Yet another São Paulo GLBTT Pride Parade came and went! I'd have written about it sooner but a nasty bout of the flu left me unmotivated. It seems like everyone has given up trying to estimate how many people were there, but the general guess seems to be somewhere between three and five million people. That's more than the entire population of New Zealand (where my parents and sister live) or Uruguay, for example.

This was my third parade and unfortunately the event is a victim of its own success. Just a few years ago I could still dance in the street with all my friends, but last year and especially this year that has become simply impossible. It's great that the parade has gotten so much support and visibility, but the flip side is that many people who could care less about gays (or pride) now come for the huge street party it has become, getting way too drunk/drugged and causing lots of problems like fights and robbery. I'm starting to think the Feira da Vieira, a queer cultural fair that happens annually the Thursday before the parade, was more fun and manageable with the 125,000 people that went this year.

Still, I think it's important to participate in the day's activities in one way or another. This year the parade started earlier -- at noon -- in an attempt to prevent the festivities from dragging into the night. The parade starts on Avenida Paulista and then turns onto Rua da Consolação (the street I live on) and makes its way to a plaza downtown. This picture above, taken by a friend of mine, is of Consolação after the parade had already ended!

In related news, below is an interview my boyfriend and I gave with Globo the Friday before the parade:

The New York Times Travel section continues its love affair with São Paulo, with an article about chic new shopping in the bohemian (and rapidly gentrifying) neighborhood of Vila Madalena. Of course, the article is written for travelers in the upper income bracket. Nevermind that they misspelled a few street names.

Vila Madalena (and neighboring Pinheiros) is definitely one of the most fashionable areas of the city for film folk. Many production companies are based there, in addition to the Brazilian MTV headquarters. I used to live in the area, and it's see-and-be-seen for lunch at Mercearia de São Pedro or when going out at night to StudioSP (one of the go-to spots for film premiere parties).

Meanwhile, I'm hoping my current neighborhood, Consolação, will stay off the NYT's radar for awhile yet. I've lived around here for a year and a half and it's already transformed pretty shockingly in this time. All the trendy new bars and restaurants opening up are only OK as long as I can still afford a drink or two!

Catching up (a little) on blogging... ResFest's 10th edition came and went, marking its first year at the Cinemateca Brasileira's new location in the Vila Mariana neighborhood. While it's hard to reach the place without a car (I never learned how to drive one anyway), getting there is worth the effort -- the venue is incredible, by far the most comfortable theater in the city for the cultural frenzy of a film festival. After hearing an appropriately bossa nova-themed set from ex-Cibo Matto singer Miho Hatori, I caught a session of surprisingly strong Brazilian shorts, the highlight of which (for me) was Paulo Caruso's "Alphaville d.c. 2007". The film focuses on a French-speaking cowboy (his name: "I am the third person plural. I am they.") who avenges the Third World in an infamous gated community outside of São Paulo. Bizarrely philosophical and often hilarious, it's great experimental filmmaking that manages a scathing social commentary without sacrificing entertainment.

In the 10th anniversary edition of the Guia da Folha, I was stunned to read that São Paulo had only 18 movie screens in 1997 (compared to 142 today). A lack of screens is the most common complaint you'll hear from executives in Brazil, but for the third-largest city in the world, 18 screens is downright absurd. Unfortunately, an increase in screens has also meant an increase in prices (tickets are roughly twice as expensive as they were ten years ago), which means that cinema is still unaccessible for the large majority of paulistanos. Brazilian movie theaters are still more or less an upper class affair.

Such upper class is, predictably, exactly what the NYT celebrates in its latest travel piece on São Paulo ("São Paulo's Concrete Jungle," by Jeffries Blackerby, and I'll be really happy if I never hear the "concrete jungle" SP cliché again). Blacerby makes an interesting point when he says that "São Paulo feels a bit like an urban artists' colony, a city that fosters pure creative expression without too much commercialism sullying the dream," but he loses me by falling back on the same incredibly elitist staples that NYT writer Dan Shaw limited himself to in his March 2006 piece. The accompanying photoshoot is stunning, but do models showing off the latest Calvin Klein collection have anything to do with what makes São Paulo unique?

Finally, the current issue of Vanity Fair has a lengthy feature on the gang violence that crippled São Paulo for a few days in May 2006, with photographs by Sebastião Salgado. No comment until I have a chance to read it.

With environmental issues suddenly becoming as mainstream as the Oscars, Brazil is on the verge of a huge opportunity to cash in as the world's leading producer of ethanol, and expectations are big for a planned U.S.-Brazilian agreement on biofuel during Bush's visit to São Paulo on March 8-9. Ethanol can be produced from any number of organic products, but none are as efficient as sugarcane, which gives Brazil an advantage as the decades-long leader in developing the technology to harness such energy. The U.S., in turn, would rather depend on fuel from friendly countries like Brazil (instead of hostile petrol suppliers like Iran and Venezuela), while in the meantime earning goodwill among Latin Americans and showing a commitment to clean energy. The problem is that high tariffs bar Brazilian ethanol from becoming a realistic alternative to petroleum, and Bush won't be able to negotiate any significant changes without the support of Democratic Congress. Hopes are still high, though, that Bush and Lula will make progress in their meeting this week, as the partnership could be very beneficial for both sides; Brazil would provide the resoures and the technology and the U.S. would provide the capital to invest in building the market. Environment-friendly energy is very nice, but saving money and creating jobs is what speaks the loudest to both governments.

The local press is already having a field day with Bush's visit (he'll be accompanied by Laura, Condoleeza, and a team of 250 people), and he will be protected by the most intense security in the history of Brazil. The details of all the extreme contingency plans are amusing, and it will be only a matter of time before a few jokes on the subject start making the rounds.

A source of Brazilian pride is exactly what the Americans are starting to recognize: the country's leadership in energy innovation. Nearly all new cars here run on ethanol, and in 2006 Brazil became energy self-sufficient. Gas stations everywhere have had "alcohol" pumps for decades. So while Bush is publically coming around to the benefits of biofuel, during his visit his private car will run only gasoline brought from the U.S. -- not exactly an act of faith...

I returned to Brazil on Monday, and while I'm trying to get internet installed in my new apartment I learned that YouTube was blocked in Brazil by court order. It's all because of a scandal in September of last year when the media discovered a video (on YouTube) of Daniella Cicarelli (MTV Brazil presenter and former girlfriend of soccer superstar Ronaldo) having very public sex with her boyfriend on a Spanish beach. Cicarelli won a court order in September prohibiting the video, but since YouTube did not immediately remove it the Tribunal de Justiça ordered on January 3 that the entire site be blocked.

The outcry against the censorship was so great that the Tribunal de Justiça issued a new order on Tuesday allowing access to YouTube (while still blocking the video) and reserving the right to take "drastic measures" against YouTube if it does not respect the Tribunal's decisions and does not develop software to block prohibited material.

In the meantime, MTV Brasil has received over 20,000 emails of protest. Virtually everyone in Brazil saw the video of Cicarelli and her boyfriend last year, but there are several reasons why we have zero sympathy for their case:
- The video was taken from a small distance on a crowded beach, and Cicarelli should have known she was taking a risk.
- Like several sex tape scandals (Paris Hilton!), the video only helped make Cicarelli more famous.
- Censoring an entire country's access to an important source of multimedia is both extreme and ludicrous, as internet censorship often backfires and the video can easily be found on several other sites.

São Paulo had its rainiest November in 12 years, and I suspect it has something to do with the opening of the first Starbucks in Brazil. Nature is punishing us!

The first Brazilian location opened today in a posh shopping center in the city of São Paulo. Starbucks' second Brazilian location will open Monday in... wait for it... the same building. Prices will also be in line with Starbucks international, meaning their coffee will considerably more expensive than any other café in Brazil.

One of the things I liked about São Paulo is that it didn't have a Starbucks on every street corner (New York, I'm looking at you) but I think such a time is coming to an end. According to Starbucks, they're considering opening stores in Argentina and Colombia next...

Gael García Bernal's in town filming Hector Babenco's latest, El Pasado, and everyone's gossiping about which bar or night club he was spotted at last (for the record: Studio SP and Vegas). Last I heard, El Pasado was supposed to be filmed in Buenos Aires, and I'm unclear whether the production moved entirely to Brazil or if it will be filmed between the two countries.

This will be Babenco's follow-up to the acclaimed 2003 prison drama Carandiru, which is also one of the highest-grossing Brazilian films in national history. Besides Carandiru, Babenco is most famous his 80s hits Pixote and Kiss of the Spider Woman, and his work tends to vary between Spanish and Portuguese as he is a naturalized Brazilian born in Argentina.

I remember seeing García Bernal around Madrid when I lived there, around the same time he was filming Bad Education. You won't hear me complaining about seeing more of him...

How does one describe the 27th São Paulo Bienal, other than "massive", "gigantic", and "overwhelming"? Opening night was October 5 and I was lucky enough to attend with a few friends visiting from New York. We did our best to walk through as much of the show as possible, but the amount of works on display is dizzying -- not to mention the fact that I hadn't had a chance to eat all day, and was already feeling light-headed. I went back yesterday for a second look and I tackled about half of the exposition. A third trip will be required to visit the other half.

The Bienal's three-story home in Ibirapuera Park is gigantic (there's that word again) and non-partitioned, echoing the theme "How to Live Together" while lending itself to several large-scale installations and an embarrassment of artistic riches. Many other galleries in São Paulo are celebrating the Bienal with simultaneous shows, such as the Paralela show and the group Brazilian show at the MAM. Is it true that there can be too much of a good thing?

For a full list of artists and biographies, check out the Bienal special created by Brazilian arts magazine Bravo!.

Murphy's Law lives: in a week that is full of inspiring cultural events throughout the city, providing an abundance of material to ponder on this blog, the internet has been unforgiveably disconnected from my house. So it is with great shame and frustration that I have been unable to write about the Festival do Rio award-winners (Suely in the Sky and Drained), the opening of the 27th São Paulo Bienal, and the first press conference for the 30th Mostra Internacional de São Paulo. More details to come whenever my internet provider decides to reconnect me to the virtual world.

Press screenings for the Mostra BR de Cinema (the 30th São Paulo Film Festival) start this week, but movie news in the country has taken backseat to two of the year's biggest headlines: first, the run-off in the presidential elections (scheduled for October 29), and second, the mid-air collision of a Boeing plane with a private jet, killing 155 people and causing the biggest crash in Brazilian history. If you understand Portuguese, Folha de São Paulo has an entire section devoted to covering the tragedy.

Miraculously, the seven passengers of the jet (including two reporters from The New York Times) lived to tell the tale, and you can read survivor Joe Sharkey's testimony at the NYT:

"And so began the most harrowing 30 minutes of my life. I would be told time and again in the next few days that nobody ever survives a midair collision. I was lucky to be alive — and only later would I learn that the 155 people aboard the Boeing 737 on a domestic flight that seems to have clipped us were not.

Investigators are still trying to sort out what happened, and how — our smaller jet managed to stay aloft while a 737 that is longer, wider and more than three times as heavy, fell from the sky nose first."

Today was election day in Brazil, and while about 5% of the ballots are yet to be counted it looks like Lula will (barely) not win the majority required to win in the first round. This is a major upset considering opinion polls have shown Lula winning the first round by a comfortable margin -- it looks like a last-minute scandal involving the campaign manager of Lula's party has cost him the advantage, but he will still likely be re-elected in the second round.

I took this photo at Lula's campaign headquarters in São Paulo this evening. The atmosphere was tense.

Cidade Limpa ("Clean City"), a controversial new law proposed by Mayor Gilberto Kassab, has just been approved in the city of São Paulo, prohibiting billboards and outside publicity starting January 1, 2007. The city estimates that São Paulo currently has 13,000 billboards, 8,000 of which are illegal and 5,000 of which are in accordance with existing laws, and all of which must be dismantled by next year. This also includes electronic panels and ads on taxis, buses, and bicycles, but advertising on urban furniture (such as bus stops, public clocks, and street signs) will still be allowed.

I remember hearing Kassab talking about this initiative months ago, claiming that we live amidst overwhelming "visual pollution" that must be stopped, but I'm shocked that this law has actually been approved without being watered down. Is there any precedent for it in another metropolis of this size? I doubt we'll hear the average paulistano complain about Cidade Limpa, but the advertising industry is understandably livid. The outdoor advertising union (which will surely be firing its lobbyist) estimates that 20,000 people will lose their jobs because of the new law.

Tough break for advertisers, but I'm looking forward to all the extra eye space we'll have for graffiti and street art - one of the things I love most about living in this city.

The Festival de Gramado, the country's biggest commercial launching ground for Brazilian and Latin American films, is currently in full swing in the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. The child prostitution-themed Anjos do Sol (which was released in 60 theaters across Brazil today) is apparently one of the favorites for several awards. Over the next few months we'll be seeing a lot more of the Gramado winners in local cinemas.

Hot on the heels of Gramado will be the first annual FIICAV (Feira Internacional da Indústria do Cinema e Audiovisual) in São Paulo. I spoke with festival director Christina Castello today about her attempts to create a Brazilian film market, and I must say I'm very interested to see how the event will turn out. (I'll be writing about FIICAV more in-depth, both in this blog and in a dispatch for indieWIRE.)

And then slightly overlapping with FIICAV will be the 17th São Paulo International Short Film Festival, one of my favorite events on the SP calendar, from August 24 to September 2. Not only does the festival provide a rare opportunity to see some incredible short films, but the audiences contain some of the nicest, most enthusiastic film-lovers I've met in a long time.

October 1 is election day in Brazil and the most important race this year will be for president. Right now it looks like Lula will win re-election in the first round, beating the conservative candidate Geraldo Alckmin, but the real balance of power will be decided by congressional seats. Lula's party (PT) probably won't do so well due to a corruption scandal that seriously destroyed their credibility last year. It's a sign of Lula's popularity that he can recover from such a large-scale crisis with the majority of the electorate still preferring him to the conservative alternative.

The sad thing is that there was a lot of optimism for change attached to Lula when he was elected in a landslide victory in 2002. An uneducated, unionist leader from Brazil's impoverished Northeast, Lula was the complete opposite of the elitist string of previous presidents. So imagine the disappointment when it was discovered that his political party turned out to be just as corrupt as many other parties and politicians in Brazilian history.

Fortunately for him, there is no evidence that Lula was connected to 2005's corruption scandals, but that didn't stop it from fueling the fire of his enemies. (If the U.S. is bitterly divided between Republicans and Democrats, Brazil is bitterly divided between the rich and the poor. Lula represents the poor.)

Whether Lula is personally guilty no one can know, but the frustrating part is that this scandal overshadows of a lot of his achievements during his first term. Before moving to Brazil I took my parents to see João Moreira Salles' in-depth 2004 documentary Entreatos, which followed Lula around while campaigning for election. My parents, who knew very little about "South America" (let alone "South American politics"), were comforted by the portrait of a politician who seemed to play against the stereotype of Latin American leaders as radical, ego-centric, power-hungry men full of a lot of empty rhetoric.

In anticipation of the big day, we've been bombarded by countless political ads for a dizzying amount of candidates (there are many positions at stake), a lot of which have amusingly low production values. A friend of mine asked me if we had political ads in the United States, and I said yes. Then she asked if they looked as sophisticated as high school students running for class president. She's right: a lot of the commercials are so amateur, it's unbelievable.

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...