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A BODY IN THE WORLD
One of the brightest gems of contemporary Brazilian music, Luedji Luna fuses Afro-Brazilian rhythms, jazz and soul with poetry that honours her Bahian roots. Having just picked up two Latin Grammies, one for Best Brazilian…
Where to Find the Flavour of Brazil in London
For those missing home or Londoners eager to discover Brazil, here are my recommendations for where to eat. One of my favourite spots is Frigideira, a restaurant famous for its feijoada, picanha, and coxinha. Just around the…
UK Brazilian Movers & Shakers
In London, Brazilians have shared more than food and music; we've shared our essence. We continue transforming nostalgia into innovation and rhythm into community through creativity and connection. From samba schools to…
Things That Matter to…Edson Damazzo
Known as Bibiu, or as the "Choreographer to the Stars," he is one of Brazil’s best known dancers and choreographers and is a favourite among the country's top artists. Having travelled the world, primarily for…
FROM HIGHLIFE TO BAILE FUNK: The Rhythmic Bridge Between Accra, Salvador & London
London's club nights are vibrating with something ancient and new. It's a sound where the warm bells and brass of Highlife and Afrobeats collide with the pulsating, heavy bass of Brazilian Baile Funk—an intoxicating…
10 Soul Gatherings in Bahia
In every party in Salvador de Bahia, 'terreiro' or cultural centre, there is a gesture of resistance and beauty that tells Brazil—and the world—that Bahian art is more than expression: it is existence. As long as there…
Revolutionising the Black Economy
Adriana Barbosa is the entrepreneur and visionary behind Feira Preta - the festival celebrating the Black diaspora all over the world, which is today recognised as the largest Black culture and entrepreneurship festival in Latin…
CULTURA CIRCULAR: WHEN THE BEAT SPEAKS PORTUGUESE AND ENGLISH
What happens when a South London artist who raps in Portuguese, English and Spanish with roots in Angola meets one of Brazil’s foremost percussion outfits? “It feels like the circle is closing,” answers Afrocidade, the…
The Blue Trail (O Último Azul- 2025) by Brazilain director Gabriel Mascaro
“Since when was getting older an honour?” Set in an uncomfortably near future, this dystopian tale creates a universe where the elderly are sent away to a colony from which none are known to ever have returned, all in the name…
‘The Congress of the Disappeared’ BY Bernardo Kucinski (translated by Tom Gatehouse)
‘Brazil is a nation that has never truly reconciled with its past. Now more than ever, Brazilians are called to remember and use the past to fight for the future.’ Gianna Giordani reviews Bernardo Kucinski’s brand-new novella ‘…
The multi-award-winning theatre collective, EPHEMERAL ENSEMBLE are presenting ‘UPROOTED,’ their latest new show, at the New Diorama Theatre in London.
‘UPROOTED’, is a multidisciplinary show, politically challenging and visually exciting. It combines, sound, dance, visual effects, music and lights to immerse the audience in what is a moving experience. Corina J Poore talks to…
ABDUCTED FILES (2025) by Brazilian writer/director Filippo Capuzzi Lapietra
Celebrating its premiere at the 33rd Raindance Film Festival, this highly entertaining mockumentary, set in 2024, explores the legacy of a film shot earlier, in 2016, that had set out to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the “…
FINDING MILTON
Milton Nascimento is one of the most influential Brazilian musicians — now in his 80s, he has only recently retired from the stage. Flavia Moraes' documentary 'Milton Bituca Nascimento' is a road movie which…
I’m still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui - 2024) by Brazilian director Walter Salles
Picking up the Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, ‘I’M STILL HERE’ is a stirring thriller/ family drama set in 1971 during the most agonizing period of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship. Based on…
O silencio das Ostras (The Silence of the Oysters) 2024 by Brazilian director Marcos Pimental
Screening at the Berlinale 2025 is a powerful debut fiction feature by documentarist Marcos Pimental. Based in a ghostly mining village, it relates the subsequent devastation of toxic sludge caused by the bursting of a dam in…
Brazil’s big beautiful – and still illegal – balloon-making culture
From centuries old traditions Balloon-making developed into a competition between dedicated groups to create the biggest and most beautiful balloons which were released into the sky carrying lights and often fireworks, and then…
Power Alley (Levante- 2023) by Brazilian director Lillah Halla
Lillah Halla is emerging as the new kid on the block in Brazil with her opera prima, Levante (Power Alley) that questions Brazilian politics and feminist freedoms and has already garnered no fewer than 8 wins and 8 nominations at…
We Love Sergio Mendes
Sergio Mendes may not have been the main originator of bossa nova - one of the most innovative musical movement of the 20th Century - he may not have been the most talented musician to come out of Brazil, but he became the most…
Brazilian film ‘BABY’, by Marcelo Caetano to be screened at the BFI London Film Festival 2024 for the 63rd ‘Semaine de la Critique’ at Cannes 2024
“I did not run away from home; they ran away from me”. After two years and barely 18, Wellington emerges from a youth detention centre to find his family have disappeared. Lost and homeless in the streets of São Paulo, he meets…
Made in Brasil
Amaranta Wight revisits London’s iconic award-winning Brazilian restaurant in Camden – a much-needed tropical oasis that is still going strong after 20 years.
Things That Matter… Jards Macalé
Having worked with some of the biggest names in Brazilian music, including Joao Donato, Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso and more, Jards Macalé has garnered status as one of the most influential samba and tropicalia artists. Macalé’s…
Black Horses Are Massive - A Striking Tribute and Work of Power
Black Horses Are Massive, written by Bárbara Esmenia Rãé, showed as a reading for one night only at the Royal Court as part of their International Programme. Set in a Brazilian prison, this play was written in response to the…
A Timeline of Greatness - Musical Anniversaries to Celebrate in 2024
Here at LatinoLife, whilst nurturing up-and-coming artists, we never forget on whose should we stand and who we have to thank for the rich tapestry of sounds that we’ve inherited. This year in particular we look forward to some…
Latin Londoner #48 - Gustavo Nenao, street artist
Gustavo Bordin (akak Gustavo Nenao) is a Brazilian street artist who has developed works in three continents and 42 countries and was the only Brazilian to join the selected group of artists chosen by the former U.S. first lady…
We Love...Gal Costa
Endowed with a charismatic and exquisite voice filled with stylistic delights, Maria da Graҫa Costa Penna Burgos (better known as Gal Costa) was a native of Salvador, Bahia. Along with Maria Bethania, she was one of the primary…
Pele & Maradona: Contrasting Greatness
Among the claims to football greatness, those of Pele and Maradona, who died within just over two years of each other, will endure as a contrast in character and iconography, defining between them the developing story of modern…
The Wonderful World of Tim Maia
Back in the 1970s the deep velvety voice of Tim Maia sparked a revolution in Brazilian mainstream culture that went well beyond music, igniting the rise of the Black Rio movement. His bassy tone, resembling that of his funk and…
Taking Selfies with Shotguns: Transcending Violence in Bolsonaro’s Brazil
Luis Octavio dos Santos Gouveia Junior reflects on the bittersweet experience of returning to his native Brazil after seven years. He argues that, in Bolsonaro’s Brazil, guns have expanded from being an instrument of self-…
Bolsonaro Turns Queen’s Funeral into Election Rally
The Brazilian President's attendance at The Queens funeral had everything to do with politics and little to do with grief, argues Clorrie Yoemans
Remembering João Gilberto
When we think of bossa nova, the revolutionary music that catapulted the evocative sound of Brazil onto the global stage, with think of João Gilberto, who gave voice to the extraordinary songs such as 'Desfinado',…
Films to Watch Before You Die #7 – “The Motorcycle Diaries" by Walter Salles
Guevara Before Che – An expedition for Socialism across 1950s Latin America and the making of a revolutionary
Madame Satã - A Gem from the Archives
The debut feature of celebrated Brazilian writer/director Karim Aïnouz, ‘Madame Satã’ was selected from the BFI archives for the 2022 BFI Flare Film Festival. Based on real events, this film reveals the unusual and dramatic life…
Bebel Gilberto: Mother of Bossa Electronica
Being daughter to the legendary Joao Gilberto was quite a shadow to step out of. But over a remarkable 40-year career of her own, the multi-Grammy nominated and winning singer Bebel Gilberto became her own star with compositions…
‘FOGARÉU’ (2022) directed by Flávia Neves
“When a baby is born it is thrown into the air, if it flies it is a bat, if it falls it is a fool”. ‘Fogaréu,’ is the story of a wealthy Brazilian family that interweaves overt class struggles with intimate family strife in wild…
Films To Watch Before You Die #4 - O’ Desafio (The Challenge) Dir. Paulo César Saraceni
A PLACE FOR POETS – O’ Desafio (The Challenge) of living in a Society that you don’t understand. Once again, the 4th film in our series of “Latin American films you should watch before you die” explores the topics of love and…
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A BODY IN THE WORLD
One of the brightest gems of contemporary Brazilian music, Luedji Luna fuses Afro-Brazilian rhythms…
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