Let Your Braids Down, Rapunzel

Telma and Luísa have decided to make a videodance, and in Matheus da Rocha Pereira's playful Brazilian short, the making of it becomes the story. As the two friends plan, rehearse, and film their piece, the fairy tale of the title hovers over the project like an in-joke, a story about a girl locked away and the hair that lets the world in. Da Rocha Pereira stages the film with a wink at gender and performance: the roles of Telma and Luísa are shared across performers, with Eduardo Gomes and Arthur Tardioli appearing alongside Lia Lordelo, so that the characters themselves seem to let their braids down over the course of fifteen minutes. A Portuguese-language comedy of art-making, friendship, and self-invention from Brazil's independent queer short-film scene.