Feijoada, politics and cinema. A perfect festival Saturday.

Published in 10/03/2014

Festival do Rio holds its traditional feijoada lunch on Saturday at the Armazem da Utopia from 13.30. A great networking opportunity for festival guests to meet Brazilian filmmakers and industry leaders in a releaxed atmosphere. Expect politics to be on the menu this year, with the elections on Sunday.

The president of the Pemière Brasil jury, Karim Aïnouz, will present his documentary Sunday at the Instituto Moreira Salles on Saturday at 17.30 and again on Sunday at the CCBB 1 at 16.00. The documentary looks at the work of visual artist Olafur Eliasson who had placed a series of installations in São Paulo.

Shooting over Sundays, Aïnouz strolled with his camera through the art works, drawing visual observations, sometimes heartfelt, sometimes critical, between rediscovering the joy of looking at the city as proposed by Eliasson, as well as life and leisure in the spaces of São Paulo.

Two restored classics get a screening on Saturday at 23.59. They are the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a screening at the Cinepolis Lagoon , and the Tobe Hooper classic, and one of the seminal films of horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which is celebrating 40 years and screening at Estação Rio 1. A Hard Day's Night will screen again on Tuesday at Estação Botafogo 1 at 19.30 and Wednesday at Leblon 2 at 16.30, while Texas Chainsaw Massacre will screen again on Tuesday at Cinepolis Lagoon 3 at 17.00

The competitive screenings of Première Brasil films are winding down. On Saturday the final documentary in competition in Première Brasil screens at 17.00. It is Angelo Defanti's Meia Hora And The Headlines That Become Headlines.

Meia Hora, is a Rio de Janeiro tabloid known for its amusing headlines and controversial news approach, story descriptions give way to sensationalist slang overuse. In it a criminal in hiding is "in the hole", a criminal "terrorizes" and a dead criminal "is going to meet the reaper"; when the police invade it "swipes out", and when they open fire they "pump them full of lead"; prison is known as the "lock-up" or "cooler"; a thief is a "punk", a rapist a "monster", and beautiful women are named after fruit, strawberry, watermelon, apple and cherry.

Also screening in competition Saturday at 21.45 is André Ristum's O Outro lado do paraiso (The Other Side Of Paradise). Set in 1960, the film looks through the eyes of Nando, a 12-year-old boy, who is a dreamy idealist. The desire for social advancement gives his family a reason to move to the newly opened and still under construction, city of Brasilia. Effected by the political movements of the time and the reforms promised by President João Goulart, Nando becomes involved in political activism and the worker’s struggle. In April 1964, overnight, his dreams turn into a nightmare.

Saturday also sees the hors concours screening of Walter Carvalho's musical and visual journey, Brincante, at Cinépolis Lagoon at 19.20.

There are a large number of gala screenings on Saturday with the films being presented by their filmmakers. They include Revolution that will be presented by its director Chiara Cavalazzi at the Cine Joia at 14.00. Aaron Fernandez will introduce Las Horas Muertas (The Empty Hours) at Estação Rio 2 at 16.40 and also on Sunday at Estação Ipanema 1 at 17.30. Thomas Allen Harris will present Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People at Oi Futuro Ipanema at 18.30 and Gracie Otto will introduce The Last Impresario at Estação Rio 3 also at 18.30. Fernando Grostein Andrade will present Na Quebrada at Estação Rio 1 at 19.00 while Ryan White will introduce The Case Against 8 at Estação Rio 3 at 20.45. At 21.00, Daniel Gruener will present Short Plays at Cinepolis Lagoon 5 at 21.00 and screenwriter Stefano Bises will present Gomorrah at Estação Rio 1 at 21.15. Finally, at 21.40, Hernán Rosselli will introduce Mauro at Estação Rio 2 which he will also present on Sunday at Estação Rio 3 at 18.40.

This year RioMarket is introducing RioMarket Jovem (Young RioMarket) which runs Saturday through Tuesday in the Armazem da Utopia. Youngsters interested in a career in filmmaking and the film industry have a chance to attend workshops and seminars that will be given by leading figures in the Brazilian film industry who will discuss acting, direction, costume design, screenwriting,film criticism, cinematography, and art direction.