Meditação de Carnaval

Documentary about the rise and fall of Leandro de Itaquera Samba School, a cultural organization from São Paulo east end that had a major role during the profissionalization of Carnival competition in the city.

The Mangueira slum is the scenario where Tantinho and the old samba composers remember stories about the slums and samba.

"É o Boi" is a documentary that narrates the origins, portrays the present and discusses the perspectives of carnival in the city of Porto Ferreira/SP. Celebrating a tradition that already is already 90 years old, the film is mainly made up of images taken during the Porto Ferreira's carnival and interviews with people who fight daily to keep this unique and at the same time typically Brazilian cultural manifestation alive. Made over almost a decade, "É o Boi" also portrays critical moments of this carnival in the countryside of São Paulo, including disagreements with public authorities that almost led to the carnival being banned and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the organization of celebrations.

Pelé, a retired nurse, revisits his memories as a performer in the Boi Tira-Teima group from Caruaru, Pernambuco. Between longing for the past and the impossibility of celebrating Carnival in the present, he imagines what it would be like to return to Carnival one last time.