A Bird Called Memory

Virtual Only

Streaming period: 9/8 (Mon) 12:00 AM ET - 9/14 (Sun) 11:59 PM ET.

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Director   Leonardo Martinelli
Country   Brazil, UK
Year   2024
Language   Portuguese
Genre   Drama, Musical
Running Time   15 min

A bird called Memory has forgotten how to come back home. Lua, a trans woman, searches for Memory in the streets, but the city can be a hostile place.

This film is part of the Shorts: Radical Acceptance program.

Director’s Statement

In a gesture that seeks to think about the symbolic violence present in many spaces in the city, and in particular how cinema can enter into these representations, our film portrays how a trans woman’s poetic quest for a missing bird helps transform an urban space from treacherous to transcendent.

Director’s Bio

Leonardo Martinelli (any pronouns)

​Leonardo Martinelli is a filmmaker from Rio de Janeiro. His film Fantasma Neon won the Golden Leopard for Best International Short Film at the Locarno Film Festival. His shorts have been selected at festivals worldwide, including Cannes, Locarno, Toronto, San Sebastián, BFI London, Clermont-Ferrand, Palm Springs, Montreal, Biarritz, Toulouse and others. He also holds a Master's degree in Communication from PUC-Rio and is currently developing his first feature film, which was selected for the Locarno Residency and the Hubert Bals Fund.​