who all contribute to a greater understanding of the many different ways we see the world and each other.