04/29/2026
Cornell Cinema and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program are delighted to present a special, free double feature of films by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho
tonight (4/29) at 6:30pm and 8:30pm!
Brazil’s official selection for the 2024 Academy Awards®, PICTURES OF GHOSTS is a multidimensional journey through time, sound, architecture and filmmaking, set in the urban landscape of Recife, Brazilian coastal capital of Pernambuco. The film examines this historical and human territory through the great movie theatres that served as spaces of conviviality during the 20th century.
Having hosted dreams and progress, these places have also embodied a major transformation on social practices. Combining archive documentary, mystery, film clips and personal memories, PICTURES OF GHOSTS is a map of a city through the lens of cinema.
PICTURES OF GHOSTS will be presented at 6:30pm and followed by THE SECRET AGENT, the latest feature film from Kleber Mendonça Filho, which was nominated for the 2026 Academy Award® for Best Picture, at 8:30pm
THE SECRET AGENT stars Wagner Moura as a widower named Marcelo, who arrives in 1977 in Recife, Brazil, a city as vibrant as it is violent. Amid the raucous revelry of Carnival week, the technology researcher suddenly finds himself an unwitting target in the heart of the dictatorship's political maelstrom. In the midst of these mounting threats, Marcelo, with the help of a mysterious woman named Elza and her compatriots in the country's growing underground resistance movement, remains primarily focused on escaping Brazil with his young son.
FREE ADMISSION! Sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS) at the Einaudi Center for International Studies.
The screening is presented in conjunction with the course "Cinematic Cities", co-taught by Professors Cecelia Lawless (Romance Studies) and Patricia Keller (Comparative Literature).
