Carmen Miranda: Bananas is my Business (Helena Solberg, 1995)

The film Carmen Miranda: Bananas is my Business , by Helena Solberg , is presented, in its first screening in Portugal, on 29 November at 7pm at the Great Hall of the Rectory of ULisboa. This session is part of the "Transformações" Cycle of the Cinema at ULisboa programme .

"Transformações" Cycle: In the course of every being's life, a multitude of transformations take place. In the world of literature, Gregor Samsa was transformed into an insect. In physics, Émilie du Châtelet revealed that energy can neither be created nor obliterated. In cinema, metamorphosis has served as both a narrative theme and a symbolic motif. This film series focuses on the different strands that have passed through us, as individuals, as well as a society, from the 1960s to the modern day. It screens five films that address such diverse transformations as the rural exodus, urban planning, gender (dis)equality, climate changes, migrations as well as dictatorial regimes, in order to emphasise that in the arts, as in life, nothing is lost, but everything is transformed.

Carmen Miranda: Bananas is my Business
(Helena Solberg, 1995)
Age Rating: 12+
Film lenght: 1h33m

With presentation by Professora Catarina Mourão (Faculty of Fine Arts).

Synopsis
The documentary chronicles the remarkable story of the Brazilian star who captured the imagination and hearts of the world. Carmen Miranda, born in Portugal and raised in Brazil, was an artist of enormous talent. Famous in South America, in 1939 she was spotted by Lee Shubert who took her to the United States, where she became “The Brazilian Bombshell”. Carmen Miranda became the most famous Brazilian to hit the cinema. Nevertheless, for the Americans she was best known as a caricatured figure who carried a huge bunch of bananas on her head. The film attempts to redeem Carmen Miranda from this legacy, giving her back what is most central to her: her identity.

Free admission, subject to capacity.

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