SECTIONS // OFFICIAL COMPETITION SHORT LENGTH

Pele de Pássaro (Bird Skin)

Jury's Special Prize, consisting of a diploma.
“Clara Peltier creates the atmosphere we need to feel the skin of the main character: a woman who struggles to survive working as a dancer in carnaval costume with a painful smile in her face. In a powerful and clever approach, Pele de Pássaro questions the role of black women in Brazil and show us how the folklore figure of a country can be a burden and a cage for part of our society.”
Clara Peltier
20' / 2015 / Brazil
Portuguese
English and spanish subtitled

Audience vote 5.77

Tuane is a Brazilian dancer living in the favelas of Rio. While her parakeets stay in their cage, she has been spreading her wings – as witnessed by all the fridge magnets from faraway lands. Dressed for her dazzling shows in sequins and feather headgear, she takes center stage at weddings, sporting events and of course during Carnaval. Wearing wings taller than herself and a phenomenal headdress, she is more peacock than person as she shakes her hips while perched on impossibly high heels. But inside the sparkly packaging, there's a determined woman lurking. Onstage, she presents a dream of perfection; backstage, we see her preparing, dressing and attending to her hair and then catching her breath after the show. Without comment, the camera follows Tuane as she dances through life. She laughs off the heat and her aching muscles with a beaming smile, the stirring samba rhythms penetrating the post-performance calm. The many unusual perspectives and close-ups give a unique impression of Brazilian Carnaval and dance culture, dismissing any preconceptions that slum dwellers live a life without hope. Tuane’s sense of pride simply leaps from the screen, in all its colorful, glossy glory.

Main Festivals & Awards

Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival – Best Short Film Award / IDFA – International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam / Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival / Berlin Feminist Film Week

Director's Biography

Clara Peltier was born in 1982 in Rio de Janeiro. After completing her BA in Journalism and Cinema at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, she studied Screenwriting and Filmmaking at New York University. As a screenwriter, Clara has worked in fiction and documentary films, such as “Francisco Brennand” (Francisco Brennand, 2012) awarded Best Documentary at São Paulo International Film Festival, and “Territótio do Brincar” (Territory of Playing, 2015), critically acclaimed by the country’s largest newspapers. Her fiction short film “Graça” (Grace, 2013), which she wrote and directed, won the Special Jury Prize at Femina (International Women's Film Festival) and was screened at more than 20 international film festivals, including Berlin Shorts, Toronto Shorts, Aesthetica Film Festival, Festival de Cine Iberoamericano de Huelva, Miami International Film Festival, among others. Her short film “Pele de Pássaro” (Bird Skin, 2015) won the Government Funding Program awarded by RioFilme and the Best Short Film Award at Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival. Clara Peltier is the co-founder of Eterna Filmes, an independent production company that focus on female empowerment in films.