Sessão Bruta

Directors: Duca Caldeira, Gabriela Luíza, Pink Molotov, Cafézin, Darlene Valentim, Dyony Moura, Jô Arllen, Marli Ferreira, Vidrynha
Release Year: 2022
Title in English: Raw Session

"Sessão Bruta" (2022) is a bold and uncompromising self-portrait of a group of non-binary and trans friends living in Brazil. A powerful mix of playful, personal, and political elements, the film highlights their creative journey off the conventional path, with a raw and colorful approach that defies expectations.

 

Described as a "filme em transição" (film in transition), this documentary challenges hegemonic ideas surrounding gender, sexuality, race, class, and even the very notion of authorship. It positions itself as a manifesto against established norms, aiming to explore the process of creating together rather than focusing on traditional storytelling. The film is the work of Gabriela Luíza, a cisgender white woman who works under the collective name Ela Ltda., signaling her rejection of individual authorship in favor of collaborative creative processes. She invites the artists of Coletivo Talavistas, a group of Black trans and travesti women, not merely to perform in the film as characters, but to share in the creation and direction of the project. By doing so, "Sessão Bruta" creates a space where representation is not a means of simply denouncing the violence that trans people face in Brazil, but a space for collective practices of collaboration, sharing, and dialogue. It resists any monolithic discourse, instead embracing heterogeneity, multiplicity of voices, and diverse ways of existing, while rejecting order and embracing chaos in free, poetic exercises.

 

The film eschews grand social theses in favor of a focus on the body as manifesto, performance as discourse, and collective authorship as a practice of decentralization and shared experience. With its “multiple and transformative cosmopoetic inventiveness,” as praised by the jury at the 2022 Tiradentes Film Festival, the film confronts the brutal world built on violence against Black and trans lives. It enacts practices of escape, aquilombamento (a form of resistance and refuge within Black communities), and sanctuary. Through this process, it also asks the audience, “Amiga, o que você quer com esse vídeo?” (Friend, what do you want with this video?), opening the film in a playful and experimental tone, yet also flitting between traditional narrative formats, weaving together memories and reflections in defense of a “film still to be made.” Much like other personal films within Brazilian independent cinema, "Sessão Bruta" celebrates friendship as a core structure for sustaining existence. However, the focus here is not simply on the personal journey; it deeply interrogates how body, gender, and race inform the images we are allowed to see - images that are both oppressive and ripe for late revolutions. 

 

The film is a document of shared experience, showing the struggles and joys of creating something meaningful together, while questioning how those very struggles are visually constructed and represented. To weave these ideas together, the film draws on footage captured in 2018 with a Mini-DV camera, presenting intimate moments from meetings, conversations, parties, and street scenes. These images provide a raw, close-up look at the group's physical and mental presence in shared spaces. The film opens with a humorous conversation with Google Assistant, setting the tone for a documentary that oscillates between lightheartedness and introspection. This fluctuating rhythm is reflected in the film’s visual and sonic disorganization, which gives the audience an experience that is both disorienting and engaging. As a "raw manifesto," "Sessão Bruta" is poignant and honest, with its long, unfiltered narratives covering a wide range of emotions from joy to clandestine frustration. As a film, however, it relies on the idea of being “unfinished” as a justification for its lack of cohesion, placing more emphasis on the collective experience of affection than on individual character development. 

 

The film begins by contrasting the real world with the emotional resonance of memories, but as the journey progresses, it slowly narrows in scope, reducing itself to fleeting voiceovers and everyday moments. In truth, "Sessão Bruta" is not as “experimental” as it might first appear, despite using this label to explain its narrative gaps. The film blends the limitations of home cinema with the imagination of archival film, and seems to stretch itself around the belief that “being a feature-length film” is an opportunity worth pursuing, no matter the cost. The extended format, however, feels burdensome at times, especially considering the tender conversations and intentions behind the film. Despite its raw honesty and the love that went into creating it, the film’s length can at times undermine the intimacy and urgency of the collective voices and ideas it seeks to highlight. Ultimately, "Sessão Bruta" is a work that challenges norms in every sense - whether through its collective process, its unapologetic representation of trans and Black lives, or its refusal to conform to traditional filmmaking structures. The documentary offers an unpolished, sometimes rough-edged look at the complexities of identity and existence, but in doing so, it provides a powerful statement on the importance of collaboration, the need for diverse voices, and the refusal to accept anything less than radical authenticity in the face of systemic violence.

 

via: youtube

 embaubaplay.com and ensaiocritico.com

Image credits: YouTube