Daniela Marinho is part of the Buenos Aires Talents at BACIFI this year. Two years ago, her filmmaking partner, Rafaela Camelo participated with the same project: Blood of my Bloods, which is their first feature film. This has helped them move the project along.

“It is a very profound experience that has made us become very close to the other participants,” says Daniela Marinho, who is producing Blood of my Bloods, which is now a co-production between Brazil, France and Chile.

“You apply with a specific project and then the focus is on both professional and personal development. We made very profound connections within the Latin American film world and this is very important to us.”

Daniela Marinho is a producer, who owns a boutique company in Brasília called Moveo Filmes, and since 2010 she has produced Rafaela Camelo’s films. The filmmaking couple met in 2004 while attending film school at the University of Brasilia and have been working together ever since.  They have both gained a lot from the Buenos Aires Talents program, which guiding program was created by the Berlinale.

“It is very important to our career development,” says Marinho, who is 38-years old. “I feel I has been very instrumental in helping us gain confidence to move our project along.”

Both women point out that a lot of time and care were given to them as they participated in the program. This is very important to both of them.

“There are not enough women making films,” says director Rafaela Camelo, who identifies as bisexual and is 37 years old. “So, we see it as an important mission to contribute to Brazilian cinema and to tell women’s stories. There is a need for that.”

Their feature debut, Blood of my Bloods, is a very Latin American film, the two women stress. It is in the tradition of ‘fantastic realism’ or ‘spiritual realism’ that is often detected in Latin American cinema. It centers around 12-year old girl Gloria, who is at the hospital after she has had a heart transplant. That is where she meets another 12-year old girl, Sophia, who is visiting her great grandmother.

“The central conflict in the film is: Where does the heart come from,” explains Camelo, who also wrote the script. “Gloria becomes increasingly aware that the heart that has given her life comes from a dead person. This triggers something in her.”

Camelo’s debut short, A Arte de Andar Pelas Ruas de Brasília (The Art of Walking Through the Streets), which Marinho produced, was selected to the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano in Havana.

“This was when I decided to focus on producing,” says Marinho, who had tried out many different positions on other films before this film came out in 2010. “I learned that I was good at producing and this was what I wanted to do.”

Their short O Misterio da Carne (Desires of the Flesh), from 2018, was selected for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and won a best film award at the Biarritz Latin American Festival. As Miçangas (The Beads), which was co-directed with Emanuel Lavor, screened at the Berlinale Shorts this year.

“We also find it very important to create films that take place in our territory,” says Marinho, who lives in the capital of Brazil. “We want to tell stories from this part of the country, which we feel is often forgotten. This is something that is very significant to us.”