Hevea Brasiliensis
Documentary
My grandfather was born in Belém do Pará, Brazil. After my father’s passing, I went in search of this far side of the family, which intersects with stories of women who smoked pipes and anthropophages.
In this quest, a geographical triangle emerged, whose vertices are 500 to 1000 km apart: Belém, Manaus and Fordlândia. Through the traces and scars that history has left on them, Hevea Brasiliensis questions the present world and its colonial heritage, whether European in origin or imbued with the capitalism of the new world.
Susana de Sousa Dias was born in Lisbon, in 1962. She has a Doctorate in Fine Arts (Audiovisual), a master’s degree in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art, a degree in Painting and a bachelors degree in Cinema. She studied music at the National Conservatory. Among her works are “Natureza Morta – Visages d’une dictature” (2005, Atalanta Prize, TaiwanIDF), “48” (2009, Grand Prix Cinéma du Réel, FIPRESCI prize, among others), Still Life | Stilleben (installation, 2010) and “Obscure Light” (2017). Fordlandia Malaise (2019) is her most recent film.
Susana’s works were exhibited at international film festivals and exhibitions (Viennale, Visions du Réel, Sarajevo IFF, Torino FF, PhotoEspaña, Documenta, etc.). In 2012 she received a tribute from Cinéma du Réel and was a guest artist at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, New York. That same year she formed a group that directed the Doclisboa, International Film Festival for two consecutive editions (2012-2013). She is a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon.
Synopsis
My grandfather was born in Belém do Pará, Brazil. After my father’s passing, I went in search of this far side of the family, which intersects with stories of women who smoked pipes and anthropophages.
In this quest, a geographical triangle emerged, whose vertices are 500 to 1000 km apart: Belém, Manaus and Fordlândia. Through the traces and scars that history has left on them, Hevea Brasiliensis questions the present world and its colonial heritage, whether European in origin or imbued with the capitalism of the new world.
Susana de Sousa Dias
Susana de Sousa Dias was born in Lisbon, in 1962. She has a Doctorate in Fine Arts (Audiovisual), a master’s degree in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art, a degree in Painting and a bachelors degree in Cinema. She studied music at the National Conservatory. Among her works are “Natureza Morta – Visages d’une dictature” (2005, Atalanta Prize, TaiwanIDF), “48” (2009, Grand Prix Cinéma du Réel, FIPRESCI prize, among others), Still Life | Stilleben (installation, 2010) and “Obscure Light” (2017). Fordlandia Malaise (2019) is her most recent film.
Susana’s works were exhibited at international film festivals and exhibitions (Viennale, Visions du Réel, Sarajevo IFF, Torino FF, PhotoEspaña, Documenta, etc.). In 2012 she received a tribute from Cinéma du Réel and was a guest artist at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, New York. That same year she formed a group that directed the Doclisboa, International Film Festival for two consecutive editions (2012-2013). She is a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon.