Screening: A Mordida [The Bite] (2019) and Tornar-se um Homem na Idade Média [Becoming Male in the Middle Ages] (2022) by Pedro Neves Marques
Pedro Neves Marques, Tornar-se um Homem na Idade Média [Becoming Male in the Middle Ages] (still), 2022. Video, 26 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Portugal Film.
Thursday, April 27, 7–8 PM
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, NY 14202
Free and open to all
In anticipation of Pedro Neves Marques’s lecture on Monday, May 1, join us for a special screening of two of his recent short films, The Bite (2019; 26 minutes; Portuguese with English subtitles) and Becoming Male in the Middle Ages (2022; 23 minutes; Portuguese with English subtitles). In the speculative short film The Bite, the fast and deadly propagation of a mosquito-borne epidemic echoes the alarming spread of conservative political intolerance in Brazil, connecting gender, environmental, and political struggles. This is a story of transition and transmission—a reproductive story—buoyed by a scientist who shuttles between the government lab, where he genetically modifies mosquitos to stop the deadly scourge through sterilization, and a polyamorous, non-binary relationship developing in rural seclusion. Hospitality is at the heart of this desiring biopolitical tale.
The Bite won best short film awards at Go Short - Nijmegen, Mix Brasil, Sicilia Queer Film Festival, and Short Waves, as well as the Kodak Prize at Moscow International Experimental Film Festival in 2020.
In Becoming Male in the Middle Ages, 2022, Mirene and André, and Carl and Vicente, are both couples in their mid-thirties. While Mirene and André struggle with their fertility, Vicente decides to undergo an experimental procedure, implanting an ovary in his body in the hopes of having a child with Carl. A love drama of speculative undertones, Becoming Male in the Middle Ages is an intimate tale about queer sexuality, bodily autonomy, reproductive desires, and the ghost of normativity.
Becoming Male in the Middle Ages won the Ammodo Tiger Short Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2022.
This screening is presented in collaboration with Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center.
Post Date April 27, 2023