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Balomania film image; people assemble hot air balloon

Balomania

Insights

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North American Premiere

In the labyrinthine underworld of São Paulo, hidden away from the violence of drug trafficking and gang wars, there lies a secret society of baloeiros: giant hot air balloonists. Since the centuries-old folk art of crafting and releasing paper balloons was outlawed by the Brazilian government in the 1990s, gangs of dedicated artists meet in clandestine workshops to design the most extravagant balloons while looking over their shoulders for police, or worse, informants. The balloons are truly breathtaking in their sheer scale: up to 70 metres tall, carrying banners the size of football fields, payloads of 10,000 fireworks, or scaffolds of candlelit lanterns designed into gigantic portraits of pop culture figures illuminated against the night sky.

Filmmaker Sissell Morell Dargis arrived in Brazil from Denmark when she was 19 and spent over a decade earning the trust and documenting the story of these baloeiros who risk their lives for their art. She’s crafted a thrilling, insightful chronicle of artistic ambitions as beautiful, strange, and ephemeral as the balloons themselves.

 

Sept 27 & 29: Q&A with director Sissel Morell Dargis

 

Media Partner

Director
Featuring

Sissel Morell Dargis, Jabá Ricardo Mariano, Ton Everton Soares

Credits
Country of Origin

Denmark/Spain

Year

2024

Language

In Portuguese with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
93 min
Action & Suspense Art, Music & Photography Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice Q&As at VIFF Women Directors
House of Real, Polar Star Films

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Max Peltz, Marieke van den Bersselaar

Producer

Jesper Jack, Carles Brugueras, Marieke van den Bersselaar, Marie Schmidt Olesen

Cinematography

Sissel Morell Dargis

Editor

Biel Andrés, Isabel Monteiro de Castro, Rikke Selin Als, Steen Johannessen

Original Music

Aquiles Ghirelli, Novissimo Edgar

Sissel Morell Dargis headshot; Balomania director

Sissel Morell Dargis

Sissel Morell Dargis is a Danish filmmaker, graffiti painter, and game director born to Lithuanian and Spanish parents in Copenhagen. Sissel has lived in several Latin American countries, most notably Brazil where she studied multimedia and communication. She started a social project for youth in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro using art and cross-media tools for social advocacy. After studying documentary filmmaking at EICTV in Cuba, she graduated in 2018 with her acclaimed short film Plástico, winning the Opening Scenes Award at Visions du Réel. Sissel graduated as a game and animation director from The National Film School of Denmark with her indie game Cai Cai Balão, also set in Brazil’s secret world of hot air balloon makers. It was nominated at IGF 2022, exhibited at the Smithsonian Art Museum, and awarded at Games of Change. A new mobile version of the game is currently under development. Balomania is Sissel’s debut in the long format.

 

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