Laboratório Cisco

A a doc-poem about the woman’s body: dissident, desiring, deviant, empowered, sweaty, throbbing, survivor. On the scene, four artists who defy standards, subvert standards and poeticize their bodies in acts of resistance and transgression.

Homeless people from two major Brazilian cities talk about themselves, fabulous their lives and reinventing themselves before the camera. They recognize and reveal different dimensions to be considered when addressing the issue of street populations. They point out subjectivities and the place of harm reduction in society.

As Jack begins his gender transition process, Brazil is plunged into a wave of extreme conservatism. The film follows the transformations in his life and in the country, crossed by an extreme right-wing government and a devastating pandemic. Through an intimate account of the daily life of Jack and his friends, we see a network of affection and solidarity flourishing in the midst of an adverse context.

The documentary consists of a video-based exchange of messages between Brazilian and Cuban friends. By facilitating this audiovisual dialogue, the production team enables communication between these individuals and captures—through video letters—stories and life experiences from both countries.

Three generations of Kariri-Xocó indigenous people are set on an expedition to recognize the memorial territory of this people, stolen from them over the course of centuries of painful colonization. Their language, their knowledge and even their sacred rituals have been hidden as a survival strategy. Now, armed with cameras, drones, pipes, headdresses and maracas, they travel through the geographical landmarks of their territory in a road movie that is the preparation for new land retakes.

Oksana is an Armenian born in Azerbaijan, from where she was expelled at the age of 14 when the Soviet Union collapsed and the persecution of her people began; Salamu is Sahrawi, but his family fled Western Sahara due to the Moroccan invasion in 1975, and he was consequently born in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria. Both live in London, a city that is home to thousands of immigrants and refugees from all over the world. For this film, they were invited to write letters telling their stories.

What begins as a true-crime drama about three women — one imprisoned during a dictatorship, another who fled Brazil, and a third who took her own life — shifts when their nephew, now a father and the film’s director, steps in and questions his own narrative. Through archival footage and journeys, he seeks to reunite his family while his children teach him a new way of looking toward the future.