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BAGDÁ - SCENES FROM A YOUTH

DEMOCRACIA

By Caru ALVES DE SOUZA

Documentary - Development 2018

'Bagdá - Scenes from a Youth' is a story about women who feel like outsiders in a markedly masculine environment. Bagdá, the protagonist, is a skater girl who's questioning her own sexuality and how society understands her as a woman.

- Year of production
- 2018
- Genres
- Documentary, Biography, Historical
- Countries
- BRAZIL
- Languages
- BRAZILIAN-PORTUGUESE
- Budget
- 0.3 - 0.6 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Caru ALVES DE SOUZA
- Writer(s)
- Caru ALVES DE SOUZA
- Producer(s)
- Rafaella COSTA (MANJERICAO FILMES)
- Synopsis
- 'Bagdá - Scenes from a Youth' is a feature film about the everyday life of a 16-year-old skater girl named Bagdá from the underprivileged, working class outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her family members are mostly women and she skateboards with a very masculine squad. This blend of female and male references shakes her irresolute personality and makes her question her own sexuality and how society sees her as a woman. The narrative will not follow a linear trajectory, but it will show episodes of the girl, her friends and her family’s everyday lives, creating an overall portrayal of her neighborhood.
  
  Bagdá carries the heavy burden of being responsible for things that are beyond her capacity as a teenager. Even though she is a tomboy, she must hide she feels attracted to other girls. As the oldest daughter, Bagdá has to take care of her younger sisters and of her vulnerable baby sister. And she ultimately needs to deal with the frustrations of her mother, Micheline, a gauche woman who fails trying to find an inherent talent and an occupation that truly fulfills her.
  
  Micheline usually goes to a neighborhood bar frequented mostly by men to have some booze. In this unsympathetic environment, she finds fulfillment while singing in the karaoke. As for her part-time jobs, she prepares snacks to sell in front of a bus stop and works as a manicure in a local beauty parlor. Bagdá often helps her mother in these tasks and in the beauty parlor she enjoys hanging out with Greta, a hairdresser and the only female transsexual in the neighborhood.
  
  Micheline's best friend is Carlota, who helped her to raise Bagdá. Carlota is a labor union leader who has an important role by struggling for the inclusion of items related to women demands in the agenda of an imminent strike. Bagdá has great admiration for her strength as a woman. Her son, Deco, is Bagdá's best friend.
  
  Deco is a 17-year-old skater boy from the same squad with which Bagdá skateboards. He is good-looking and charming, a real ladies' man. Bagdá has mixed feelings towards him and her first awkward kiss happens with him.
  
  Out of nowhere, a weird backpacker woman appears in the neighborhood. Her features are very peculiar and she speaks a language no one understands. She gradually gets close to the other characters and to the neighborhood as a whole. Ultimately, she reveals herself as being from outer space.
  
  Through the depiction of trivial events, we intend to reveal the extraordinary elements that lay on this environment and characters.
- Partners & financing
- Partners:
  - Co-producer: Tangerina Entretenimento (BR)
  - Sesc Lab for the Development of Scripts (BR) with the doctoring of Laurence Coriat, Salvador Roseli and Rasmus Heisterberg.
  
  Financing:
  - Ibermedia Development Support - US$ 7,500.00
  - Development Fund from Sao Paulo City Hall - R$ 80,000.00 (US$ 21,052.00)
  - Development Fund from Sao Paulo State - R$ 60,000.00 (US$ 15,789.00)
- Beginning of shooting
- Mar 01, 2019
- End of shooting
- Apr 05, 2019