Zuzu Angel

Directed by Sergio Rezende, this Brazilian film recounts fashion designer Zuzu Angel's fight for justice for her son. Zuzu began as a seamstress in the 1950s, opened a boutique in Ipanema, and built an international reputation on American runways with work rooted in Bahian culture and vivid Brazilian color. Her son Stuart was an economics student who had joined an urban guerrilla group fighting the military dictatorship. Arrested in June 1971 and taken to an air base, he was killed during interrogation, tied to a vehicle and dragged around a courtyard with his mouth forced against the exhaust pipe so he would breathe the fumes. He was twenty five and his body was never found. Zuzu's campaign began there: she reached US Senator Ted Kennedy, who raised the case on the Senate floor, and delivered testimony and documents to the Secretary of State. Her most striking move was turning her profession into protest, staging a show in New York that the press called the first political fashion show, abandoning bright colors and tropical birds for military silhouettes, caged birds and cannon shells firing on angels. Zuzu died in a car crash in 1976, suspicion of government involvement never lifted, and in 1998 the state formally acknowledged its responsibility for her death. Who it's for: Viewers drawn to Latin American dictatorship era drama and true stories of resistance. Who it's not for: Not for anyone unprepared for scenes depicting torture and state violence directly.