How far would you go for your dream? Wagner is a twenty-something Brazilian who works at an airport and yearns for a better life in New York. Through a failed attempt to stow away on an aircraft he meets Justina, a world-weary supervisor at the airport who has dreams of her own. Together they will discover that life has a lot more to offer. True to the spirit of Brazil, this romantic comedy has it all: the music, the drama, the passion... and above all, the dream of a better life.

trailer: youtube.com

Jean is based on the true story of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian man killed mistakenly by the British police, following the 2005 terrorist attacks in London. But this is no sober dramatic re-creation: instead, the film tells the story of a young man in a new city, reuniting with a favourite cousin who has just arrived in London. The film shows the tragicomic situations Brazilians go through when moving to another country, making Jean Charles' violent death all the more shocking.

trailer: youtube.com

Three Brazilian actresses go on a life-changing journey to India to realise their dream of making it big in Bollywood. What follows is a heady mixture of comic and deeply spiritual experiences that will challenge their friendship and beliefs. Beatriz Seigner, who directed, filmed and wrote the script, fell in love with India while on holiday there and managed to convince a Bollywood producer to bankroll her production. The Estado de São Paulo called it "the best film made in the West about India".

trailer: youtube.com

The true story of João Guilherme Estrella, a privileged middle-class boy turned big-time cocaine dealer, is brought to life in this fast-paced and muito cool biopic. Played by the charismatic and popular Brazilian actor Selton Mello, we follow Johnny’s progress from high school pothead through raucous coke-snorting party-boy to become Rio de Janeiro's king of cocaine trafficking. But then he makes one mistake too many...

trailer: youtube.com

Zeca is a young writer living in bohemian idleness in Rio. He's spent years writing a novel he just can't seem to finish and gets by on handouts from his family and lives a strained relationship with beautiful and successful wife Julia. Everything seems to change, though, when he starts to suspect that Julia is cheating on him with a sensual and flirtatious Argentinean woman, Carol. Will this be enough to shake Zeca out of his writer's block?

trailer: youtube.com

"One of the most unique romantic comedies to appear in years" - David Kwok, director of programming, Tribeca Film Festival

Meet Elvis: she's lesbian, an aspiring photographer and motorcycle courier living in Rio who's just taken on a new job delivering pizzas. Her first delivery is to Madonna, a ravishing blonde transvestite who Elvis finds lying on the floor, beaten up after being robbed by her sometime lover Joe Tripod. From this unusual first meeting, the lives of Elvis and Madonna intertwine and they discover love, passion and companionship where they least expect it.

trailer: youtube.com

"Here is a country that for many decades, its main export was culture. You can’t say that about many countries." - David Byrne

Beyond Ipanema celebrates the world's enduring fascination with Brazilian music. Through interviews with David Byrne, Devendra Banhart, M.I.A., Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé, Seu Jorge, Thievery Corporation, Bebel Gilberto, CSS, Creed Taylor and many others, Beyond Ipanema looks at how successive generations of music lovers have discovered Brazil’s rich musical culture. Find out how Brazil's diverse musical roots coupled with modern sampling techniques and globalisation have helped Brazil to secure a unique position in world culture.

trailer: youtube.com

interview: 3news.co.nz

This fascinating film looks into the life of Henning Albert Boilesen, a Danish man who became a naturalised Brazilian and rose to the heights of his new country's corporate elite. Famous both in Brazil and honoured back home in Denmark, he was also deeply involved with the military dictatorship—so in his spare time he helped torture left-wing radicals who were judged to threaten the government. This investigative biography examines Boilesen's extraordinary life and reveals much about the connections between Brazil's business elite and the dictatorship.

"An energetic, vibrant history of Brazilian politics in the 1960s and early '70s and its severe military-industrial response to the prospect of socialist rule, Citizen Boilesen crackles with political intrigue and personal demons." - Sean Farnel

trailer: youtube.com

Follow Brazil's Xavante people in their attempts to preserve their territory and keep their traditions untouched. It tells the poignant personal stories of young Xavante men sent to study the customs of modern Brazilian society so that they can become spokesmen for their people. They absorb the cultures and customs of urban Brazil as part of a "strategy" to protect their indigenous heritage and lifestyle.

trailer: youtube.com