Brazilian actors Alice Braga (“Queen of the South“) and Bianca Comparato (“3%”) have joined forces to launch South, a new production label based out of Los Angeles, New York and São Paulo. The company was established with financial support from FLAGCX, the largest independent creative services holding company in Latin America.
South will debut its first feature project, Gabriela Amaral Almeida’s body-horror story “She, Crocodile,” at this year’s 12th edition of the San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, which will take place from Sept. 25 -27.
Described by the producers as a “horror fable,” “She, Crocodile” is the story of a young woman, the sole heiress to a luxury real estate brokerage in Rio de Janeiro, who slowly transforms into one of the titular reptiles. As a project, it received backing from the MacDowell Institute Residency program where Amaral wrote a full-50 page treatment.
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According to Amaral, a rising genre filmmaker behind fan and festival favorites such as the Fantasia Cheval Noir winner “The Father’s Shadow” and six-time Cinema Brazil Grand Prize nominee “Friendly Beast”: “‘She, Crocodile’ arose from my need to portray violence from the perspective of capitalism and women’s issues. The film is my declaration of love for body horror, David Cronenberg and Douglas Sirk. Blood, guts and heart.”
Vitrine Filmes will distribute “She, Crocodile” in Brazil.
In addition to backing the film through their new label, Amaral and Braga will serve as executive producers. Comparato will also star in the feature and produce alongside Yana Chang (“The Cambridge Squatter”).
Speaking with PvNew, Comparato explained, “This movie is a journey of empowerment through body horror and the perfect piece to promote a singular voice from the global south, that is Gabriela Amaral Almeida.”
Speaking more broadly about the goals of the South team, the multi-hyphenate said, “Entertainment can, through the lens of metaphor and allegory, help audiences. We can possibly make some kind of sense of issues that we all have a stake in.”
In addition to Amaral’s feature, South is working on a short film from Luiz Bolognesi (“Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury”), Renata Tupinambá (“Historias (Im)possíveis”) and Graciela Guarani (“My Blood is Red”) that will shoot in the Amazon next month; a new feature from “The Buriti Flower” and “The Dead and the Others” filmmakers Renee Messora and João Salaviza; a docuseries in co-production with Brazilian giant Gullane Entertainment and an action-thriller from Gandja Monteiro, who directed two episodes of Netflix’s “Wednesday.”
South also holds the film rights to several Brazilian books it plans to adapt, including “Diorama” from Carol Bensimon, “The Sound of the Jaguar’s Roar” by Micheliny Verunschk, “Palimpsesto” by Elvira Vigna and “Gótico Nordestino” by Christiano Aguiar.
The label is also currently in development on two first features from upcoming directors Thatiana Almeida and Thales Banzai.
“We invest in a range of content that resonates with audiences and critics. Combining talents, expertise, cutting-edge technology, and entrepreneurial vision, we aim to exceed market expectations while maintaining the flexibility and creativity needed for our productions,” said Comparato and Braga.
“Storytelling is one of the most powerful weapons of our time, and we became passionate about Comparato’s and Braga’s vision to use this as a tool to inspire change,” said Martini, R. CEO of FLAGCX and a partner at South.
South is repped by WME in the U.S.
