Anis's Media

A Casa dos Mortos (House of the Dead)

Anis — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:06:30 -0700

House of the Dead explores the lives of people with mental disorders that are living in psychiatric prisons in Brazil. Through personal stories of inmates from a psychiatric unit in the state of Bahia, House of the Dead exposes the abuse and errors that have marked the Brazilian psychiatric prison system thus far.

The film was produced by Brazilian nonprofit ANIS (Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights, and Gender) with the goal of providing evidence that could help pressure the Brazilian government to review and reform the country's penal psychiatric system. According to ANIS, there are an estimated 4,500 living in these circumstances in Brazil today.

House of the Dead was directed by WITNESS Video Advocacy Institute participant Debora Diniz and was launched on April 24 in Brasília in partnership with Brazil's National Movement for Pyschiatric Reform.

Film Screened as Evidence in Brazilian Supreme Court Hearings

Anis — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:59:06 -0700

For the first time in history, a film was used as evidence in the Brazilian Supreme Court last week. The film - Four Women - talked about how abortion laws in Brazil are affecting pregnant women expecting anencephalic infants. In this video, Four Women is shown during the Court's public hearings to an audience of government officials and civil society representatives. Michele and Ailton (who told their story in the film) were also in the audience and later had a chance to meet with the Minister of Health. In October, the Brazilian Supreme Court will decide on whether to waive the need for judicial approval for early termination of pregnancy in cases of anencephaly

A Disembodied Woman (À Margem do Corpo)

Anis — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:20:10 -0700

The events portrayed in this film took place in a small town between 1996 and 1998. Deuseli was 19 years-old when she was brutally raped. She was not allowed to have an abortion and ended the first act of the narrative by disappearing from her hometown. Months later, she was the key player in another crime. This time, she was the murderer of her 11-month-old daughter. In a ritual, classified as satanic by some people and hysterical by others, Deuseli relived the rape scene and then drowned her daughter in a bathtub. Deuseli died months later of unknown causes. Recounting Deuseli’s rape, murder and death, lawyers, doctors and exorcists reveal the story of her life.

Brazil: Alone and Anonymous (Solitário Anônimo)

Anis — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:10:55 -0700

An elderly man lying on the grass waiting to die. In his pocket, a message announced that he was from a distant land. He had no documents or any possessions. His desire was to die alone and anonymous. This is the beginning of a documentary that tells the touching story of a man who was determined to plan and control his own death. It is a film about freedom, life and death.

Brazil: Severina's Story (Uma História Severina)

Anis — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:29:41 -0700

Severina had her destiny changed by a Supreme Court decision. Four months pregnant with an anencephalic fetus, she was in the hospital at the very moment the Supreme Court cancelled the authorization to interrupt the pregnancy. It was October 20, 2004. Severina, a farmer from the small city of Chã Grande – Brazil, wife of Rosivaldo and mother of Walmir, spent three months going from courts to hospitals and back to courts, trying to find someone who would help her to stop all that suffering. The documentary put her tragic story on the screen, telling about the long “day after” that the judges of the Supreme Court never witnessed.

Abortion in Brazil: Documentary - Habeas Corpus

Anis — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:01:08 -0700

The documentary is about Tatielle’s suffering, a young woman from Morrinhos, a town in Goiás state’s rural area. She was five months pregnant of a fetus that wouldn’t survive the delivery, when a judge authorized her to perform an abortion (abortions are generally illegal in Brazil). However, a habeas corpus presented by a priest who didn’t know Tatielle stopped the medical procedure that was going to interrupt the pregnancy. Tatielle was already feeling birth contractions when she was released from the hospital. Back to her city, Tatielle agonized for five days feeling the pains of a delivery that was prohibited by Religion, as well as the Justice system.

Four Women (Quem são elas?)

Anis — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:39:21 -0700

July, 2004. The Brazilian Supreme Court temporarily authorized pregnant women carrying anencephalic fetuses to interrupt their pregnancies (abortion is illegal in Brazil). During four months, dozens of women were free to choose, protected by the preliminary injunction of the Supreme Court. The film shows the story of four of these women during two years of their lives. Érica, Dulcinéia, Camila and Michele are singular women joined by the tragedy of an interrupted maternity. These women are the protagonists of their own lives and narrators of their choices in a touching film about their force and resignation in a precocious mourning.