MANAS - Director Marianna Brennand

On the Amazon rainforest island of Marajó, 13-year-old Tielle lives in an isolated riverside enclave with her family. She idolizes her older sister, who escaped the area with “a good man” (according to her mother) on one of the commercial river barges. But as she matures and learns the true price her sister paid to leave, she fears for the safety of her younger sister and resolves to challenge the normalized abuse of women and girls in her community. Filmmaker Brennand, who spent 10 years researching Indigenous tribes of the Amazonian rainforest, based this feature debut on true stories to create a sensitive and stirring portrait of cycle-breaking resilience. Director / Co-screenwriter and Co-producer Marianna Brennand joins us for an in-depth conversation on her multi-award winning exploration of systemic sexual abuse of girls and young women in Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest region and how this scourge of abuse is happening in all corners of the world.

About the filmmaker - Marianna Brennand Fortes was born in Brasília, Brazil. She is a cultural producer and filmmaker, having graduated with a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002. She founded Inquietude in 2007 with the aim of preserving and promoting Brazilian cultural values through audiovisual productions. At the moment Marianna is working on Manas, her first fiction feature about the sexual exploitation of children in the Marajó Archipelago, PA, Brazil. 2012 Francisco Brennand (Documentary) São Paulo IFF WIN Best Brazilian Documentary (São Paulo IFF) WIN Brazilian Association of Film Critic's Award for Best Brazilian Film 2007 2007 O Coco, A Roda, O Pnêu e O Farol (Documentary) premiered at Biarritz Festival Latin America WIN Gilberto Freyre Trophy for Best Film at CinePE Audiovisual Festival (Recife, PE, Brazil)