curated and presented by Alex Mello
In the presence of director Thais Nepomuceno

An insight into the history of the black residents of a peripheral district of Rio de Janeiro.

With the film HERDEIROS (The Heirs)
Portuguese with English subtitles
90 minutes
Research, direction and editing: Thais Nepomuceno
Screenplay: Flavio França
Camera: Miguel Moura
Sound: Daniel Krause
Music: Celso Marinho do Beco Novais
Music production: Adelle Nqeto

Herdeiros (The Heirs) is a documentary about samba, about carnival, about the power of a resistant tradition. Shot in Morro da Serrinha in Rio, the film tells the story of the cultural and musical heritage, of the African heritage of formerly enslaved people in Brazil today. It traces the long and branching tradition of carnival in Afro-Braz
ilian communities, who pass on the culture and history of their ancestors orally to the next generations.
The focus is on interviews with local cultural figures: Their expressions show how much samba and jongo are components of the lives of the inhabitants of Morro da Serrinha. And it becomes clear what power and social impact this culture represents beyond the official discourse, the government's decrees, the expectations of the marketing industry.
And thus the film is an attempt to reclaim interpretive sovereignty: Contrary to the primarily white historiography and contrary to the hypersexualization of bodies and their exploitation, the protagonists of carnival, the heirs of a living cultural technique, have their say here. Herdeiros thus makes clear what the medium of film can do: show a different image!

Film screening
13 10 | 7pm
ADKDW Studio, Herwarthsstraße 3, 50672 Cologne
Free entry

The film is being shown in the series INSIGHTS

More than half of the roughly 200 million Brazilians have African ancestors. Thanks to a quota system at universities and government funding in favor of Black people, a remarkably creative and innovative black film and art scene has emerged in Brazil since the turn of the millennium.
The idea of the film screening "Insights" was initiated under the idea of underlining the plurality of Brazilian black cinema and to make it visible. Based on the diversity of bodies, narratives and aesthetics, the films speak on touching and complex themes such as loneliness, affection, survival and resistance in the tension between memory and ancestrality. The program shows current and innovative films by black directors from Brazil.

In cooperation with the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum and the The Centre for International Cultural Education of the Goethe-Institut Bonn.
Supported by the Kunststiftung NRW.