A feminist homage; a visual record of female friendship; a political collage. Fernanda Pessoa and Adriana Barbosa’s documentary is all this and more. Based in São Paulo and Los Angeles, the two film-makers are separated by geographical distance and 2020 Covid restrictions, circumstances that trigger a chain of audiovisual correspondence in lieu of texts and emails.
Explicitly inspired by the works of feminist film-makers such as Carolee Schneemann and Cheryl Dunye, Swing and Sway tries to create a cinematic haven from the rise of rightwing politics.
In these kaleidoscopic postcards, images of Trump supporters holding up placards melt into huge billboards in Brazil commissioned by Jair Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal party. Alongside the tightening grip of conservative ideologies there is the healing elixir of family and female camaraderie. Sandwiched between footage of Black Lives Matter and anti-Bolsonaro protests are lively Zoom sessions between friends; here, the revolution takes root on a collective and a personal level.
The danger of paying tribute to pioneers, however, is that the end result will inevitably come up short by comparison. Pessoa and Barbosa reference the style of Schneemann’s 1960s and 1970s audiovisual output, photographing themselves naked and placing their bodies in confining domestic interiors.
These static compositions, however, feel like a diluted version of the original work: Schneemann’s Meat Joy offers nudity that is more than mere naked flesh; it serves to provoke and even repulse. These occasional shortcomings notwithstanding, Pessoa and Barbosa’s earnestness shines through. Swing and Sway may be a visually and politically derivative work, but it also serves as a beguiling pandemic time capsule.
• Swing and Sway is available from 8 September on True Story.
