The best Sérgio Ricardo’s movies

This documentary investigates the aesthetic, political and existential trajectory of emblematic Black Brazilian actor Antônio Pitanga. He career spans over five decades, and he has worked with iconic Brazilian filmmakers Glauber Rocha, Cacá Diegues and Walter Lima Jr. He was a prominent figurehead and outspoken activist during the Brazilian dictatorship, a period of unrest in Brazilian cinema. Pitanga deep dives into the world of Antônio and the history of Brazil. The documentary was directed by his daughter Camila Pitanga, one of widely recognised faces in Brazilian television and cinema right now. The film is also a poem, and a tender ode to fatherhood.

Documentary about Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha, one of the most important names in the Cinema Novo, with interviews with some of his friends and colleagues.

If you thought TV shows in which audiences and juries judge musical acts were a relatively new phenomenon, you'd better think again. In the 1970s, such "festivals" were incredibly popular in Brazil. They were recorded before a live studio audience, and usually featured a number of elimination rounds. They also formed the springboard for the career of many a big-name star, such as Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Roberto Carlos and Gilberto Gil. Appearing on such a program was no cakewalk, however: audiences could be as wild in their condemnation as in their appreciation of an artist. Extensive archive footage (including performances and behind-the-scenes interviews) from a turbulent final of the Festival of Brazilian Popular Music one evening in 1967 paints a fascinating picture, not only of the transformation of Brazilian music into real "festival" music, but also of a society starting to buck against the yoke of military rule.

Documentary on "Antonio das Mortes", Glauber Rocha's 1969 film.

The documentary "Depois do Transe" covers the entire process of creating the masterpiece "Entranced Earth", which was released and awarded at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967. "Entranced Earth" charmed the world and won great admirers such as filmmaker Martim Scorsese and the writer Marguerite Duras, who at the time considered a "fabulous filmic opera."

Sérgio Ricardo's only animation film, a short made as a companion piece to his song "Zelão".

Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro. A woman is left desperate and hopeless after she is evicted from her house with her disabled son.

It is a realistic musical documentary, mixing the old and the new, exchanging chronological positions, creating a suggestive carousel for the audience. A tribute to Sérgio Ricardo's cinematographic work narrated through the assembly of scenes and tracks taken from the 7 films he directed. In this anthology, the most recurrent theme in the author's work is portrayed: the struggle of the oppressed worker who finds love, music and the community his escape valve.