Dr. Gama

The film tells the life of Luiz Gama, one of the most important figures in Brazilian history. Although he was born free, at the age of ten he was sold into slavery to cover his father’s gambling debts; while enslaved he learned to read, studied on his own and in the end obtained his own freedom. He then turned to the law and, using the courts, ended the enslavement of more than five hundred people, becoming one of the most respected lawyers of his time. The account shows him not as a saviour but as a man who turned the law itself against those who made it. In Jeferson De’s ninety two minute Brazilian film, César Mello plays Gama, with Mariana Nunes and Isabél Zuaa in the cast. It was completed in 2021.