Sunday, June 16, 2013, 7:00 PM
Brazilian cinema is celebrating the 11th edition of the Brazilian Film Festival of NY. This annual event honors the best and the brightest of Brazil’s innovative new cinema. As is tradition, the closing night film of the 11th Brazilian Film Festival of NY, presented outdoors at SummerStage in Central Park, will feature a performance by songstress Preta Gil, followed by the animated film, “Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury.”
Preta Gil, the daughter of famous Brazilian singer and Ex-Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, has developed a unique personality while showcasing her ability to produce, sing, act and write songs. Since the start of her career in 2003, Gil has been mixing various genres and rhythms into her own songs, including elements of Folk, Samba, MPB, and Rock. In 2012, Gil released her 4th album, Sou Como Sou (As Am I), which celebrates 10 years of Gil’s illustrious career. Gil’s latest performance, O Bloco de Preta, has brought more than 300,000 people to Rio’s Carnival in 2013.
Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker and scriptwriter Luiz Bolognesi, Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury, is the first feature-length animated film to participate in Première Brazil, the competitive exhibition of the Rio Film Festival, in all 14 years of the festival’s existence. Targeting both youngsters and adults, with a graphic novel lineament and language, the film revolves around the love between Janaína and an Indian warrior who, upon dying, takes the form of a bird. For over six centuries, the couple’s story flourishes, passing through four phases of Brazil’s history: colonization, slavery, military regime and the future in 2096, when a war over water takes place.
Born in New York City, DJ Gaspar Muniz moved to Rio de Janeiro at an early age. His parents, the multi-media artist Maria Mattos and the photographer Vik Muniz, fostered an intensely artistic home environment and introduced him to famed Brazilian musicians such as Bebel Gilberto, Marisa Monte and Seu Jorge. Never attached to a specific genre, DJ Gaspar Muniz uses his cultural diversity and knowledge in his sets by mixing a variety of music styles from different places and eras.(SummerStage)