Anna Borges do Sacramento

Runtime: 80'

Expected release: May 2026

Production stage: Post-production, animation and editing

Budget: €332,000 (55% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales agents, gap financing, festivals, strategic guidance

Synopsis:

Anna Borges do Sacramento was an enslaved woman who fought for her freedom in 18th century Brazil. Her story, forgotten in a file gnawed by insects, is now unarchived through the imagination and ancestral knowledge of a group of quilombola women. As they reflect on her struggle, they weave their own experiences, forging a strong connection between past and present, a powerful portrait of Anna and themselves

Director’s Profile:

Aída Bueno Sarduy is a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology by the Complutense University of Madrid. She’s carried out research in Cuba and Brazil on African religions from the perspective of feminist critical theory. She specialized in African diasporic culture and interethnic relationships in Latin America, and studies purchases, freedom letters and freedom purchase documents of African and afro-descendant women in Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries. She’s been a lecturer in universities such as New York University, Middlebury College and Stanford. She directed the documentary shorts “1939 Days” (2015) and “Guillermina” (2019), screened in festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, FIPADOC and SANFICI, as well as the documentary feature films “Rezadeira”, now at the production stage and “Anna Borges do Sacramento”, in post-production, awarded by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund.

Producer’s Profile:

Rafael Sampaio is a Brazilian producer and curator, founder of Klaxon Cultural Audiovisual, production company based in São Paulo, since 2008. At Klaxon he has produced the documentaries “Let it Burn” (Brazil, Maíra Buhler, 2019, Prix des bibliothèques at Cinéma du Réel, 2019), “A Marriage” (Brazil, Mônica Simões, Brazil, 2017) and has produced or co-produced the features “Fever” (Chile/Brasil/Peru, Elisa Eliash, 2022) “Zafari” (Peru/Chile/Brasil/França, Mariana Rondón, 2024), “On Wheels” (Brazil, Mauro D’Addio, 2018), “Contactado” (Marité Ugás, 2021), among others. He worked as producer and programmer in cultural venues such as MIS-SP, Cinemateca Brasileira and cooperated with different national and international funds. He also is the head of studies for different training initiatives, such as the BrLab, an annual training and meeting event which he created and has directed since 2011.