Lucas Weglinski

A pickpocket assumes various identities to steal from the aristocracy in early-20th-century Rio de Janeiro.

Eleven filmmakers from São Paulo, Brazil, unleash a vibrant mix of voices in the fourth installment of producer Kristian Petersen's conceptual short-film series, which gives gay and lesbian filmmakers free reign to tell untold stories. Selections include Gustavo Vinagre's "Dykeland," about an all-girl rock band; Ricky Mastro's "Felizes Para Sempre," about a surprisingly happy marriage; and Joana Galvão's animated "Um Olhar."

From 2000 to 2007, Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona worked on the staging of Euclides da Cunha's epic book, Os Sertões, which describes the 19th Century War of Canudos in the Brazilian "sertão"(backlands). The result was the pentalogy of plays: A Terra (2002), O Homem I (2003), O Homem II (2003), A Luta I (2005), and A Luta II (2006). This first play is a carnival opera, the actors are the earth, the vegetation, the wind, the animals, the rivers, the drought. It reveals the most intimate secrets of nature, that also vibrate in the human and trans-human arteries. This work enriched by the experience that the subsequent works brought gains an updated insight into the human interference in the environment. Destructive power is proportional to financial power, and the discussion about the way space gets occupied was brought to the forefront, including the real-estate boom that surrounds today not only Teatro Oficina, but the whole world, now hotter and more arid.