Screen/Society--'Dry Ground Burning' (2022)

The Experimental Film Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute and Screen/Society present: "Dry Ground Burning" (Joana Pimenta & Adirley Queirós, 2022, 153 min, Brazil, Portuguese with English subtitles, DCP) Just released from prison, Léa (Léa Alves Silva) returns home to the Brasilia favela of Sol Nascente and joins up with her half-sister Chitara (Joana Darc Furtado), the fearless leader of an all-female gang that steals and refines oil from underground pipes and sells gasoline to a clandestine network of motorcyclists. Living in constant opposition to Jair Bolsonaro's fiercely authoritarian and militarized government, Chitara's women claim the streets for themselves as a declaration of radical political resistance on behalf of ex-cons and the oppressed. A provocative portrait of Brazil's dystopian contemporary moment that blends documentary with narrative fiction and genre elements, the latest film by Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós (ONCE THERE WAS BRASILIA) offers a unique vision of the country's possible future. "I have never seen a film quite like DRY GROUND BURNING." - Michael Sicinski, In Review Online "The incendiary power of DRY GROUND BURNING, a feminist gangster movie from Brazil... Sodium-lit nightscapes filled with steely, gun-toting dames recall the glossy crime dramas of Michael Mann (HEAT)... Critic's Pick!" - Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times "An astonishing work of survival and resilience... packs a pulpy punch, yet is also rooted in an urgent political reality." - Phuong Le, The Guardian == ABOUT THE FILMMAKER == Joana Pimenta is a filmmaker, Assistant Professor in Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University, and Director of the Film Study Center at Harvard. Her latest film, DRY GROUND BURNING, co-directed with Adirley Queirós, probes the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, and it was shot in Sol Nascente, in the periphery of Brasília, Brazil. DRY GROUND BURNING premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, screened at the New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, among many others, where it received more than 30 awards, followed by theatrical releases in the United States, France, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, among other countries. == Experimental Film Lab (EFL) website: https://fhi.duke.edu/labs/experimental-film-lab/ Parking Info: https://artscenter.duke.edu/parking