The Brazilian Embassy, the Brazil-Guyana Cultural Centre and the University of Guyana’s Department of Language and Cultural Studies will host a Brazilian film and documentary festival starting next week.

The annual festival, which will open on Wednesday, shifts venue from the Centre of Brazilian Studies to the University’s Learning Resource Centre, where it hopes to attract more people.

The festival will open with a screening of Quilombagem. It is a drama of two African communities on the border of Brazil and Bolivia in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest. Santo Antonio do Guapore and Pedras Negras have been fighting for more than 200 years for the recognition of their land and their culture.

On Thursday, June 11, the festival will screen Olga, which is based on the book by Fernando de Morais. It tells the story of Olga Benario, the German born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getulio Vargas she was arrested and sent to Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp.

On Friday, June 12, Vinicius will be screened. It tells of the life, the friends and love of the great Brazilian poet, playwright and songwriter Vinicius de Moraes. The documentary explores the creative essence of the artist, who was internationally famous as a lyricist of Bossa Nova hits such as “Garota de Ipanema” and “Insensatez” and writer of the play that inspired Black Orpheus, through archival images and interviews.

Meanwhile, Monday, June 15 will see the screening of Narradores de Jave or The Storytellers. When the government plans to build a hydroelectric dam that threatens their small village, the illiterate inhabitants of Jave invite a former inhabitant Antonio Bia to chronicle their history and tell their story.

Screenings would be from 12:00 to 13:30 at the lower auditorium of the Learning Resource Centre.