THE CAMBRIDGE SQUATTER
Era o Hotel Cambridge
Brazil, 2016  | 100  min
Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish, French, and Lingala with English subtitles
Directors: Eliane Caffé

Wednesday, Aug 30
7:00 PM |The Cinematheque

*POST-FESTIVAL SCREENING:
Wednesday, Sept 6

2:00 PM | Goldcorp Centre for the Arts | SFU Woodward’s 

Tickets: $10/$8
(*Free for SFU students, just show your ID!)

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A diverse group of refugees and low-income Brazilian workers occupy the Hotel Cambridge, a formerly abandoned concrete high-rise in downtown São Paulo. The authorities have given its residents 15 days to move out or be thrown out. Led by Dona Carmen and the FLM (Front in the Struggle for Housing), the residents band together to defend their rights. Blending documentary and fiction, the film brings the viewer into the intimate lives of several of the residents including Ngandu from the Congo, and Hassam and his nephew Kalil from Palestine. Daily dramas, comical situations and different views on the world commingle in this fascinating and inspiring glimpse into Brazil’s housing and anti-gentrification movement.

The Cambridge Squatter does a very difficult thing: It takes what essentially is a local interest story and elevates it into something universal and urgently contemporary.” Jonathan Holland, The Hollywood Reporter

Refugiados recém-chegados ao Brasil dividem com um grupo de sem-tetos um velho edifício abandonado no centro de São Paulo. Os novos moradores do prédio têm que lidar com seus dramas pessoais e aprender a conviver com pessoas que, apesar de diferentes, enfrentam juntos a vida nas ruas.

Producers: Rui Pires, André Montenegro
Writers: Eliane Caffé, Luiz Alberto de Abreu, Inês Figueiró
Cinematographer: Bruno Risas
Editor:  Marcio Hashimoto
Cast: Carmen Silva, José Dumont, Isam Ahmad Issa, Suely Franco, Magaly Silva

Eliane Caffé (São Paulo, 1961) is the director of four feature films: Kenôma (1998), Narradores de Javé (2003), O Sol do Meio Dia (2009), and Era o Hotel Cambridge (2016), which won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Audience Award at the Rio International Film Festival. She has also worked extensively coordinating audiovisual collectives in troubled areas of inland Brazil.

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