Filmed in 2021 on the roads Transamazônica, BR-319 and the real village of Realidade, in the south of Amazonia, Curupira e a máquina do destino is the encounter between the entity Curupira, a queer devil who protects the forests of Brazil, and the incarnated ghost of Iracema, a 14-year-old prostitute.
Curupira and the machine of the destiny
A film by
Janaina Wagner
Biography
Artist and filmmaker Janaina Wagner (São Paulo, 1989) works across video, drawing and installations. Currently a Phd fellow at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains (FR), her work aims to present a critical understanding of the ways in which humans impose systems of order and control upon their surroundings.
Her last short film, Curupira and the machine of the destiny (2021), screened in over 50 festivals and exhibitions worldwide. Janaina participated in several artistic residencies, such as Gasworks (UK), FID Campus – Festival International de Cinéma de Marseille (FR), Bolsa Pampulha (BR), Festival Mondes Possibles – Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers (FR), Casa Tomada (BR), Anarcademia W139 (NL) and NES Skagaströnd (IS). Among the main exhibitions, highlights are Baleia Fantasma – Pivô Arte e Pesquisa (BR), Ensaio de Tração – Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (BR), Garganta – CIAJG – Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães (PT), Aliens are temporary – Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (DE), Casa Carioca – MAR Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro (BR) and Cuando no hay sombra es mediodía, Nube (BO).
Janaina has a BA in Fine Arts and in Journalism, and teaches video at middle school. She considers how notions of progress and legacy are articulated through a constellation of tales, facts, images and memories.
She lives and works between Roubaix and São Paulo.
Filmography
● When The Second Sun Arrives / A Comet In Your Eyes – 2026 – 14’
● Quebrante – 2024 – 23’
● Green Flesh, Green Flash – 2022 – 9’
● Curupira And The Machine Of The Destiny – 2021 – 24’
