NCLAFF Conversation: Homage to Jorge Bodanzky

NCLAFF, the Amazon Lab at FHI, The Nasher Museum of Art, and CLACS are honored to host Brazilian legendary director Jorge Bodanzky for a short residence in October 2025. Jorge Bodanzky, born in São Paulo (1942) is a Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter, and photographer of Austrian descent. He initiated his university studies in Brasília (Faculty of Architecture); however, due to the military coup and the closure of UNB in 1965, he went to Germany and graduated from the Ulm School (Institut für Filmgestaltung an der Hfg Ulm). He began his career as a photo reporter for Jornal da Tarde, Donauzeitung Ulm, O Estado de S. Paulo and the magazines Manchete and Realidade, and at the Maitiry agency, with Fernando Lemos. As a director and cameraman, he made documentaries and films with Hector Babenco, Antunes Filho, Maurice Capovilla, José Agripino de Paula and Reinhard Kahn, among others. His debut as a film director was with the documentary Iracema - Uma Transa Amazônica in 1974, his best-known and award-winning film, considered a landmark in documentary cinema that denounced the hitherto obscure issue of the devastation of the forest and the wrong occupation model. Produced for Germany's ZDF, it was censored for six years in Brazil. It was one of the decade's most awarded at national and international festivals. From then on, Bodanzky began to dedicate himself to environmental issues, making feature films and documentaries for Brazilian, German, French and Italian television, as director, photographer and producer. 10:30am: The film "Iracema, Uma transa Amazónica (Iracema, An Amazonian Transaction" will be screened, followed by a conversation. At 1:30p.m., Bodanzky will discuss filmmaking in, on, and with the peoples of the Amazon. Lunch will be served.