The Garden Cinema is hosting this retrospective, commemorating 60 years of L.C. Barreto Film Productions, Brazil’s legendary production company, in coordination with the Institute for Contemporary Arts.
When it comes to Brazilian cinema, “there is before the Barretos and after,” said the actress Sônia Braga, whose breakthrough came in the international hit Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976), directed by Bruno Barreto and produced by his parents’ L.C. Barreto Film Productions.
Since its founding in 1963 by Luiz Carlos and Lucy Barreto (who are still active in the company), the Rio de Janeiro–based enterprise—which has, in various capacities, involved their children Bruno, Fábio, and Paula—transformed into one of Brazil’s most important film production companies that has championed radically political and experimental works, festival prizewinners, and unabashed crowd-pleasers alike.