Mawu Films

[rapta]

So...there's some exciting news. A new label's in town called Mawu Films covering African and Latin American cinema:

https://www.mawufilms.com/

[Cremildo]

Praying for some Brazilian gems on Blu-ray. We don't get many of them here in... Brazil.

[jackranderson]

Okay I’m interested!

[Mothravka]

Signed up to the newsletter. Might be interesting!

[CrockettandTubbs]

Their first release costs £0.00?

I'm definitely in

[Mothravka]

They posted a picture clue on Facebook and Instagram for their first Blu-ray release:

[Show spoiler]

[Jgreenan]

Originally Posted by Cremildo

Praying for some Brazilian gems on Blu-ray. We don't get many of them here in... Brazil.

The first release seems to be Brazilian judging by the hashtags in their Instagram post.

[huntauk]

Hopefully Pixote or Black God, White Devil

[rapta]

Great to see lesser seen stuff represented in the UK. Guess it took the creation of a new label to really get into these as the usual suspects (MoC, BFI) seem to have given up and Second Run can’t do it all by themselves.

On their Twitter page they’ve retweeted articles about Mambety’s TOUKI BOUKI and Kalatozov’s I AM CUBA as well as mentions of Sembene, Cisse, Hondo, Jodorowsky (and even Weerasethakul). So we’re off to a good start!

Here’s a little mention on their Twitter that’s of interest:

We are excited to be releasing our first Limited Edition Blu-ray in the very near future! It’s a real classic and won’t disappoint.

Hopeful they can get some World Cinema Project titles that never made it here and barely got any extras on the Criterion box sets. They’d obviously be a reliable source for good restorations too. Might email them and ask if they’d branch out to under-represented Indian, Middle Eastern and East Asian cinema too once they’ve got a few releases under their belts!

[Mothravka]

Judging by the cover, it looks like it could be this film:

[Show spoiler]Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later (1984)

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by huntauk

Black God, White Devil

Which was recently restored and remastered in 4K.

Originally Posted by Mothravka

Judging by the cover, it looks like it could be this film:

[Show spoiler]Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later (1984)

If it is, it's a great start - simply the most seminal Brazilian documentary ever made. Anyone who has even a passing interest in the form and Brazilian history in the 20th century should seek it.

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by Mothravka

They posted a picture clue on Facebook and Instagram for their first Blu-ray release:

[Show spoiler]

It's a goat (cabra, in Portuguese).

Their first release is definitely 20 Years Later, which in Brazil is called "Cabra Marcado Para Morrer".

[Rutger Lundgren]

Sounds good. One of my hopes is Machuca, the Artificial Eye DVD has been OOP for a while.

[Yami]

Always great to see a new label, particularly one that has such a clear niche that desperately needs catered for. They're already off to a good start with Man Marked for Death and I look forward to seeing what they've got lined up. Hopefully Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Safi Faye, and Souleymane Cissé are on their radar.

Originally Posted by rapta

Might email them and ask if they’d branch out to under-represented Indian, Middle Eastern and East Asian cinema too once they’ve got a few releases under their belts!

I think they'll have their plates full - Latin America and Africa are probably the two least represented geographical locations amongst all boutique label releases and it's great that they're finally being catered for. Even those filmmakers from the region that are as closed to canonised as it gets such as Sembene or Glauber Rocha are relatively poorly catered for. The challenge should really be for other labels, particularly those that already have a significant presence, to step up their game and cater for those regions that you've mentioned.

[Magyalmar]

I hope they mean ALL Africa and not just Sub-Saharan Africa.

I'd love it if they could exhume some of the lost gems of the 1940s/50s Egyptian cinema. It was that era's Bollywood (in terms of cultural impact) and gave birth to hundreds of movies with iconic actors. I've been wanting to dive into those movies since I watched the documentary "Arab Movie" but even the few ones that I manage to find don't have any subtitles.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Yami

Always great to see a new label, particularly one that has such a clear niche that desperately needs catered for. They're already off to a good start with Man Marked for Death and I look forward to seeing what they've got lined up. Hopefully Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Safi Faye, and Souleymane Cissé are on their radar.

They've retweeted those filmmakers too so I reckon they're on their radar for sure.

Originally Posted by Yami

I think they'll have their plates full - Latin America and Africa are probably the two least represented geographical locations amongst all boutique label releases and it's great that they're finally being catered for. Even those filmmakers from the region that are as closed to canonised as it gets such as Sembene or Glauber Rocha are relatively poorly catered for. The challenge should really be for other labels, particularly those that already have a significant presence, to step up their game and cater for those regions that you've mentioned.

True, they will have their hands full, but just willing that the other boutiques will cover those other regions is like trying to get blood out of a stone. I asked BFI a while ago if they'd consider upgrading their Ritwik Ghatak titles and they sounded very pessimistic about it, and likewise Arrow seem to have given up on Iranian cinema. Even MoC have steered away from their brief flirtation with Taiwanese cinema (unless it's genre directors like King Hu and Joseph Kuo) but I suppose they occasionally come up with something unexpected (e.g. Viy, The White Reindeer). Our best hope for variety is still with Criterion (if they even release the film in the UK), and in some cases Second Run (but they are often pre-occupied with European cinema, especially Czech/Slovak and Hungarian), or a label like New Wave Films who took a risk with their Ceylan set (unclear if they think that paid off).

At this point I'd be very surprised if MoC, Arrow or BFI announced anything from the parts of the world I mentioned unless there was a sudden flux of restorations supported by film festival appearances and/or theatrical tours...so a big if. Indicator might even be willing to give us some more surprises at this rate, after their decision to start releasing Mexican cinema!

Anyway, just happy to see another label on the block, and one that I can get enthusiastic about and will introduce us to new films and filmmakers! Very good news.

Originally Posted by Magyalmar

I hope they mean ALL Africa and not just Sub-Saharan Africa.

I'd love it if they could exhume some of the lost gems of the 1940s/50s Egyptian cinema. It was that era's Bollywood (in terms of cultural impact) and gave birth to hundreds of movies with iconic actors. I've been wanting to dive into those movies since I watched the documentary "Arab Movie" but even the few ones that I manage to find don't have any subtitles.

Agreed, I'd like to see some Egyptian stuff show up. Reminds me the Cairo Station showed up on Netflix at some point, forgot to check it out!

[Cremildo]

First release:

For the first time ever, making its Blu-ray debut, Eduardo Coutinho’s 1984 multi-award-winning landmark Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later will be released in a special limited edition of 3,000 numbered copies this March. Mawu Films is extremely proud to release this fully restored must-have film for anyone interested in world cinema or the history of documentary filmmaking.

Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later (Cabra Marcado para Morrer) A film by Eduardo Coutinho



“A work of cinema that haunts me since I first saw it in the ’80s... Eduardo Coutinho’s masterwork”

Kleber Mendonça Filho, Director of Aquarius and Bacurau



Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later is an intensely moving portrait of a family ripped apart by the murder of the Sapé Peasant League leader, João Pedro Teixeira. Structurally daring, this seminal documentary creates a complex, genre-defying mosaic and the film’s triptych design that makes for a compelling odyssey through twenty years of Brazilian political upheaval.



Restoration supervised by Eduardo Coutinho

Limited Edition Extras with first print run of 3000 copies only:

Limited Edition numbered Blu-ray
Limited Edition O-Card slipcase
Limited Edition collector’s booklet feat. new writing by Berkeley Professor Natalia Brizuela
Limited Edition foldout poster featuring the original design by Claudius Ceccon


Features:

Optional English Subtitles
Specially commissioned interview with the film’s producer Zelito Viana (25 mins)
Award-winning interview with the director Eduardo Coutinho (12 min)
Newly commissioned trailer
Region-free Blu-rays (A/B/C)

[wabrit]

Not a documentary fan so will pass on this one, but am hoping to pick up future releases and support what looks to be a very interesting label.

[Cremildo]

Yeah, although it's a milestone in Brazilian Cinema, I'm pretty happy with the local special edition DVD, so I won't be importing it. But collectors with an interest in world cinema (and foreign politics and history) should absolutely try it.

[robthebobs]

Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later is now available to order direct from Mawu films.
£23.99 + £2.05 shipping.

https://www.mawufilms.com/product-page