ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
26 April - 6 May 2025
The Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Garden Cinema present “LC Barreto: 60 Years of Brazilian Film Production,” a 12-film retrospective curated by Adriana Rouanet, Executive Director of Instituto Rouanet, commemorating 60 years of L.C. Barreto Film Productions, Brazil’s legendary production company, helmed by the renowned family of filmmakers.
From 25 April -10 May, the series will celebrate the Barretos’s incomparable influence with a selection of canonical classics and under-seen gems, most of which will premiere in new restorations.
When it comes to Brazilian cinema, “there is before the Barretos and after,” said the actress Sônia Braga, whose breakthrough came in the international hit Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976), directed by Bruno Barreto and produced by his parents’ L.C. Barreto Film Productions.
Since its founding in 1963 by Luiz Carlos and Lucy Barreto (who are still active in the company), the Rio de Janeiro–based enterprise—which has, in various capacities, involved their children Bruno, Fábio, and Paula—transformed into one of Brazil’s most important film production companies that has championed radically political and experimental works, festival prizewinners, and unabashed crowd-pleasers alike.
Whether producing, directing, writing, or actually shooting movies, the Barretos have captivated audiences for over half a century with more than 150 films in their catalogue, and helped Brazilian cinema achieve critical acclaim and popular recognition on an unprecedented scale.
The retrospective is screening at the ICA and The Garden Cinema from 25 April - 10 May, in partnership with Instituto Rouanet and the Embassy of Brazil in London.
The Garden Cinema's programme can be found here.
The Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Garden Cinema present “LC Barreto: 60 Years of Brazilian Film Production,” a 12-film retrospective curated by Adriana Rouanet, Executive Director of Instituto Rouanet, commemorating 60 years of L.C. Barreto Film Productions, Brazil’s legendary production company, helmed by the renowned family of filmmakers.
From 25 April -10 May, the series will celebrate the Barretos’s incomparable influence with a selection of canonical classics and under-seen gems, most of which will premiere in new restorations.
When it comes to Brazilian cinema, “there is before the Barretos and after,” said the actress Sônia Braga, whose breakthrough came in the international hit Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976), directed by Bruno Barreto and produced by his parents’ L.C. Barreto Film Productions.
Since its founding in 1963 by Luiz Carlos and Lucy Barreto (who are still active in the company), the Rio de Janeiro–based enterprise—which has, in various capacities, involved their children Bruno, Fábio, and Paula—transformed into one of Brazil’s most important film production companies that has championed radically political and experimental works, festival prizewinners, and unabashed crowd-pleasers alike.
Whether producing, directing, writing, or actually shooting movies, the Barretos have captivated audiences for over half a century with more than 150 films in their catalogue, and helped Brazilian cinema achieve critical acclaim and popular recognition on an unprecedented scale.
The retrospective is screening at the ICA and The Garden Cinema from 25 April - 10 May, in partnership with Instituto Rouanet and the Embassy of Brazil in London.
The Garden Cinema's programme can be found here.
Programme
Saturday 26 April, 4.30pm
Barren Lives
Nelson Pereira dos Santos’s impassioned adaptation of the novel by Graciliano Ramos, which follows an itinerant family traversing a drought-stricken sertão of northeastern Brazil, is considered one of the most important works of Brazilian cinema.
Sunday 27 April, 6.30pm
Dona Flor and her Two Husbands
Bruno Barreto was 20 years old when he injected new life into Brazilian cinema and announced Sônia Braga to the world with this sensuous comedy-fantasy, based on the brilliant Jorge Amado’s 1966 novel. Co-starring José Wilker (Bye Bye Brazil) and featuring music by Chico Buarque.
Tuesday 29 April, 6.30pm
Amor Bandido
A vividly unsettling mixture of sexploitation sleaze and hard-boiled melodrama, Bruno Barreto’s follow-up to Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands centres on a doomed romance set against the backdrop of a wanton killing spree in Rio’s Copacabana.
Wednesday 30 April, 8.40pm
India, Daughter of the Sun
A police chief is sent to a diamond mine to stop a tyrannical inspector. While travelling through the forest, he becomes involved in a tragic love affair with a beautiful indigenous girl.
Thursday 1 May, 8.40pm
This Is Pelé
Luiz Carlos Barreto’s directorial debut—assembled from hundreds of hours of footage with Cinema Novo editor Eduardo Escorel (Entranced Earth, Macunaíma, among many others)—tells the story of the Brazilian team’s first three World Cup wins with the record-breaking footballer as its protagonist.
Friday 2 May, 6.30pm
Garrincha, The People's Joy
Arguably one of the greatest films about soccer, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade’s debut feature is a form-shifting documentary portrait of his country’s beloved bow-legged dribbler Mané Garrincha.
Sunday 4 May, 12.30pm
Memoirs of Prison
Based on Graciliano Ramos’s posthumously published memoirs, this extraordinarily ambitious film from Nelson Pereira dos Santos centres on Ramos (Carlos Vereza) sinking ever deeper into a bizarre nightmare after he is locked up with other political prisoners in Rio de Janeiro and then, eventually, with all stripes of inmates on a remote island.
Tuesday 6 May, 7.30pm
Closing Night
Closing Night: Reaching for the Moon + Q&A
Set in 1950s–60s Rio amid Brazil’s brewing military coup, the turbulent relationship between American poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto) and architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Glória Pires) offers a unique perspective on this period in Brazil’s history. Followed by an in-person Q&A with Lucy Barreto.
Saturday 26 April, 4.30pm
Barren Lives
Nelson Pereira dos Santos’s impassioned adaptation of the novel by Graciliano Ramos, which follows an itinerant family traversing a drought-stricken sertão of northeastern Brazil, is considered one of the most important works of Brazilian cinema.
Sunday 27 April, 6.30pm
Dona Flor and her Two Husbands
Bruno Barreto was 20 years old when he injected new life into Brazilian cinema and announced Sônia Braga to the world with this sensuous comedy-fantasy, based on the brilliant Jorge Amado’s 1966 novel. Co-starring José Wilker (Bye Bye Brazil) and featuring music by Chico Buarque.
Tuesday 29 April, 6.30pm
Amor Bandido
A vividly unsettling mixture of sexploitation sleaze and hard-boiled melodrama, Bruno Barreto’s follow-up to Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands centres on a doomed romance set against the backdrop of a wanton killing spree in Rio’s Copacabana.
Wednesday 30 April, 8.40pm
India, Daughter of the Sun
A police chief is sent to a diamond mine to stop a tyrannical inspector. While travelling through the forest, he becomes involved in a tragic love affair with a beautiful indigenous girl.
Thursday 1 May, 8.40pm
This Is Pelé
Luiz Carlos Barreto’s directorial debut—assembled from hundreds of hours of footage with Cinema Novo editor Eduardo Escorel (Entranced Earth, Macunaíma, among many others)—tells the story of the Brazilian team’s first three World Cup wins with the record-breaking footballer as its protagonist.
Friday 2 May, 6.30pm
Garrincha, The People's Joy
Arguably one of the greatest films about soccer, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade’s debut feature is a form-shifting documentary portrait of his country’s beloved bow-legged dribbler Mané Garrincha.
Sunday 4 May, 12.30pm
Memoirs of Prison
Based on Graciliano Ramos’s posthumously published memoirs, this extraordinarily ambitious film from Nelson Pereira dos Santos centres on Ramos (Carlos Vereza) sinking ever deeper into a bizarre nightmare after he is locked up with other political prisoners in Rio de Janeiro and then, eventually, with all stripes of inmates on a remote island.
Tuesday 6 May, 7.30pm
Closing Night
Closing Night: Reaching for the Moon + Q&A
Set in 1950s–60s Rio amid Brazil’s brewing military coup, the turbulent relationship between American poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto) and architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Glória Pires) offers a unique perspective on this period in Brazil’s history. Followed by an in-person Q&A with Lucy Barreto.
no. 236848.