Hello! I'm Michael Gibbons. I came to Brazil in 2005 by way several cities and a few countries, and I don't plan on leaving. I write some "Dispatches from Brazil" for indieWIRE and this blog will pick up where those dispatches leave off. Because after all, São Paulo is one of the largest cities in the world and it would be a crime to ignore all the interesting things that happen here.

What will be the first film to break the blog in? I think it should be Andrucha Waddington's Casa de Aréia, or House of Sand, which I hear is currently showing in some U.S. theaters. I'd recommend that anyone go see this movie: it's as fine a specimen of recent Brazilian cinema as you're likely to find, and you can't go wrong with a cast of Fernanda Montenegro (famous internationally for Central Station), Fernanda Torres (her daughter), and Seu Jorge (singer/songwriter/actor). But the most memorable element of the movie is the landscape, which overpowers the characters to such an extent that it's a wonder that any of them manage to survive.

If it were up to me, House of Sand would have been my choice for Brazil's submission to the Academy Awards last year. (In October I wrote about the box-office hit 2 Filhos de Francisco being submitted instead. Both films were produced by Conspiração Filmes.) Speaking of Oscar submissions, I'm curious to see what Brazil will send for 2007...