“Over fifty years have passed since Nelson Pereira dos Santos made his first film, yet he continues to work with youthful enthusiasm on new projects,” wrote Darlene Sadlier in her book on Pereira dos Santos for the Contemporary Film Directors series published by University of Illinois Press. “His career is long and diverse” and “his various projects are unified by a leftist political point of view and a desire to make his audience think as well as feel.” This series is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Brazilian Consulate in Chicago, Office of the Vice President of International Affairs, College of Arts and Humanities Institute, Film and Media Studies, Department of Communication and Culture, African Studies, Black Film Center/Archive, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, American Studies, Latino Studies, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Brazilian Association at Indiana University and IU Cinema. Special thanks to the Academia Brasileira de Letras and Darlene Sadlier. This visit is also in partnership with UCLA, Wexner Center for the Arts and City College, New York. All films are in Portuguese language with English subtitles, unless noted and screenings are free, but ticketed. Rio, 100 Degrees F. (Rio, 40 Graus) (1956) Directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos Sunday - April 14 - 3:00 p.m. Inspired by Italian neorealism and a desire to forge a ‘cinema of the people’, Nelson Pereira dos Santos independently produced his story set in a favela of Rio de Janeiro, close to the fashionable tourist sites in and around Copacabana. The camera follows five peanut vendors from a hillside shanty town into tourist areas that include Sugar Loaf Mountain and the famous Maracanã soccer stadium. This film was one of the first in Brazil to address issues of race and social class, and is considered as important to Brazilian cinema as Godard’s Breathless is to French Cinema. The themes explored in this film would be examined throughout Pereira dos Santos’ career. Nelson Pereira dos Santos is scheduled to be present. (35mm. 100 min. Not Rated.) Tent of Miracles (Tenda dos Milagres) (1977) Directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos Sunday - April 14 - 6:30 p.m. In a loose adaptation of Jorge Amado’s best-selling novel of the same name, Pereira dos Santos provides a stunning critique of racism in Brazilian society. When a prominent U.S. Nobel Laureate arrives in Salvador, Bahia, the city with the largest black population in Brazil, he stirs emotions by championing a long-forgotten local writer named Pedro Archanjo, who believed that humanity would be improved only through miscegenation. Like the novel, the film exposes the racial hypocrisy of the Salvador elite, but is a more self-reflexive work that is especially sensitive in its representations of the African religion known as candomblé. Nelson Pereira dos Santos is scheduled to be present. (35mm. 132 min. Not Rated.) 42 Nelson Pereira dos Santos Tickets: (812) 855-1103