O Aleijadinho

If you can't travel to Minas Gerais or don't have access to Brazil's Art books then as last (and great) resource you have this informative short film that briefly presents the life and work of artist/sculptor/architect Antônio Francisco Lisboa, best known as Aleijadinho ("The Little Cripple), one of the most important artists of the 18th and 19th Centuries with his Baroque figures. Little is known about the individual, there's plenty of conjectures about his life and the disfiguring disease that marked his face to the point where he could only walk at night and always covered -some say it was leper - yet he still continued to produce more and more adorns, sculptures in soapstone present in churches and sanctuaries, some of the oldest and finest art registers of Brazil during colony period (Twelve Prophets made between 1800-1805 is one of his most known works).

Director Joaquim Pedro de Andrade's images of Aleijadinnho's works leave us in awe, art relics from more than 200 years of existence, preserved and beautifully placed in the historic cities of Minas Gerais. Narrated by famous writer Ferreira Gullar, a recurrent voice in many other documentaries and finally making an amazing use of his morose (but very projected) vocal talents, the movie describes the artist's expressionism in his imageries, angels and saints, with Andrade's camera exploring every single detail. Obviously everything can't be shown but the best it can be made with it, it's impressive. 10/10