Weston Library Film Club Special Evening Presentation: I'm Still Here

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I’M STILL HERE 2024 138 minutes Rio de Janeriero 1970. Eunice Pavia lives a comfortable life. She has a fine house with easy access to Rio’s legendary beaches. Her five children are thriving. Her husband Reubens has a good job with an engineering firm. But during this time Brazil was ruled by a military junta, and upper-middle-class families like the Pavias had to be careful. When Eunice and Reubens’ eldest daughter Vera has a testy encounter with a police checkpoint, they send her to live with friends departing for London. Husband Reubens, who was a congressman before the 1964 coup, quietly assists the nonviolent opposition. Reubens sees no reason why the family should leave the country, positive their situation can be managed. But when a Swiss diplomat is kidnapped by another faction, stirring up a crisis, the junta cracks down. Plainclothes officers turn up at their door, requiring Eunice, Reubens and their second oldest daughter Eliana come with them to “answer some questions.” With sacks placed over their heads, they are taken to a detention center and separated. Eunice would be held for twelve days under harsh conditions. When she is finally returned home, exhausted and filthy, she is greatly relieved to learn that Eliana was released days earlier. Reubens, however, is unaccounted for, with the government denying that he was ever in custody. Over the weeks, months, and years to follow, Eunice would fight to look after her family and learn the truth about her husband’s disappearance—displaying a fierce resilience as she became a leading social activist. BE ADVISED- This film is Rated PG-13, with smoking, drinking, dementia, and all that transpires under a military dictatorship: disinformation, arbitrary search abduction, arduous interrogation, and disappearance. In Brazilian Portuguese with Subtitles.