In person film screening of “Seeds: Black Women in Power” (1h 45m) followed by a discussion with the film’s co-directors Éthel Oliveira and Júlia Mariano (joining virtually) and Clélia Prestes, Ph.D., Director of Mátria -Psychology, Racial and Gender Relations

Watch the recording of the discussion that followed the film screening here: youtu.be/I7kyKTxqJXw. 

This original documentary shows the aftermath of the tragic assassination of Marielle Franco, at the time the only Black councilwoman from the city of Rio de Janeiro, and how it inspired Black women across Brazil to run for office. The film follows several women in various stages throughout their 2018 electoral campaigns, demonstrating the possibility of doing politics in a new way, and transforming mourning into struggle. Join us for this showing of this important documentary and discussion with Éthel Oliveira and Júlia Mariano, co-directors of “Sementes: Mulheres Pretas no Poder” (Seeds: Black Women in Power, 2020), and Clélia Prestes, Director of Mátria -Psychology, Racial and Gender Relations.

Participants:

Éthel Oliveira is an Afro-Brazilian filmmaker and activist who is dedicated to sharing and uplifting the stories and resilience of Black people in Brazil. She’s also a film club member, and editor. She is co-producer of Sementes: Mulheres Pretas no Poder (Seeds: Black Women in Power, 2020). Éthel studied social sciences at Fluminense Federal University, researching the Guaraní indigenous people in Rio and Mato Grosso do Sul through the Ethnographic Film Laboratory and spent ten years producing human rights media projects in Pernambuco. Her previous works are Terceira Diaspora (Third Diaspora) and Vinte de Novembro (November 20, 2011), Arremate (The End, 2017), and the Baobá African Cinema Showcase in Recife (2018). 

Júlia Mariano is a director, screenwriter, and producer. She graduated from Cuba’s School of Cinema and Television of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV). In 2014, Júlia directed Ameaçados (The Threatened People), which won awards at Rio de Janeiro’s Short Film Festival, São Paulo’s Kinoforum Festival, and Maranhão’s Guarnicê Film Festival. In 2015 she directed Do Corpo da Terra (From the Body of the Land) produced in partnership with the Movimento dos Sem Terra (Landless Movement). In 2017 she founded NOIX CULTURA and directed the documentary series Desde Junho (Since June). Her previous works are Ameaçados (2014), Do Corpo da Terra (2016), and Desde Junho (2017).

Clélia Prestes holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of São Paulo. She was a visiting scholar in the African and African American Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. She is a specialist in Clinical Psychoanalytic Psychology from the State University of Londrina (UEL) and is the Coordinator for Research and Training at the AMMA Institute for Psyche and Blackness. She is also the director of Mátria – Psychology, Racial and Gender Relations.

Moderator: Juliana Valente, Ph.D. student in Cultural Anthropology at CUNY Graduate Center 

Co-sponsored by the Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee (DDB- NY) and CUNY Graduate Center Anthropology Program

Languages: Portuguese/English with interpretation