Rio Film Festival sets dates for 2013

SONY DSC

Festival do Rio, Rio de Janeiro’s international film festival, will take place between Thursday 26 September and Thursday, 10 October in 2013. It will be the festival’s 15th anniversary.

The festival will screen around 400 films from more than 60 countries at 30 venues spread across Rio de Janeiro.

Brazilian films and Première Brasil, which has as its festival home the historic Odeon Petrobras in downtown Rio de Janeiro, are the beating heart of Festival do Rio, and the festival is rightfully acknowledged as the best annual global showcase of contemporary Brazilian film.

Première Brasil is the only competitive section of Festival do Rio with jury awards – the Rednetor (photo) – to be presented on Thursday 10 October. Three highly prized audience awards will also be bestowed on the best Brazilian feature film, best documentary and best short film.

You can follow news about the festival on Twitter @RioFilmFest

Festival do Rio Web Site

Festival do Rio on Facebook

Rock in Rio 2013: The main attractions

6196048154_a6ef7fe1ef_z

The list of headline acts for Rock in Rio, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro from 13 to 22 September 2013, is complete and the festival is a sell-out.

For the main World Stage we have confirmed:

  • Friday, 13 September: Beyoncé, David Guetta, Ivete Sangalo, Cazuza Tribute
  • Saturday, 14 September: Muse, Florence and the Machine, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Capital Inicial.
  • Sunday, 15 September: Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Jessie J, Jota Quest.
  • Thursday, 19 September: Metallica, Alice in Chains, Ghost BC, Sepultura.
  • Friday, 20 September: Bon Jovi, Nickelback, Matchbox Twenty, Frejat.
  • Saturday, 21 September: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, John Mayer, Phillip Phillips, Skank.
  • Sunday, 22 September: Iron Maiden, Avenged Sevenfold, Slayer, Kiara Rocks.

Living Colour (13th), The Offspring (14th), George Benson (15th) and Ben  Harper (20th) are among the international acts confirmed for the Sunset Stage.

For the Electronic stage, the line up is:

  • Friday, 13 September: Sweet Beats, Ask 2 Quit Live, Life is a Loop and Otto Knows
  • Saturday, 14 September: Paula Chalup, Mau Mau and Anderson Noise.
  • Sunday, 15 September: Triple Crown, Renato Ratier, dOp and DJ Harvey.
  • Thursday, 19 September: DJ Ride, Gaslamp Killer, Brodinski and Gesaffelstein.
  • Friday, 20 September: Ferris, Rodrigo Vieira, Dexterz and Paul Oakenfold.
  • Saturday, 21 September: Flow & Zeo, Guti DJ Vibe  and Loco Dice
  • Sunday, 22 September: Botecoeletro, Maximum Headrum, DJ Marky and Felguk.

Rock in Rio

Casa Daros: Rio’s new centre for contemporary Latin American art

Casa Daros 01

Casa Daros, which opened its doors to the public on 23 March 2013, is a new space for art, education and communication, housed in a stately 19th century building in neoclassical style, that is preserved as an official historical heritage site. Designed by architect Francisco Joaquim Bethencourt da Silva (1831–1912), the mansion stands in grounds of more than 12 thousand square meters in Botafogo.

The space will present exhibitions from the Daros Latinamerica Collection and will be firmly focused on art and education – with a wide range of activities for the public. Casa Daros also offers a schedule of seminars and meetings with artists in its auditorium, as well as a library specialised in Latin American contemporary art, a documentation space, a reading room, a restaurant / café, and a shop.

Casa Daros is part of Daros Latinamerica, one of the most comprehensive collections in the world dedicated to Latin American contemporary art, that is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. The Daros Latinamerica Collection has over 1,200 artworks, including paintings, photographs, videos, sculptures and installations, by more than 117 artists, and is constantly expanding.

Casa Daros 02

Casa Daros has opened with the exhibition Cantos Cuentos Colombianos, a panoramic view of contemporary Colombian art. The curator Hans-Michael Herzog has assembled a grouping of works by the artists Doris Salcedo, Fernando Arias, José Alejandro Restrepo, Juan Manuel Echavarría, María Fernanda Cardoso, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Nadín Ospina, Oscar Muñoz, Oswaldo Macià and Rosemberg Sandoval.

The exhibition, first presented in Zurich, Switzerland, in two parts, was the largest show of contemporary Colombian art yet shown in Europe.

Museu de Arte do Rio – MAR

Museu de Arte do Rio 01

Rio de Janeiro has a new art museum, the Museu de Arte do Rio (Museum of Rio Art) or MAR, which is located in Praça Mauá.

The museum and gallery was opened by the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, on 1 March 2013, the date of the city’s 448th birthday. It is the first really tangible result of the redevelopment of the city’s port area and a project known as Porto Maravilha.

The museum is just one of several new cultural centres planned for the port region in time for the 2016 Olympics. It is made up of two buildings, the Dom João VI Palace, which is a listed building, and a more modern building that used to be a car park and part of the bus terminal. The buildings are joined by a fifth-floor walkway.

Museu de Arte do Rio 02

MAR has eight exhibition halls that offer visitors a multi-faceted vision of the history of the city and of its social fabric, life, conflicts, contradictions, challenges and expectations.

Exhibits promise to link the historical and contemporary dimensions of art through short- and long-term shows of national and international interest. It is currently amassing its own collection through acquisitions and donations and will also exhibit loaned art works from some of Brazil’s finest public and private collections. MAR also has its own school, the Escola do Olhar (School of Vision).

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.

www.museumar.com

Vila Isabel is the top samba school in Rio for 2013 carnival

Vila Isabel 2013 Champion

Vila Isabel was voted by the official jury to be the best samba school at Rio’s 2013 carnival. It was the third title for the school which was the last of the 12 major samba schools to parade.

The full result was:

  • Unidos de Vila Isabel (299.7 points out of 300)
  • Beija-Flor (299,4)
  • Unidos da Tijuca (299.2)
  • Imperatriz Leopoldinense (298.3)
  • Salgueiro (297.9)
  • Grande Rio (297.20)
  • Portela (296.6)
  • Mangueira (296.5)
  • União da Ilha do Governador (294.4)
  • São Clemente (293.5)
  • Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel (293.5)
  • Inocentes de Belford Roxo (291.1)

Brazilian film chosen as one of year’s best by New York Times

osomaored_f04cor_2012112007

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s O Som ao Redor (Neighbouring Sounds), which was chosen by the official jury at Festival do Rio as the best feature film of Première Brasil 2012, has also been chosen by the New York Times as one of the ten best  films of 2012.

The New York Times’ A.O.Scott noted: In his first feature, Mr Mendonça a former film critic, chronicles the daily rhythms of life in an affluent apartment complex in the Brazilian coastal city of Recife. What emerges is a subtle portrait of a society in the throes of rapid social transformation, still haunted by the cruelties of its feudal past.

New York Times Top 10 Films of 2012

  1. Amour, Michael Haneke
  2. Lincoln, Steven Spielberg
  3. Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin
  4. Footnote, Joseph Cedar
  5. The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson
  6. Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow
  7. Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
  8. Goodbye, First Love, Mia Hansen-Love
  9. Neighbouring Sounds (O Som ao redor) Kleber Mendonça Filho
  10. The Grey, Joe Carnahan

Oscar Niemeyer: 1907-2012

Niemeyer Brasilia

Brilliant Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed some of the 20th Century’s most famous modernist buildings, died on Wednesday, 5 December at the age of 104.

He continued to work on new projects until early in 2012, and had even attended the unveiling of his new stand at the sambrodomo in Rio de Janeiro, the site of Rio’s annual carnival parade.

Niemeyer’s work can be seen across Brazil, but is especially well represented in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and, of course, Brasilia.

A student of Le Corbusier, with whom he worked on the UN building in New York, Niemeyer developed a distinctive style defined by stark concrete and sweeping curves. Curves he said were inspired by Brazilian women.

Obituary: Financial Times

Famous Faces at the Rio Botequims in Las Iguanas During London Olympics

The crowds turned out during the London Olympics to enjoy the atmosphere at the Rio Botequims set up by the Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau in 27 branches of Las Iguanas across the UK.

Director Julien Temple with RCVB’s Paulo Senise

Brazilian soccer legend, Cafu.

Judo bronze medalist Felipe Kitadai

Felix Sanchez, 400m hurdles’ gold medalist

Judo Reception

Travel Trade reception

Samba with RCVB