Luiza Calagian
Directing
Biography
Luiza Calagian is a director and Director of Photography from São Paulo, Brazil. Has a degree in Social Sciences and Graduated from the Regular Course in Cinematography at the International School of Film and Television, EICTV - Cuba, where she also took the Masters in Creative Documentary. Her first short film, Ava Mocoi, premiered and was awarded at the 68th Int. Film Festival of Oberhausen, and the second, Anba Dlo, will premiere at the 75th Berlinale. Her work as a director and DOP has also been awarded at Ann Arbor, Kinoforum, and Concordia, and screened at festivals such as Rotterdam, Visions du Reel, Clermont-Ferrand, Biarritz, Guadalajara and Hong Kong, among others. Her first feature film as a screenwriter, director and cinematographer, Arrow for a Stone Heart, is in post production stage, and was made in collaboration with a Guarani Mbya indigenous community from São Paulo, with whom she has worked for over ten years. The project was awarded three public funds from Brazil. Luiza is the founder of the independent São Paulo-based production company Mata Fechada Films. Believes in the craft of cinema as spell, capable of transforming reality and building bridges between humans, nature and spirituality, enchanting the world.
Known For
A nocturnal portrait of Havana and its inhabitants through the songs they listen to and sing.
Songs to Die In Havana
It is a hot night in Cuba. Elizabeth de Victória, aged 22, is about to make her long-awaited debut on the stage of the biggest drag show in the entire province of Artemisa. But before she gives a live performance, she must confront all the difficulties preceding the show. A ruthless clock counts the minutes to the start of the show and the preparations of other drag queens reveal all the shortcomings of the debutant. Comments about the unknown girl can be heard whispered around the dressing room. The atmosphere is becoming denser as the successive drag queens finish their performances and everyone is awaiting the visiting debutant.
Babylonia
Javi shows up for the last time at a queer club where he works as a dancer, but he must deal with Castillo, a regular customer who resists the fact that he will never see him again.
To Kill a Man
Fidel, the only gravedigger in a small Cuban village, has made the cemetery into his home. He, a simple mortal, has the mission of burying all the dead of his village.
Compañía
Nadia is a Haitian biologist living in Cuba, researching local wildlife. Until she receives a visit from deep waters, and the Cuban forest begins to speak in other languages. On that day, Haiti never seemed so far from Nadia.
Anba Dlo
On the side of the road, in a quaint Cuban town, stands a funeral home in which Maurilio and Fidela, partners in work as in life, have been preparing corpses for the past seventeen years. With quietly affectionate humour, María Salafranca takes us on an offbeat tour of this discreet establishment where death and love intertwine on a daily basis.
Obituary Service for You
No description available.
O mar também é seu
Feel, Discover and Decide: Sensations of a pregnancy. An immersed body that now transforms.
Todavia Sinto
Made in a partnership with a group of young women from the Tenote Porã village (São Paulo, Brazil), the film blends fiction and documentary in a narrative around Piragui, the owner of the fishes in the Guarani Mbya tradition.
Piragui, the Owner of Fish
One night a woman dreams that she is transformed into an animal. In a nightmare, the machinery comes to life in the form of a creature. Between sleep and wakefulness she remembers the abortion she experienced and the ghosts that accompany her. The women of the island reveal the mysteries that help her heal wounds caused by the violence that condemns women in her country.
The Sea Is Also Yours
On the conflictive border between Brazil and Paraguay a village of the Guarani indigenous people, surrounded by soy plantations, struggles to preserve their culture and territory. The arrival of twins and the prophecy that accompanies them mobilizes the community.
Ava Mocoi, The Twins
A 96-year-old begins to talk about her spirituality, her view of life, and her perspective on what lies ahead. The granddaughter gently weaves moments and memories together.