Negros Laços

Overview

In Negros Laços, an ancestral narrator revisits her memories to bring to light the trajectories of three Black families who lived in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, between the 19th and 20th centuries. Combining the accounts of their descendants with deep historical research, the film exposes the struggles for freedom, dignity, and belonging, while confronting the celebration of slaveholders in that city against the erasure of Black histories. It ultimately reveals the black ties that forged different ways of existing in the Black Atlantic. The film follows the trajectories of José and Innocência, Anna and Mathilde, bringing forth their names, their faces, their legacies, their ancestral roots, and their descendants.