November (2024)

[Cremildo]

Milena Times’ debut feature “November” joins two further titles from Brazil as part of Primer Corte and Copia Final, Ventana Sur‘s pix-in-post industry showdown. It participated in various development guises including BrLab – Audiovisual Project Development Laboratory in 2017, and as a finalist for the Cabíria Screenplay Award, also participating in Cabiria Lab 2020. Fully funded at both state and national levels in Brazil, “November” is a testament to the burgeoning film industry in the country.

“When the project for ‘November’ first came to us, there was already great potential in the proposal offered by screenwriter and director Milena Times,” said producer Dora Amarim, who alongside producing partners Júlia Machado and Thaís Vidal, runs Ponte Produtoras. “Milena’s trajectory as a filmmaker and her participation in feminist movements immediately encouraged us to embrace the project in a definitive way. As we began the development stage and the first phase of research, upon approaching the subject of abortion, the reflections that arose also compelled us to reinforce the relevance and significance of this project against a society that still condemns women based on religious parameters and disregards the value of their lives, especially in the case of poor Black women, who run greater risks in clandestine practices,” Amarim added.

The film follows Janaína, played by Mayara Santos, a star student looking to be the first member of her family to graduate college. Janaína lives in a small apartment with her grandmother and mother at their small apartment in Recife. We meet her out partying with her best friend and boyfriend. Life seems good. The shock of an unplanned pregnancy changes that. Abortion remains illegal in Brazil. The ensuing weight of branching feelings, risks and relationships fills Janaína’s life with choices no one should face unsupported. source