Audience Choice Winner Fiction Feature
Cine Latino Best of Fest Encores - Watch through Sunday, October 25
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Live Q&A Sunday, October 18 at 2:00pm.
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About Valentina
Living her best life in southeastern Brazil’s large, metropolitan center of Uberlândia, trans teen Valentina (newcomer Thiessa Woinbackk, winner of the OUTFEST jury award for Best Performance) thrives in the anonymity of a bustling city where she is free to be who she is, surrounded by supportive friends and the fierce, unwavering love of her single mother Marcia (Guta Stresser). When Marcia finds much needed work in the small town of Estrela do Sul, the pair quickly pull up stakes and relocate to the remote, cloistered community, where attitudes are provincial and anonymity is nearly impossible to come by. With the local high school reticent to recognize Valentina under her social name without her estranged father Renato’s (Rômulo Braga) signature, the sensitive teen still manages to find her place, settling into a warm friendship with schoolmates Julio (Ronaldo Bonafro) and Amanda (Letícia Franco). But when the community keeps coming up with new, often violent ways to block Valentina’s happiness, she realizes that she must make a choice on how her life is to be lived, summoning up reserves of quiet strength in this warm, achingly real feature debut from writer/director Cássio Pereira dos Santos.
Recommended for Ages 14+
Viviendo feliz en el gran centro metropolitano de Uberlândia, en el sureste de Brasil, la adolescente trans Valentina (Thiessa Woinbackk en su debut en el cine y ganadora del premio del jurado OUTFEST a la Mejor Actuación) prospera en el anonimato de una ciudad bulliciosa donde es libre de ser quien es y está rodeada de amigos que la apoyan y del amor inquebrantable de su madre soltera Marcia (Guta Stresser). Cuando Marcia encuentra un trabajo que tanto necesita en la pequeña ciudad de Estrela do Sul, madre e hija se mudan a la remota comunidad, donde las actitudes son provincianas y el anonimato es casi imposible de conseguir. Con la escuela secundaria local reticente a reconocer a Valentina bajo su nombre social sin la firma de su padre Renato (Rômulo Braga), la sensible adolescente aún logra encontrar su lugar, creando una cálida amistad con sus compañeros de escuela Julio (Ronaldo Bonafro) y Amanda (Letícia Franco). Pero cuando la comunidad persiste, a menudo de forma violenta en bloquear la felicidad de Valentina, se da cuenta de que debe elegir cómo va a vivir su vida y mantenerse firme, en este debut triunfal del director y guionista Cássio Pereira dos Santos.
Director Biography
Born in 1980 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, Cássio Pereira dos Santos studied filmmaking at University of Brasília, where he directed fictional and documentary projects. After finishing film school in 2003, he's written and directed 8 shorts films. His works have been selected at several international film festivals, such as the Aspen ShortsFest, Palm Springs ShortFest, and many others. As a writer, Cássio has contributed to films such as Guigo Offline, an LGBTQ feature project for Brazilian television, which won Best Brazilian Feature Film Award at Mix Brasil Film Festival. Valentina is his debut feature. He’s also starting the development of his second feature, Alírio in the City.
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In this year when we cannot gather in person, and when you, our valued audience, cannot come to Cine Latino, Cine Latino will come to you - as CINE LATINO AT HOME / EN CASA! Cine Latino, the region’s only showcase of Latin American and Ibero cinema, features a rich tapestry of narrative and documentary films from across the globe from some of the world’s most acclaimed and up-and-coming Spanish- and Portuguese-language filmmakers.