Autobiographie

Experimental Brazil/Belgium 2014 Portugese/English subtitles 0:30:00

A complex narrative that departs from a historical research about a strong female historical character, and mixes it with personal stories from the 5 actresses portraying her. Domitila de Castro do Canto e Melo, the Marquise of Santos, is one of the most famous and controversial historical figures from Brazil. She lived in the 19th century and was the long-term mistress of the Emperor Dom Pedro I. Her biography is fascinating and rich, full of dubious events and facts, contradictions and paradoxes.
Above all, she is a woman who overcame all the gender limitations of her time. Still very much alive in the imaginary of Brazilian people, there are many myths and legends around her, to the point of transforming her in a kind of a deity. Domitila is therefore a great subject for a work that intends to bring to the foreground the interpretative process and subjective choices that take place in historical discourses. The narrative intertwines performances that actualize history into personal and contemporary fictions.

Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist, filmmaker and independent curator, based in Brussels since 2014. Graduated in Film Studies by the University of Sao Paulo, Nicolela has also completed a Master of Fine Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts.  She has participated of over 100 solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including the Kunst Film Biennale (Germany), Bienal of the Moving Image (Argentina), Bienal do Mercosul (Brazil) and Bienal de Video y Artes Mediales (Chile). Her videos have been screened and awarded in festivals of more than 30 countries. She was in residence at the Gyeonggi Creation Center (South Korea), Objectifs (Singapore), Rote Fabrik (Switzerland) and LIFT (Canada), among others. She has curated video based programs and exhibitions for festivals, museums and art spaces worldwide.