Naná Vasconcelos Movies

Inspired by the life of the french-born photographer and ethnographer, Pierre Verger, the movie follows his journey between Bahia, Brazil and Benin, Oriental Africa, showing places and people he met and his life study project: the Candomblé culture.

Present in nearly all cultures and used for many purposes, drums have unique shapes, sounds, names and accents in each region of the world. Behind this vast legacy are individuals who play them and are touched by these ancestral instruments. From the rare budimas used by Tonga people in Zambia to...

In the 1970s, in the midst of a military dictatorship, composer Jards Macalé and filmmaker Luiz Carlos Lacerda (Bigode) shared a house in Rio de Janeiro - which became a center of convergence for musicians, filmmakers and writers, and where they performed classic films and songs of Brazilian...

Expedito, after being abandoned by his parents, became Zefa's adopted son until he became a man and started earning his living as an independent fisherman. As soon as he finds out that Zefa is very ill, Expedito runs back home and finds his adoptive mother in agony. At the edge of the bed, a...

Brazilian outback, cowboys preserve their age-old customs, communicating with their cattle in a form of plaintive singing known as Aboio. The chant resounds an improvised, ancient form that is an entrance to the life and the imaginary of the ancient Brazilian cattle drivers.

Antero and Maria Araújo's story is the shortcut chosen by the director to show life in Maraima, a small town in the state of Ceará, Brazil, including life in community and the military influence. Maria wanders through the state praying to ward off the symbolical presence of the Dragon. That's...