Pira Poesia (Burning Ballad)
Brazil & USA // 2021 // Documentary // LOS FEATURES
USA PREMIERE
Burning Ballad is a poetic experimental documentary created from images collected in 2013 by the Brazilian collective Pira Poesia, of which director Dai Belquer is a member. The collective explored poetry through audiovisual experiments inspired by the legacy of Torquato Neto, a Brazilian poet, composer, journalist and one of the creators of the famous Tropicalia movement - the artistic and counterculture wave that emerged in the late 1960's during some of the harshest years of the military dictatorship.
Neto’s ideas, poetry and world view are more alive and urgent than ever, not only in Brazil, but also in the world now. Burning Ballad raises urgent questions on censorship, spiritual awareness, economic injustice and segregation.
Director: Dai Belquer
Producer: Burning Ballad Collective, Dai Belquer, Sonja Gradel, Patricia Almeida, Murilo O'Reilly
Documentary / Experimental
Portuguese with English subtitles
65 minutes
DAI BELQUER: I’m a Latin American award winning filmmaker, an actor and a writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I started acting when I was just 2 years old in my hometown in Brazil. During my whole childhood and teenage years I studied theater, worked in a theater company and worked on many TV ads. When I turned 19, I moved to Rio de Janeiro to start my undergrad in theater. After 10 years building a solid career in Rio as an actor in theater, movies and TV shows, I moved to the US in 2015. With the immigration I’ve experienced a deep process of self transformation and I’ve started creating, writing and editing my own films. My first short, GIGOIA ISLAND, was awarded by Festival do Minuto in Brazil. My second short, SOME OF US, about Iranian immigration, was officially selected by festivals in Argentina, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Brazil and Madrid. After the pandemic started, I made CARAMUJO, a short about being pregnant in Brazil during quarantine and having to struggle against the c-section surgery culture and the violence obstetric as well. CARAMUJO received the award MERIT for Social Issues by Docs Without Borders Film Festival in the US; was selected as a finalist and semi-finalist by festivals in the US and was officially selected by festivals in France, India and US. In 2021 I finished my first documentary feature film, BURNING BALLAD, a film where I explore a poetic vision through captured images that raises urgent questions on censorship, spiritual awareness, economic injustice and segregation through the legacy of the Brazilian poet Torquato Neto.