Maria de Medeiros at the screening of her film Les yeux de Bacuri at the 15th edition of the Brazilian film festival in Paris

 

NMaria de Medeiros
Maria de Medeiros

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Tonight I attended the screening of Maria's new documentary, "Les yeux de Bacuri" at the 15th edition of the Brazilian Film Festival in Paris. It is the true story of revolutionary, Eduardo Leite "Bacuri", who died in the hands of the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1970  after suffering 109 days of torture. In the meantime his lover, Denise, was pursued and imprisoned during her pregnancy. The story is so intense and passionate it is hard to have dry eyes. The two main protagonists are Denise and her daughter Eduarda. Eduarda never met her father, all she has of him is a few photographs, a sweater and the stories of her mother, which were not told to her until she was making friends with a facist. Denise manages to flee into exile after the birth of her daughter, Eduarda. It is a story of exile, bravery, freedom and more than anything, strength on everyones part from the mother of Denise to the tortured "Bacuri" who was still digging a hole to escape before he was put to death and at that time he could not even walk he'd been so tortured but he never gave in nor stopped trying. After, I think 40 years Denise and he daughter Eduarda have been given an amnesty compensation from the Ministry of Justice in Brazil. Denise moved back to Sao Paulo where she wants to reconstruct her life, the torturers still have not been put to justice.

Maria was asked to make this film. The intimacy and warmth between the director and Denise and Eduarda is clear and heart felt. 

XMaria

I met Maria in 1997 when she was starring in a film by Arnold Barkus, Tempete dans un verre d'eau and I was the costume designer for her and the director who was acting in the film as well.

Maria was on the jury for ASVOFF in 2009 and in 2008, Medeiros was nominated for the UNESCO Artist for Peace. She has directed 7 films and starred in more films than I have space to record, for sure you remember her from the 1990 film Henry & June she starred with Uma Thurman and 1994 again with Uma in Pulp Fiction, she was Bruce Willis' girlfriend.  In fact Maria has been acting since she was in her early teens. Along with being a director, an actress she is also a singer not to mention the mother of two children, both which have been born in the span of time that I've known her. Another x-ASVOFF jury member, Nan Goldin took an amazing photo of Maria and her first child that was hanging at the Centre Pompidou for Nan's one woman show in 2002.  

In the first edition of ASVOFF at Jeu de Paume, I selected Guy Maddin's feature film "The Saddest Music in the World" which starred Maria. I might add that she looks the same now as she did 16 years ago when I met her.

The film is currently looking for distribution.

Later,

Diane

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Diane Pernet

A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

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