Madam Sota (2002)
A film by Karim Ainouz
Friday, February 19,
7 pm
In Portuguese with English subtitles
Stonewall Library & Archives
1300 E Sunrise Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
Free
954 763-8565
www.stonewall-library.org
Lazaro Ramos stars as João Francisco dos Santos, a real life Rio drag queen in the Thirties and Forties who was a singer and dancer and a fighter and lover who went to prison many times in his 76-year life including ten years for murder, yet came out after that long stretch and immediately won the prize for the best costume in Carnaval, a boldly spectacular one based on Cecil B. De Mille's character `Madam Satan.'
João epitomizes and transcends a type of tough, resilient, talented black `sissy' who's no less a man for being attracted to men. Born to slaves and sold as a child, he was consumed by a rage that only strutting and performing could relieve. For a time João works as a theatrical assistant at a club where he mouths the French lyrics of the chanteuse and her recitation of a pastiche of the 1001 Nights. João eventually blossoms as a macho reincarnation of Josephine Baker. Provocation by a little homophobic drunk after one of these performances by João follows, and João goes out and shoots the little bigot in the street. His arraignment for this murder frames the movie, but the narrative of his later years follows as a coda, with a voiceover during a highly abstracted set of red hued images of João dancing a kind of Samba tarantella in his spectacular long satanic Carnaval costume.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2oqh0DqCas
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