Mapping A City Through Its Faded Cinemas: Director Kleber Mendonça Filho On His Oscar Contender ‘Pictures Of Ghosts’
deadline.comAs an internationally renowned director, Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho is, in a manner of speaking, a citizen of the world: Regularly premiering films at Cannes, frequently traveling to festivals elsewhere in Europe, Australia, and the United States.
But anyone who knows Filho understands his heart is and always will be in Recife, in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. He was born there; he grew up in the city center and his love of cinema was nurtured in Recife’s old movie palaces.
His attachment to the place emerges in Filho’s documentary Pictures of Ghosts (Retratos Fantasmas), Brazil’s official entry for Best International Film at the Academy Awards.
In addition to that Oscar category, it’s in contention for Best Documentary Feature. Filho says Portraits of Ghosts “was not planned, but films work in strange ways.” The spark, as much as anything, was his move to a new house in Recife, which involved leaving behind a dwelling in Recife’s downtown that contained many memories for him. “That got me thinking and feeling about the place where we lived, where I lived most of my life,” he explains.
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