Jorge Furtado's Porto Alegre
Harvard Film Archive
Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
Friday, March 7 -- Saturday, March 8
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Brazilian director Jorge Furtado's work should be better known among American film audiences. His movies are hilarious, thoughtful and unpretentious -- they aim to entertain above all else. The Man Who Copied (O Homem Que Copiava) (2003, screening Friday) is a case in point. It's the story of André (Lázaro Ramos), whose humdrum life as a photocopier becomes beset by dreams of making enough money to bed the woman of his dreams, his neighbor Silvia (Leandra Leal). What begins as a realist meditation on the dead end life of the Brazilian poor quickly becomes neo-noir caper, complete with a femme fatale and bumbling sidekicks.

Furtado will be at Harvard Film Archive for Jorge Furtado's Porto Alegre, a two day overview of his work. As the title suggests, the program will focus on Furtado's use of geography and his rendering of his diverse and vibrant hometown in southern Brazil.

The majority of films on the schedule are shorts. It's a program that gives you a chance to see the filmmaker experiment with his themes and genres -- one short, "Storm (Temporal)" is a horror/teenage sex romp/political satire -- in a more forgiving format, which the programmers hope will give you better insight into his feature-length work. And, with the director present for each screening, you'll have a chance to bounce questions off a man who will likely remain a force in South American film making for decades to come.

Still from The Man Who Copied provided by Harvard Film Archive