Babenco: Tell Me When I Die

Barbara Paz's documentary covers the last years of the director Hector Babenco. His cancer treatment has run out; he asks his wife, herself a filmmaker, to record his death, and the film is built on that request. The form is constructed alongside the subject. It was shot in black and white, the editing is fragmentary and scenes from Babenco's own films are folded into new footage; when any given image was shot is often unclear. Paz is present as both wife and director, and that double position is the real tension. The difference between recording a death and accompanying it is openly argued. Who it's for: those who like Brazilian cinema and formally bold documentary. Who it's not for: viewers uncomfortable with images of the process of dying; the film shows it directly.