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A reality show coach from The Voice has passed away after a two-year battle with colon cancer, according to family. Preta Gil, 50, served as a coach during the debut season of The Voice Brasilback in 2012. The singer had been receiving cancer treatment in Brazil and the U.S. She was originally diagnosed with colon cancer in 2023, and in 2024, she announced that the cancer had spread.

Preta Gil died at the age of 50 after her battle with cancer.

Pop Culture reported that Preta died at the age of 50 after her battle with cancer. Preta's family revealed that the former Voice coach passed away on Sunday, July 20. In a statement that has been translated to English from Portuguese, they said that she will be "greatly missed" and thanked everyone for their "affection, respect and understanding."

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Preta Gil (@pretagil) What Preta Gil's Tragic Death Means...

The Latin Recording Academy announced on Tuesday that the Spanish singer and actor Raphael will be honored as the 2025 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year at the Latin Grammys.

The 82-year-old artist, known for a robust voice and a theatrical performance style, boasts a six-decade musical career. Born Rafael Martos in Linares, Spain, in 1943, Raphael was raised in Madrid and showed his singing abilities at a young age. (He won the Best Child Voice in Europe award at the Salzburg Festival when he was nine.) He released his self-titled debut album in 1965 and,...

Oliver Murray, director of They All Came Out To Montreux (on Claude Nobs’ s Montreux Jazz Festival), Ronnie’s (on Ronnie Scott’s), and The Quiet One (on Bill Wyman) with music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze: “It’s fantastic to hear you make the connections because sometimes I do that almost just for myself.”

They All Came Out To Montreux (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival), Oliver Murray’s fantastic tribute to Montreux Jazz Festival founder Claude Nobs is hailed by music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman for the documentary’s composition of musical greatness with the backstory on this one-of-a-kind creation in Montreux.

Kim Gordon in Sonic Youth at the Montreux Jazz Festival

Kim Gordon (on her Collective tour), this past Thursday, June 13, 2024 had a Capital One City...

Tribeca Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton’s .Diane von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge: “It’s great! It’s about fashion but not only. It’s super New York based.”

They All Came Out To Montreux, Oliver Murray’s fantastic tribute to Montreux Jazz Festival founder Claude Nobs; Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil's Bath (Des Teufels Bad) starring Anja Plaschg (who is also the composer as Soap&Skin), shot by Martin Gschlacht (Silver Bear winner in the 2024 Berlin Film Festival); Dana Flor’s Ani Difranco film, 1-800-on-her-own; David Hinton’s Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger with Martin Scorsese as our guide; Vinko Tomicic’s The...

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “Rivers of Dust,” Anna Muyleart’s “Geni and the Zeppelin” and “Pearl Motel,” fromJorge Furtado, feature among potential nine brand new projects announced at the Cannes Festival by Globo Filmes, the theatrical film co-production arm of Brazilian TV giant Globo.

With Mendonça Filho deep in pre-production on political thriller “The Secret Agent,” co-produced by France’s Mk Productions, details on “Rivers of Dust,” save that he will re-team on it with Juliano Dornelles after their 2019 Cannes Jury Prize winner “Bacurau.”

Elsewhere, the new projects speak volumes of Globo Filmes’ current content focus. There’s the broad spectrum. . Titles straddle commercial plays – gay espionage operatives comedy “Special Agents” from Pedro Antônio – “A” list festival plays such as “Rivers” and Geni” and cross-over titles such as sex-laced situation comedy “Pearl Motel.”

Above all, additions to Globo Filmes’ development slate underscore two of its biggest investment priorities.

One is diversity.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they will release Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Bossa Nova-themed animated film They Shot The Piano Player in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on February 23, 2024, before expanding nationwide in the following weeks.

The film is produced by Cristina Huete of Trueba PC (Chico & Rita) in Spain, along with Serge Lalou for Les Films d’Ici (Josep) in France, Janneke van de Kerkhof for Submarine Sublime (BUÑUEL In The Labyrinth Of Turtles) in the Netherlands, and Humberto Santana in Portugal. It is executive produced by Nano Arrieta of Atlantika and Fabien Westerhoff of Film Constellation.

From the duo behind the 2012 Academy Award®-nominated Chico & Rita, They Shot The Piano Player is narrated by Jeff Goldblum and features a who’s who of the best of Brazilian music, including João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, Milton Nascimento and Paulo Moura.

Bossa Nova-themed animation from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal received awards-qualifying run in November.

Sony Pictures Classics will release Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Bossa Nova-themed animated feature They Shot The Piano Player theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on February 23, 2024.

‘They Shot The Piano Player’: San Sebastian Review

The film received a one-week awards-qualifying run in November following its premiere at Telluride and Toronto International Film Festival. It will expand nationwide in the weeks following the release.

Jeff Goldblum narrates the story of a New York music journalist who sets out to uncover the truth behind...

Taking a cue from the genre-melding impulse of the music at its heart, They Shot the Piano Player initially gives every appearance of being pure fiction. The plot of this animated film by Spanish directors Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba follows Jeff Harris (voiced by Jeff Goldblum), a journalist from New York City who’s been commissioned to write a book on bossa nova. Immersing himself in the music in preparation for a trip to Rio de Janeiro, he hears a solo by Brazilian jazz pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. and gets sidetracked. The innovator of samba jazz, it turns out, disappeared under suspicious circumstances in Buenos Aires just before the 1976 military coup, and Jeff decides to fill in the blanks.

The setup, then, has all the trappings of a detective story, with an amateur sleuth in obsessive pursuit of an unsolved mystery. In Rio, Jeff’s friend João (Tony Ramos...

Sony Pictures Classics announced today they have acquired all rights in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories to Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s upcoming Bossa Nova-themed animated film, “They Shot the Piano Player.”

Sony Classics plans to release the film at the end of the year to qualify for year-end awards consideration.

A true international production, the film is produced by Cristina Huete of Trueba PC (“Chico & Rita”) in Spain, along with Serge Lalou for Les Films d’Ici (“Josep”) in France, Janneke van de Kerkhof for Submarine Sublime (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles”) in the Netherlands, and Humberto Santana in Portugal. It is executive produced by Nano Arrieta of Atlantika and Fabien Westerhoff of Film Constellation.

From Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, who previously directed the Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita,...

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up rights to the animated feature They Shot the Piano Player for the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, the Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within the aforementioned territories. The film from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, two of the directors behind the Oscar-nominated animated feature Chico and Rita, is set up for a fall awards push from SPC.

Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, They Shot the Piano Player follows a New York music journalist who goes on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr. A celebratory origin story of the world-renowned Latino musical movement Bossa Nova, the film captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the ’60s and ’70s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North American rights to the animated feature They Shot the Piano Player from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, the duo behind Oscar nominee Chico & Rita. The plan is for an awards season release.

The company also acquired the rights for the film in Latin America, Scandinavia, India, the Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and for airlines within those territories

The Bossa Nova-themed animation is narrated by Jeff Goldblum and follows a New York music journalist, who goes on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr. The rest of the synopsis reads: “A celebratory origin story of the world-renowned Latino musical movement Bossa Nova, the film captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the ’60s and ’70s, just before the...

Director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal previously collaborated on Oscar-nominated ‘Chico & Rita’.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in the US and key territories around the world to They Shot The Piano Player, the highly-anticipated animation from Spanish director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal, who previously collaborated on the Oscar-nominated Chico & Rita.

In a deal with Film Constellation, SPC has also secured all rights for Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories. The distributor plans to qualify the film for year-end awards.

Rita Lee, the legendary Brazilian musician at the forefront of the Tropicália movement as the co-founder and lead singer for Os Mutantes, died Monday, May 8. She was 75.

Lee’s family confirmed her death in a statement shared on Instagram. In 2021, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, jokingly nicknaming her tumor “Jair” after Brazil’s former, and much loathed president, Jair Bolsonaro.

In their statement, Lee’s family said the musician died at her home in São Paulo surrounded by family. As per Lee’s wishes, she will be cremated. A...

A few months ago, on Jan. 1, more than 150 thousand people swarmed the savannah-based, landlocked city of Brasília — an unusual flock since beach cities like Rio are usually top destinations around the holidays. Yet Brazil’s capital was busy as ever, starting with its buzzy main avenue: By the Esplanada area, a massive crowd watched a series of concerts featuring dozens of artists from all over the country. Hip-hop heads with soccer jerseys stood next to old-school Tropicalia fans, couples holding babies shouted along to baile funk hits with groups of kids,...

Brazil’s newly elected President, Inácio Lula da Silva, has said his government will re-establish the country’s Ministry of Culture after it was disbanded by his right-wing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2019.

In a series of widescale pledges published on his first day in office, Lula said his government will reopen the ministry “with the ambition to resume more intensely the policies of incentive and access to cultural goods” that he said was “interrupted by obscurantism in recent years.”

“A democratic cultural policy cannot fear criticism or elect favorites,” he said.

Lula, who is serving his third term in office, added: “May all the flowers sprout and all the fruits of our creativity be harvested, may everyone enjoy it without censorship or discrimination.”

Estamos refundando o Ministério da Cultura, com a ambição de retomar mais intensamente as políticas de incentivo e de acesso aos bens culturais, interrompidas pelo obscurantismo nos últimos anos.

Gal Costa, one of the most important artists in Brazilian music, died on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Born Maria da Graça Penna Burgos Costa in 1945, the influential singer was raised in Salvador, Bahia, where she took her first steps into music with the likes of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia. She was barely in her twenties in 1967 when she released her first album Domingo, a bossa nova-only feat with Veloso.

In 1968, she became one of the most important voices of tropicália, the counterculture movement that disrupted Brazil’s arts and society at the time.

Songwriting singer-saxophonist Masego is a musician who’s excited for where he’s going but never forgets where he’s been. At this summer’s Roots Picnic in Philadelphia, he literally brought out the first saxophone his mother ever purchased for him and played it for thousands. You can expect that artistic artifact will be in tow with Masego as he tours throughout Europe to end of the year, too.

“I had to keep that, my momma spent her money on it,” Masego joked when talking to Rolling Stone Radio co-host Charlie Cooper.

Few Brazilian series have won such plaudits abroad as high-end medical procedural ”Under Pressure,” which was selected for the Toronto Festival, swept French Fipa TV festival awards, and is hailed as a signature series in the drive by Globo, Latin America’s biggest media company, into non-escapist, international standard social issue series.

As Brazil has become one of he three countries with the most Covid-19 infections in the world, Globo aired an “Under Pressure” two-episode special that tackles head on the experience of the medical staff during its hard times.

The series, which has already been licensed in more than 65 countries, managed to produce both episodes in just four months between the first writers’ meeting and the episodes airing. In between, the death toll of the country has skyrocketed from 36,000 to over 150,000.

Co-produced by Globo and Conpiraçao, “Under Pressure – Covid Special” was written by Lucas Paraizo and directed by Andrucha Waddington.

Netflix is unleashing Brazilian zombies in “Reality Z,” its first collaboration with multi-Emmy winning Brazilian production house, Conspiracao. The series will be made available from June 10.

An adaptation of British horror miniseries “Dead Set” by “Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker, “Reality Z” is set against the stunning backdrop of Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro, where a zombie apocalypse forces the participants and producers of the “Olimpo” reality show to take shelter in the self-sustaining bespoke set.

Award-winning Brazilian director, screenwriter and executive producer Cláudio Torres (“The Invisible Woman”) took on the challenge to adapt the series by tapping into Brazil’s pop culture and its obsession with reality shows. “Olimpo” is not unlike “Big Brother Brazil,” which snagged an official Guinness World Records certificate when its March 31 episode collected more than 1.5 billion votes.

At first wary of “messing with a classic,” Torres sought inspiration in the Brazilian artistic movement of Anthropophagy.

Remi Chayé’s “Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” Benoît Chieux’ “Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds” and “They Shot the Piano Player,” from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, were among projects which caught attention at this week’s 22nd Cartoon Movie, which ran March 3-5 in the French port city of Bordeaux.

The presentation of “Calamity.” the awaited second feature by Chayé (“Long Way North”), registered the highest attendance of any pitch at the animation co-production and sales forum. Produced by France’s Maybe Movies and Denmark’s Nørlum and sold by Paris-based Indie Sales, “Calamity” tells the story of Martha Jane Cannary, a 12-year-old girl caring for her siblings in a wagon train heading West to Wyoming. A coming-of-age feature, it is also an origins story of the young woman would become the legendary Calamity Jane.

A buzz title in Bordeaux, sold by Film Constellation and...

Brazilian distributor Fenix Films is moving into co-productions with three projects, including two international projects, one featuring Vincent Cassel and the other Berlin Silver Bear winner Paulina García.

Fenix Films’ first international co-production, “Baden Powell,” is a documentary about Baden Powell, considered by some to be the greatest Brazilian guitarist of all time.

Directed by Benjamin Passat and Philippe Baden Powell, the musician’s son, the film will be shot throughout this year and features Cassel as one of the interviewees, as well as musicians Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethânia and Yamandu Costa. The project is under negotiation for co-production with France.

The company is also developing “Los anillos de la serpiente,” a drama directed by Chilean helmer Edson Cajas and starring García, who won the Silver Bear for best actress at the 2013 Berlinale “Gloria.” Set in Chile, the film tells the story of an exemplary doctor who is discovered to...

So, How Was Your Decade is a series in which the decade’s most innovative musicians answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their decade. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December.

It’s exceptionally rare that a Brazilian artist ever breaks the international music market. Yet at the age of 26, Rio de Janeiro superstar Anitta has not only tackled the industry in her home country, but with over 13 million YouTube subscribers and 43.6 million followers on Instagram, her star power rivals that of other pop music divas.

Jeff Goldblum will voice the lead in ’They Shot The Piano Player’, about the birth of Bossa Nova

London-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has come on board to finance the new musical animation feature They Shot The Piano Player from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, Oscar nominees in 2012 for Chico & Rita.

Jeff Goldblum is attached to voice the lead character, a New York music journalist on a quest to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr.

The film tells the story of the emergence of Bossa Nova in Brazil, at...

Production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has come on board to finance musical animation film “They Shot the Piano Player,” directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, Oscar-nominated for their 2012 animation “Chico & Rita.”

Jeff Goldblum is attached to voice the lead character, a New York music journalist on a quest to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr.

Film Constellation describes the film as “a celebratory origin story” of the Bossa Nova movement that “captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the 60s and 70s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes.”

The pic features a who’s who of the best of Brazilian music, including João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes and Paulo Moura.

Trueba, whose credits include music films “Calle 54,” “Bebo Y Cigala” and “The Miracle of Candeal,...

Jeff Goldblum is attached to voice the lead in musical animation They Shot The Piano Player, the latest project from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, the directors of Oscar-nominated feature Chico & Rita.

UK outfit Film Constellation has come on board to finance the project, which is in pre-production.

Goldblum will voice a New York music journalist on a quest to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr.

An origin story of the world-renowned Latino musical movement Bossa Nova, the movie will capture a fleeting time of creative freedom in Latin American history in the 1960s and 70s, before parts of the continent were engulfed by oppressive regimes.

The film will include music from João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, and Paulo Moura.

Spanish director Trueba and illustrator Mariscal are re-teaming after their Oscar-nominated 2010 animation Chico & Rita, which chronicled a...

Anitta, currently Brazil’s biggest pop star and social-media personality, will be the subject of a Netflix original unscripted series set to debut globally in 2018.

“Vai Anitta” (“Go Anitta”) promises “unrestricted and uncensored” access to the 25-year-old international superstar, going behind the scenes at her shows in Brazil and traveling around the world, following her interactions with fans on social media, and providing a glimpse into her personal life. The series will be produced for Netflix by Shots Studios CEO and co-founder John Shahidi, who manages the Brazilian singer.

The singer-songwriter-digital-influencer has had three chart-topping albums released by Warner Music Brasil, with hit singles including “Downtown” — the first song by a Brazilian artist to be featured on the Spotify’s Top 20 — “Paradinha” and “Vai Malandra.” She’s worked with music figures from around the world including Major Lazer, Iggy Azalea, J Balvin, Alesso, Poo Bear, and Maluma. In 2016, Anitta sang...

It’s not hard to get a sense for the big movies at this year’s edition of the New York Film Festival. Ava Duvernay’s Netflix documentary “13th” will open the festival with much fanfare over its powerful message about America’s broken justice system. Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” has many anticipating its inventive storytelling technology, and “20th Century Women” is said to be a terrific showcase for Annette Bening. Add in a number of festival favorites, from “Moonlight” to “Manchester By the Sea,” and the current edition of Nyff looks like a terrific consolidation of 2016 cinematic highlights.

But these headline-grabbing titles aren’t the whole story. A tightly-curated program assembled by a handful of discerning cinephiles, the festival offers a number of lower-profile titles that are just as worthy of your attention. Here’s a look at 10 of them.

“Aquarius”

Like so many...

Brazilian singer Anitta never imagined she'd perform at the Summer Olympics in her hometown of Rio, but she did. The star joined singers Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the three performers even showed a bit of their best Samba moves. "I come from the ghetto. No one there probably imagined I'd get this far," she told Billboard. But the 23-year-old star beat the odds and gracefully performed at this year Olympic opening ceremony.  She's a rising pop star who is already making a name for herself in the United States. We went digging, and here are the five things that you need to know Anitta.  1. She Got Sexy With Maluma: Collaborations can be magical, like...

Let the games begin! Brazil's own Gisele Bündchen helped open the 2016 Summer Olympics with a bang, Friday, stunning as she strutted across the Macarana Stadium in the role of the famous "Girl from Ipanema." Bündchen showed off her infamous gams while she aided in showcasing Brazil's culture from her lengthy final catwalk while Daniel Jobim sang. During the starting moments of the show - which kicked off an hour before the U.S. broadcast on NBC - performers clad in silver and blue covered the Led floor of the arena as fireworks burst overhead. The elaborate dance routine played on the theme of "gambiarra,...

Alessandra Ambrosio has proclaimed herself as #foreveronvacation, and this week's schedule includes tons of birthday festivities. The supermodel turned 35 yesterday, and we've got all the deets on her fun-filled day. The night before her actual birth date, Alessandra's celebration was already underway as she attended a concert and got to meet two of her favorite Brazilian performers, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. The next day, Ambrosio started her day-long birthday party by enjoying a celebratory lunch with fiancé Jamie Mazur, with whom she has two children, at Los Angeles hot spot Tavern. Alessandra was dressed simply, accentuating her natural beauty in tight...

Y- Films, the youth films division of India’s leading movie studio Yash Raj Films, has joined hands with The Global Goals campaign to promote the cause of gender equality in India, as the United Nations launch the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Yrf will be creating an exclusive 4 part web series titled Man’s World for this cause in collaboration with Project Everyone, founded by British filmmaker Richard Curtis, the writer-director of iconic films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually. He is also the creator of Mr. Bean.

On 25th September at the Un, 193 world leaders will adopt the Global Goals, a series of 17 ambitious goals to end poverty, fight inequality & injustice and tackle climate change for everyone by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shall pledge the country’s commitment on September 25th at the Un General Assembly in New York.

The Global Goals campaign – with Project Everyone,...

Today, the Global Goals Campaign launches “We the People” – a crowdsourced film where everyone is invited to join the world’s biggest cast and star alongside some of the world’s biggest names. The film will be unveiled on the Google homepage when the Global Goals are adopted on the 25th September.

From India, A R Rahman, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan have already contributed and crowdsourced footage for We the People.

They will be joined by other artists and activists such as Alice Braga, Ananda Everingham, Anastacia, Ashton Kutcher, Avan Jogia, Becca, Bill and Melinda Gates, Cate Blanchett, Chelsea Islan, Christina Hendricks, Criolo, Daniel Craig, Diamond, Diego Luna, G.E.M., Gilberto Gil, James Chau, Jamie Oliver, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Winslet, Un Messenger of Peace Lang Lang, Liverpool Football Club captain Jordan Henderson and team mates, Lenine, Mia Maestro, Mafikizolo, Mads Mikkelsen, Mena Suvari, Undp Champion Michelle Yeoh,...

The Global Goals Campaign launches We the People - a crowdsourced film where everyone is invited to join the world's biggest cast and star alongside some of the world's biggest names. The film will be unveiled on the Google homepage when the Global Goals are adopted on the September 25. Joining the initiative from India, A R Rahman, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan have already contributed and crowdsourced footage for We the People.

They will be joined by other artists and activists such as Alice Braga, Ananda Everingham, Anastacia, Ashton Kutcher, Avan Jogia, Becca, Bill and Melinda Gates, Cate Blanchett, Chelsea Islan, Christina Hendricks, Criolo, Daniel Craig, Diamond, Diego Luna, G.E.M., Gilberto Gil, James Chau, Jamie Oliver, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Winslet, Un Messenger of Peace Lang Lang, Liverpool Football Club captain Jordan Henderson and team mates, Lenine, Mia Maestro, Mafikizolo, Mads Mikkelsen, Mena Suvari, Undp Champion Michelle Yeoh,...

While you might know more internationally famous names like Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa, the singularly named and singularly talented Dominguinhos may not be as familiar. But at SXSW, the documentary "Dominguinhos" hopes to rectify that situation, and today we have an exclusive clip. Directed by Joaquím Castro, Eduardo Nazarian, and Mariana Aydar, the film chronicles the life of the self-taught musician who grew up in an era when music on the radio was played live. It was in that environment where Dominguinhos cut his teeth seven nights per week, and quickly learned, adapted, and was inspired by a variety of styles. No musical language was foreign to him in his hands, and in this scene from the doc, you can get a taste of his extraordinary skill. "Dominguinhos," produced by Brazilan production company bigBonsai, will have its first screening at SXSW on Tuesday, March 17th at the Stateside Theatre.

The top-line on the big film news stories for Monday 19 August 2013 – plus a preview of what's coming up on the site

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Today's headlines

- Royal decree: Diana "gave permission" for Naomi Watts to play the princess in an upcoming biopic, according to the actor.

- Ant-Man rumour squashed: Simon Pegg says suggestion that he will star in Edgar Wright's superhero film is "ridiculous".

- Strange brew: Director/musician/kook David Lynch adds barista to his resume as his coffee blends go on sale.

- Star bored: Darth Vader actor Dave Prowse says the Star Wars prequels were from the dark side.

- Take the money and run? Rio mayor will pay Woody Allen 'whatever it takes' for the director to film in the city.

- Poor service: Two Reagan biographers have attacked The Butler's suggestion that the former president was racially insensitive.

- He got game...

Watch an eye-opening documentary about indigenous music's battle to survive in the modern world

Read our interview with Gilberto Gil

Welcome to the latest offering from the Guardian Screening Room: a fascinating film following Brazilian music legend Gilberto Gil, as he tours the planet to understand how indigenous cultures have preserved their musical culture.

To whet your appetites, here's an extract from Philip French's Observer review:

This leisurely Franco-Brazilian documentary takes the celebrated Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil, now in his 70s and a former minister of culture in the government of President Lula, on a tour of the southern hemisphere, talking and playing with fellow composers and performers in Brazil, South Africa and Australia. It's a heartwarming experience, a little reminiscent of Wim Wenders's Buena Vista Social Club, and the music is attractive and authentic.

And for a bit of context, here's Nicholas Wroe's interview with Gil last month...

Family films and franchise dependables are on the menu for school summer break, but Frances Ha saves the arthouse

The family film surge

When the opening weekend numbers came in for Monsters University, Disney UK might be forgiven a moment of panic: the £3.46m three-day tally was only the 12th biggest debut of 2013, and way behind the pace of recent Pixar hits. But with the long school summer holiday ahead of it, this was always going to be a marathon rather than a sprint, and opening in a heatwave clearly hadn't helped the initial number.

It's fair to speculate that the mood is more relaxed at Disney's Hammersmith, London HQ now that Monsters University has posted third-weekend takings of £3.11m, a highly encouraging 11% up on the second-frame haul of £2.79m. After 17 days of release, the animated prequel has grossed a solid £15.45m, with a nifty £6.82m achieved just in the last seven days.

Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video

This leisurely Franco-Brazilian documentary takes the celebrated Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil, now in his 70s and a former minister of culture in the government of President Lula, on a tour of the southern hemisphere, talking and playing with fellow composers and performers in Brazil, South Africa and Australia.

It's a heartwarming experience, a little reminiscent of Wim Wenders's Buena Vista Social Club, and the music is attractive and authentic. But one would like to have heard more about Gil's career and his courageous political activism.

DocumentaryPhilip French

theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...

Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video

This leisurely Franco-Brazilian documentary takes the celebrated Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil, now in his 70s and a former minister of culture in the government of President Lula, on a tour of the southern hemisphere, talking and playing with fellow composers and performers in Brazil, South Africa and Australia.

It's a heartwarming experience, a little reminiscent of Wim Wenders's Buena Vista Social Club, and the music is attractive and authentic. But one would like to have heard more about Gil's career and his courageous political activism.

DocumentaryPhilip French

theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...

Frances Ha | The Wolverine | Blackfish | Days Of Grace | Springsteen & I | Viramundo | Dial M For Murder | Best Of Luck | Bajatey Raho

Frances Ha (15)

(Noah Baumbach, 2012, Us) Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Esper. 86 mins

Gerwig does a winning line in klutzy/ditzy in what's essentially a tailor-made showcase for her natural comic talents. An aspiring dancer whose sense of fun is starting to look a lot like immaturity, Frances is having trouble negotiating that tricky stage between studenthood and adulthood. A very minor crisis, admittedly, but this is more about character and tone, and Gerwig's New York misadventures are rendered with a casual verve that brings to mind the French New Wave or Manhattan-era Woody Allen.

The Wolverine (12A)

(James Mangold, 2013, Us) Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima. 126 mins

The X-badass rips into Japan in this solo adventure, but while Jackman's as mean and buff as ever, the story feels a little long in the claw,...

Brazilian music's elder statesman Gilberto Gil meets indigenous peoples around the world, to gather and dispense wisdom

Gilberto Gil is the 71-year-old Brazilian musician, activist and social campaigner who was for five years minister of culture in the government of the much-admired former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This film by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud follows Gil in his post-political career, a world-music giant with an almost Mandela-like aura. Here, he visits indigenous communities in Australia, South Africa and the Amazon, talks with them, plays music with them, and discusses the experience of being colonised. A theme recurs: his interviewees often talk about being balanced, sometimes precariously, between two worlds. They have absorbed something of the west into their music, and feel conflicted about it. It is, after all, the colonists' way to refuse to recognise their subjects' differentness, and to behave as if they are just lower-caste versions of themselves...

Marcelo Machado's affectionate documentary about a Brazilian protest movement features Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes

The explicitly politicised, late-1960s countercultural Brazilian protest movement gets an airing through this affectionate, if somewhat genuflecting documentary.

It's fascinating to watch Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes transform from clean-cut teenybop idols to full-on hippies in a few short months; director Marcelo Machado deploys copious TV footage to impressive effect. His film, however, is short on context and information, not to mention the aftermath: this might have helped it be a bit clearer.

Rating: 3/5

DocumentaryOs MutantesAndrew Pulver

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★★★★☆ Championed by the likes of Talking Head David Byrne, Beck and eccentric Welsh songsmith Gruff Rhys, the popularity of this influential wave of Brazilian music has been gaining momentum for a number of years. Interest has now been deemed sufficient enough to warrant the UK theatrical release of Marcelo Machado's insightful and engaging documentary, Tropicália (2012) (City of God director Fernando Meirelles is credited as one of its executive producers). A counterculture movement during the late 1960s, Tropicália was fuelled by the authoritarian regime imposed in Brazil at that time.

The movement produced a talented array of musicians who fused elements of the older established sounds of bossa nova and samba with Us West Coast psychedelic music and the jangly pop sounds of The Beatles. Using a similar approach to the recent Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane (2012), Tropicália is a patchwork of archive footage, stills and lo-fi collages, stitched together...

Rio de Janeiro, Dec 27 (Ians/Efe) American pop star Stevie Wonder and Brazilian singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil filled Copacabana Beach with music during a seaside concert that attracted some 400,000 people, police said.

Christmas Eve on one of Rio de Janeiro's most famous beaches rocked to the soul and pop rhythms of Stevie Wonder, who appeared with a band of 11 musicians and opened with "What a Wonderful World This Would Be".

The charismatic musician spoke in Portuguese to an audience he won from the start, and which he fully entranced with a version of "Garota de Ipanema" (The Girl from Ipanema), the classic bossa nova number.

The nominees for the 2012 Latin Grammy awards are in, and Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra tops the list with six nods.

Guerra scored two of the 10 "Best Song" nominations for his "Azul Sabina" and "En El Cielo No Hay Hospital." The Dominican singer’s unique blend of merengue, bolero, bachata and rock has already earned him 12 Latin Grammys.

The list of nominees released Tuesday by the Latin Recording Academy includes both established musical titans such as Cuban jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, and relative newcomers, including Afro-Colombian hip hop group Choc Quib Town.

Brazil's Caetano Veloso, who first came to prominence in the 1960s playing a samba-infused style of rock known as Tropicalia, is up for four awards. Caetano will also be honored as the "2012 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year."

The Latin Grammys are scheduled for Nov. 15 in Las Vegas and will be televised by Univision.

Check out the...

Seen at the 8th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (Jimff). Ah nostalgia, what a curious beast it is. This documentary whisked me back to my college days when I was an avid music collector with a rather eclectic set of tastes. One of my favorite discoveries was Brazilian music from the late 1960s and early 70s, particularly the genre known as Tropicalia. All my favorite artists of that period, including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and Tom Ze, feature prominently in this new documentary, which explores their revolutionary music and the impact it had on contemporaneous Brazilian society.  Making a music documentary is no simple task. In one sense as a music documentarian you are very fortunate to have an array...

Shakira will be the 2011 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year, announced today by The Latin Recording Academy. She will be honored for her ‘renowned artistic and philanthropic contributions’ at a tribute dinner and star-studded concert on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, where some of her songs will be performed by notable artists and friends of the honoree.

"We are honored to pay homage to this dynamic, socially conscious woman whose illustrious career has touched so many people around the world, both musically and personally," said Gabriel Abaroa Jr., President/CEO of The Latin Recording Academy.

Shakira will have the distinction of becoming the youngest artist, at 34, to receive the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year honoree. She joins a list of artists that includes Placido Domingo, Carlos Santana Gloria Estefan, Gilberto Gil, Julio Iglesias, and Ricky Martin, according to The Latin Recording Academy.

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September 2 marks the beginning of the four-day Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado. Now in its 38th year, the festival had enjoyed a long tradition of enlisting filmmakers and other artists as a Guest Director, who programs screenings of films personally important to them. This year, Brazilian music icon Caetano Veloso joins the festival directors as Telluride’s Guest Director, assembling a slate of six films to be shown along with the rest of Telluride’s programming. Festival co-founder...

Larry Luxner Susana Baca at the City Winery in New York City.

It’s not every day musicians play the molars of a donkey’s jawbone, but there was Susana Baca recently, singing her first leg of a U.S. tour with that very same Peruvian percussion instrument rattling behind her.

And there’s something else unusual about the folkloric performer: In late July, she was named Peru’s next minister of culture — the first cabinet minister of African descent...

Besouro was a Shadow And Act Film Find feature in 2009, with a trailer that thrilled just about everyone who saw it – or at least, peaked interest. So, we’ve been on this one for awhile now, and you’ve had a few opportunities to watch it over the last 2 years, notably when I posted the full film on this blog back in February of last year. I think it was up and available for a week or so.

And if you didn’t see it when I posted it, and you live in (or will be in) New York City next month (April), you’ll have 3 more opportunities to catch Besouro in a theater, on a large screen, as it was meant to be seen.

Specifically, first, on April 7th and 9th, at the New York African Film Festival at Lincoln Center; and then again on April 17th at the Museum Of The Moving Image,...