Short Film Lounge

The Lounge, featuring the best short films of the 2012 Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, concisely mirrors the themes of this year`s Première Brasil.

Changes in major Brazilian cities are reflected in "O que Restou do Céu" (What Remains from the Sky), in which a flâneur wakes up one morning to realize that his hometown has grown upward, blocking the view of the sky. The samba between the past and the future is the subject of Agoniza, "Mas Não Morre" (Samba Never Dies). In keeping with the song of the same title by Nelson Sargento, the film asks renowned musicians: Is the samba changing? "Confete" (Confetti) follows these colored shreds of paper through Rio’s colorful carnival, with its samba, body heat, and utter exuberance. "Janaína" celebrates the Queen of the Sea, the great mother of Afro-Brazilian mythology who is honored in ocean-side ceremonies. Two special highlights of the Short Film Lounge: In "A Dama do Estácio" (The Lady from Estácio) with Fernanda Montenegro – leading actress from “Central Station,” the Golden Bear-winning film at the 1998 Berlinale – an old woman, obsessed with thoughts of her death, embarks on a search for a suitable coffin. In "A Nona Vítima" (The Ninth Victim), eight mysterious murders shake a university campus – and the number is poised to rise. As a counterpart to the animated feature “Rio 2096", Realejo asks what happens when you don’t follow the orders of the owl in the moon...