FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October, 4 2021
MEDIA CONTACTS
Charles Coleman: charles@facets.org
Paul Gonter: paul@facets.org
MEMORY HOUSE Press Release
Press Release
CHICAGO—FACETS is excited to announce the virtual screening of Memory House by director João Paulo Miranda Maria. Memory House virtual screenings will be available on October 8th at 4:00 am CDT. Audiences will have 7 days to start watching and 72 hours to finish watching through Eventive.Tickets must be purchased in advance through Eventive and are $10/General Admission. Full synopsis, trailer, and ticketing can be found on FACETS’ website here.
Synopsis
In this audacious debut feature, João Paulo Miranda Maria conjures a surreal vision of the racial and social rifts in modern day Brazil, captured with dreamlike images steeped in traditional Brazilian folklore. Cinema Novo icon Antônio Pitanga stars as Cristovam, an Indigenous Black man from the rural North who moves to an industrialized Southern town populated by the descendants of Austrian expats to work in a milk factory. Over three decades later, he is now lost in a decadent community and being told that he must take a wage cut, despite his loyalty to the company, he finds refuge in an abandoned home where he discovers artifacts reminiscent of his past.
As Cristovam rediscovers his roots, he comes to the realization that nothing has changed, and the attacks that he continues to endure in the community, both mental and physical, awaken in him a legacy of abuse carried down for centuries. Cristovam embodies the experience of the unwanted Other, the racialized body that can be mocked, tormented, and forgotten, encountering endless obstacles and intrusions thwarting the life that he is entitled to live. In the face of their virulent racism, Cristovam becomes increasingly estranged from the white world, and when he discovers an abandoned house filled with objects reminding him of his origins, it triggers a spiritual and physical metamorphosis.
“With its supernatural flourishes and its unsparing take on a Brazil that looks both dystopian and nostalgic in equal measure, Miranda Maria’s debut feature is an impressive calling card. Memory House is, above all, a fable about identities lost and cultural artifacts in need of recovery that doubles as a thrilling and foreboding ride designed to rattle audiences at home and abroad with equal verve.” – Manuel Betancourt, Variety
Film information
Memory House, 2020, 93 mins, Brazil/France, in Portuguese and German with English subtitles, directed by João Paulo Miranda Maria, starring Antônio Pitanga
Showtimes
Virtual screenings available on October 8th at 4:00 am CDT. Audiences will have 7 days to start watching and 72 hours to finish watching.
FACETS memberships
Become a FACETS Member today to receive special discounts, including up to 25% on all purchases and exclusive access to the organization’s video rental catalog of hard-to-find Blu-rays, DVDs, and VHS tapes. Sign up today at www.facets.org/members.
About FACETS
FACETS connects people to independent ideas through transformative film experiences. Founded by the late Milos Stehlik in 1975, FACETS inspires audiences to engage with film not simply as entertainment, but as an exciting tool to bridge cultural divides, promote digital literacy, and expand perspectives through empathy-driven storytelling. www.facets.org
FACETS presents the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF), one of only two Academy Award-qualifying international children’s film festivals in the world. Submissions are now open for CICFF38. www.facets.org/submit
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