Movies by Helena Ignez

Fakir
The feature-length documentary Fakir portrays the success of fakirism in Brazil, Latin America and France. This circus art origin show is presented and analyzed through archives that reveals the success of these presentations with their pain resistance championships and the great public presence, including politicians and government officials. Fakir spans current footage from contemporary artists who keep this art alive in performances and shows.

Poder dos Afetos
A study that unwraps a paradisiac scenery, reaching the subjects of Brazility and its force in the change of habits, breaking taboos and bringing out a magical and original reality throught its characters.

Light in Darkness: The Return of Red Light Bandit
Jorge, bastard child of the infamous Red Light Bandit, decides himself to pursuit a life of crime after meeting with his father, who has been incarcerated for the last 30 years.

Canção de Baal
A marginal version of Brecht’s piece, “Baal”.

Ralé: The Lower Depths
Young directors are filming “The Exhibitionist” in the middle of a farm in a paradise-like region. The film poetically investigates the Brazilian soul, with the Amazon as the center of the world, reflecting on existential issues, the right to sexual freedom and individuality.

My Calendar Girl
A film in which dream and reality intertwine, A Moça do Calendário tells the story of inácio, 40, married, without a permanent job. Ex-street sweeper, he works as a mechanic at Barato da Pesada, where he dreams of the calendar girl.

Joy Is the Acid Test
A film about love, also a memoir, about the trip made in the 1970s to Morocco by Jarda Ícone, an artist, sexologist, and octogenarian rocker, as she defines herself, and Lírio Terron, a human rights activist. In fact, a journey that is not over in their lives. Jarda Icon teaches classes on how women can obtain their own orgasm. With her group of disciples and friends Ana Brasil, Sheyla Fernanda, Caroline Sylvie and Lakshmi she develops self-sustainable feminist and artistic projects. The film is political, but not at all politicized in the t...

Ugly, Me?
Ugly, Me? is a film manifesto made from a workshop for actors called Characters in Search of a Movie, in 'La pa', 'Rio De Janeiro', extended to Paris and 'Kerala' (India). Multifaceted like a kaleidoscope, the characters appear in multi-screens scenes and sequences. The images were captured with different kinds of cameras and Ugly, Me? uses this sign of the variety imposed by independent production as language experimentation. Transposing the boundaries of style, Ugly, Me? navigates in a sea of metaphors, philosophical and musical politics, ...

A Miss e o Dinossauro
A short documentary on Belair, an independent Brazilian film company that lasted for only five months in 1970.