10th edtion CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Califórnia (2016 Feature Film)

Marina Person | Brazil | 2015 | 90 min | Portuguese | e.s.

Estela grew up in the 1980s in Brazil, against the background of major political changes. In this coming-of-age story, we see how she looks forward with her girlfriends to her journey to Uncle Carlos in California - the USA is the promised land. With a soundtrack full of eighties hits, for instance from David Bowie, New Order and The Cure.

The year is 1984 and 17-year-old Estela (Clara Gallo) is looking forward to the journey she’s going to make to California. Her uncle Carlos lives there, a licentious music journalist. Before the summer vacation starts, the camera follows Estela in her hometown of São Paolo where, together with her girlfriends, she makes her first acquaintance with sex and drugs. In a voice-over, she confesses her secret desires, while the soundtrack with 1980s bands like The Cure and Joy Division shapes the tempo. In this way, countless cultural references from that time pass by, from the torn-off sleeves of T-shirts to the debut of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It strengthens Estela’s desires for America, the land of MTV. At the same time, in the background we see the changing political climate in Brazil. Rapid social progress goes by fits and starts. When her dream vacation is endangered, it turns out there’s a good reason for that.

Place: CINEMA 4

Date: 7 April 2016

Time: 19:30

Duration: 1:30

Place: CINEMA 4

Date: 8 April 2016

Time: 17:30

Duration: 1:30

Place: CINEMA 4

Date: 9 April 2016

Time: 13:15

Duration: 1:30

Year in
Festival

2016

Director

Marina Person

Camera

Flora Dias

Cast

Clara Gallo
Caio Blat
Caio Horowicz
Livia Gijon
Paulo Miklos
Virginia Cavendish
Giovanni Gallo

Country

Brazil

Editor

Bernardo Barcellos

Language

Portuguese

Length

90 min

Producer

Gustavo Rosa de Moura

Production Company

Mira Filmes

Production Design

Ana Mara Abreu

Sales

Films Boutique

Scenario

Marina Person
Mariana Veríssimo
Francisco Guarnieri

Sound Design

Daniel Turini
Fernando Henna

Year of Production

2015

Website

Marina PERSON (1969, Brazil) graduated in Film Studies at the University of São Paulo. After graduating she started working as an actress and television presenter. In 2007 her directorial debut Person (2007) was released, a documentary about her father, Luís Sérgio Person, who died when she was seven years old. Califórnia (2015) is her first fiction feature.

 

Filmography

Person (2007, doc), Califórnia (2015)