Documentary Film Festival ‘É Tudo Verdade’ Returns to Rio

By Ciara Long, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – From April 19th until the end of the month, Rio and São Paulo will host documentary film festival ‘É Tudo Verdade’, in a selection of cinemas across both cities. Showing more than eighty films from thirty countries, the festival’s 22nd edition will bring some of the best documentaries from the last year to Brazil’s screens.

Opening the festival in Rio will be Lucia Veríssimo’s ‘Eu, Meu Pai e os Cariocas – 70 Anos de Música no Brasil’ (Me, My Father and the Cariocas – 70 Years of Music in Brazil). Of the 82 documentary films passing across screens in both Rio and São Paulo, sixteen will be world premieres.

Founder and director of the festival Amir Labaki said that there was an unusually high number of entries for ‘É Tudo Verdade’ this year. “There is a bad feeling in the world. It is natural to reflect on art and the festival is showing this,” Labaki told local media.

Continuing, “From existential films, which speak of the difficulty of individuals going through daily life to bigger issues such as the devastating impact of the war in Syria on the planet.”

The festival features full-, medium-length and short films, with prizes for Brazilian and international films in each of the categories.

Medium-length films from Brazilian directors include Fabian Remy’s ‘A Terceira Margem’, Tyrell Spencer’s ‘Cidades Fantasmas’, Sandra Werneck’s ‘Mexeu Com Uma, Mexeu Com Todas’ and ‘Maria – Não Esqueça que Eu Venho dos Trópicos’, from Francisco C. Martins.

Meanwhile, international highlights include US filmmaker Steve James’s ‘Abacus: Small Enough to Condemn’, ‘Paris is a Feast – A Movie in 18 Waves’ by French director Sylvain George, ‘In Time to Come’ by Singapore’s Tan Pin Pin and ‘Luz Obscura’ from Portuguese filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias.

Short films on show from Brazilian, Latin American and international contexts will also screen in both cities. Titles include Filipe Carvalho’s ‘A Lembrança que Eu Gosto de Ter’, Adam Roffman’s ‘Collection’ and Cuban-Colombian work ‘Casa à Venda’ from director Emanuel Giraldo.

The festival will run in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo until from April 19 to 30, and screenings of all films are free. The full ‘É Tudo Verdade’ program is available on the festival’s website.

What: ‘É Tudo Verdade‘ documentary film festival
When: April 19th – 30th, screening times may vary
Where: Selected cinemas in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (check website for specific cinemas)
Entrance: FREE