NOW PLAYING: Paula Gaitán’s DAYS IN SINTRA

“Paula Gaitán’s experimental DAYS IN SINTRA explores the outer limits of memory… [A] fitting memorial to a neglected maestro.” —Ronnie Scheib, Variety

For many, November is a month of remembrance. The intersection of various civic, religious, and seasonal traditions — from Veterans Day to All Souls Day to Thanksgiving — make the penultimate month of the year one of familial rituals, reflection, mourning, and gratitude. In this spirit, we present Paula Gaitán’s deeply moving documentary and (in the words of critic Ronnie Scheib) “alchemic tone poem” about her late husband, filmmaker Glauber Rocha: 2008’s DAYS IN SINTRA. Curator and GME President Jon Gartenberg originally programmed Gaitán’s film at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. 18 years later, GME is pleased to distribute DAYS IN SINTRA as a Digital Site License to academic and cultural institutions in the United States.

STILL: Paula Gaitán’S DAYS IN SINTRA (2008).

As noted by Gartenberg, “Filmmaker Paula Gaitán was married to Glauber Rocha, a key figure in the Brazilian Cinema Novo movement, which embodied politically engaged filmmaking that resisted colonialism in Latin America. Rocha's signature films include BARRAVENTO (1961), BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL (1964), LAND IN ANGUISH (1967), and ANTONIO DAS MORTES (1969), all remarkably influential films at the time and overdue for revival today. In DAYS IN SINTRA, Gaitán creates a deeply moving meditation on memory and time as she chronicles her return from Brazil to Sintra, Portugal, where she lived in exile with her husband and their children before his untimely death. In the form of an experimental narrative, she deftly interweaves Super 8 home movie footage and photographs taken of Rocha in 1981 with beautifully composed, evocative contemporary images of the Portuguese landscape.”

“In this manner, Gaitán both weaves together place, uniting past and present, and highlights remembrance. Long, silent passages are gently overlaid with Gaitán's own voice meditating on memory, loss, and death, as well as with recordings of Rocha's voice, articulating his philosophies of life, politics, and filmmaking. DAYS IN SINTRA represents Gaitán's own voyage of discovery, which allows her to bring alive the physical, sensual, and even spiritual essence of her long-deceased companion. On a deeper level, the filmmaker also captures the mournful, atmospheric ether of the Portuguese nation. The proud country that launched the voyages of discovery in the 15th century has found its global position diminished with time, just as Rocha's fiercely independent, award-winning filmmaking had faded to a faint memory — until it was justly revived by his companion in this exquisite diary film.”

“A gorgeous study in textures and recall… Paula Gaitán surveys the Portuguese town where she and her influential filmmaker husband, Glauber Rocha, who died young in 1981, stayed during Brazil’s junta. Gaitán focuses on bricks and tiles, other textures, to connote the period and her relationship, moving from the material to the spiritual and emotional. DAYS IN SINTRA is a work of beauty that demands patience, and [the] Tribeca [Film Festival] is noble to projecting such fare. Once again, kudos to Jon Gartenberg for his taste, and to head artistic honcho Peter Scarlet for supporting such diversity.” —Howard Feinstein, Indiewire