**FREE** Q&Awards: APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS

When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin? In Apocalypse in the Tropics, director Petra Costa takes us on a decade-long journey through the spiritual and political upheaval of Brazil. What begins as a search for signs of life in a fragile democracy transforms into a deeper inquiry into the seductions of power, prophecy and belief. Costa gains extraordinary access to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former President Jair Bolsonaro and the nation’s magnetic televangelist Silas Malafaia. More than a chronicle of political change, Apocalypse in the Tropics is a cinematic investigation of the fault lines that emerge when religion fuels political ambition. With the savage clarity that defined her Academy Award–nominated The Edge of Democracy, Costa documents a time of kaleidoscopic confusion and fear with intimate observational filmmaking that braids together the personal, the historic and the mythic. As faith shifts from private refuge to public battleground, Brazil holds a mirror to a world where democracies are being tested by the power of prophecy. (Synopsis by Netflix)

Petra Costa - For over a decade, Petra Costa has been telling stories at the intersection of the personal and the political, with a strong focus on the themes of trauma and representation. Her documentary The Edge of Democracy, was nominated for an Academy Award, and the New York Times named it as one of the best films of 2019. It was nominated for several awards and won the Peabody Award, the Spirit Awards and Best Director at DOC NYC.

Petra started her training in theater in Brazil at the age of 14 and later attended the Dramatic Arts School at the University of São Paulo. She completed her undergraduate studies summa cum laude in Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, and completed her master's degree in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics, focusing her studies on the notion of trauma.

Her first feature film, Elena, executive produced by Tim Robbins and Fernando Meirelles, and the most-watched documentary in Brazil in 2013, is a mix of documentary and feverish dream. Indiewire described it as a "masterful debut that takes nonfiction where it seldom wants to go — away from the comforting embrace of fact and into a realm of expressionistic possibility." Elena premiered at IDFA and won several awards, including Best Film at the Havana Film Festival (2013), Best Film at DOCSDF, and was nominated for Best Photography at Cinema Eye Honors 2014.

In 2015, Petra and Lea Glob co-directed Olmo and the Seagull, which won the Young Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival. She produced Ecstasy (2020) by Moara Passoni, was the associate producer of Babenco (2019) and executive producer of Beba (2021). In 2022, Petra won the Chicken & Egg Award.

David Barker, ACE, studied philosophy and anthropology before turning to film where he works in both documentary and fiction as an editor and writer. He was a co-writer and editor of Petra Costa’s Apocalypse in the Tropics as well as her Academy-nominated The Edge of Democracy and editorial consultant of the Academy Award-winning documentary Navalny.  Fiction credits as editor include Josephine Decker’s Sundance prize-winning Shirley, as well as her films Madeline’s Madeline, and forthcoming Sundance premiere Chasing Summer. Other recent editing credits include: Birds of Paradise, Reclaim the Flag and The Reagan Show.