Friday, February 6, 2004 — Thursday, February 12, 2004
Presented at:
Market Arcade Film and Art Center
MADAME SATA (Karim Ainouz, Portuguese with English subtitles, Brazil. 2002, 105 min.35mm) “Vividly incandescent! Like Josephine Baker re-imagined as a transvestite brawler… elevating sin to something sublime!” -- Scott Tobias, Time Out NY
To many, he has become the Brazilian version of Jean Genet: six feet tall, 180 pounds of proud muscle in a silk shirt and tight pants, a cutthroat razor in his back pocket. Legends and myths have grown up around the real life character João Francisco dos Santos (1900-1976), also known as Madame Satã. Born to slaves in the arid wasteland of Northern Brazil and sold by his mother at the age of 7, João Francisco pursued his freedom on the mean streets of Lapa, Rio de Janeiro. Through this character, the film celebrates the blossoming of a pulsating urban Afro-Brazilian culture that emerged in Rio de Janeiro in the post abolition years. This culture was forged as an expression of resistance in a society that had no use for Black peoples after the abolition of slavery in 1888. MADAME SATÃ not only evokes a fascinating real life character, but also brings to life a crucial moment of the Afro-Brazilian diaspora.
Some publications related to this event:
January and February, 2004 - 2004