By 
LAST CONVERSATIONS ****
Life is a constant cycle of energy that never stops, it’s always moving, getting shape, transforming, inevitably dying but also resurging as a new form of breathe, a new horizon, the rise of a fresh generation. What is the meaning of life? What’s the reason for being here? What does it all mean- to gain awareness, to love, to suffer, to experience joy and pleasure, to pass it through? Are we really mature enough to understand and accept the mysteries of existence? Or are we walking hands to hands with doubts and self-conflicts? As a tragic coincidence, right before his death, Brazilian documentarian Eduardo Coutinho (1933-2014), director of renowned works such as “Edificio Master” and “Playing”, gather a few students in Rio, to listen to their ideas, conceptions and explanations for the meaning of existence. Sitting on his director chair, in an empty living room, he hosts many guests to his companion, in interview-style, and explains his intention with the material: extract honest answers to his distinctive questions, moral, social, religious, literal, non-sense, cultural, in order to approach a concept of life.
An atheist girl living with her strictly religious parents; another who believes school is unnecessary; a very sensitive girl whose lack of a mother presence had traumatized her; a school leader boy who has been to many psychiatrics trying to understand his anxiety and trying to escape his frustration with bullying; a girl who’s been experiencing both social and religious prejudices for being a black girl preserving her virginity; another dealing with the public opinion towards her lesbian parents, while battling the ghosts of a past of prostitution; and the ultra-romanticist who sticks to the idea of love for curing and healing. Coutinho created an accomplished report on youth, a definitive testament of a new generation still in shape, as he listens to their eagerness and disappointments, capturing the essence of youth, their need to be heard and their need to be loved. In each interview, Coutinho explores the character, motivation, fear and perspective, stirring them up and allowing them to break the barriers of their consciousness, making room for striking revelations. Each demonstrates similar aspects, or drastic divergences, including questions regarding the existence of God, their solitude and reliance on cell phones and technology, their fascination for modern gothic culture, their eagerness to enter a prestigious University, their struggle to become great professionals and respectable individuals, as a form of responding to what their parents left undone, and their unique way of developing a romantic relationship. Their testimonies filled with honesty and bravery will provide a bridge of mutual collaboration between the old and the new, so both can explore and understand this amazing journey called life. As his farewell, he salutes a 6-year-old girl, Luiza, as she walks out of the room after her moving interview. And he insists, “Go…But leave the door open!” stating his awareness that life goes on and that the new generation must come in. (Playing at “O Brasil” series at Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, NYC)
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