Acting
May 22, 1939
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Helena Ignez
Acting
Biography
Helena Ignez (Salvador, May 23, 1939) is a Brazilian actress and filmmaker. Helena was born in Salvador, Bahia and was attending her second year of law school when she fell in love with theater and decided to study the Dramatic Arts at the Federal University of Bahia. At the time, the Bahian theater scene was breaking with traditional Brazilian theater and experiencing strong influence from the young vanguard. She first appeared on the screen in Glauber Rocha's short film "Pátio". Helena acted in a few films associated with the Cinema Novo movement, such as "A Grande Feira" (1961), "Assalto ao Trem Pagador" (1962), and "O Padre e a Moça" (1966) before playing Janete Jane in O Bandido da Luz Vermelha by Rogério Sganzerla. After this film, she would perform in some most significant films in the Cinema Marginal movement, which directly opposed the critically acclaimed Cinema Novo -- the most remarkable being her role as Ângela Carne e "Osso in A Mulher de Todos" (1969). She also was a financial partner of Rogério Sganzerla and fellow Cinema Marginal filmmaker Júlio Bressane in the short-lived, although prolific, Belair production company. Between 1968 and 1970, Sganzerla and Ignez made almost a dozen films together and were also married and had two children -- one of which would become actress Djin Sganzerla. As a filmmaker, Ignez has directed 7 films, the most notable being "Luz das Trevas" (2010), a sequel to Sganzerla's debut feature "O Bandido da Luz Vermelha" (1968).
Feature Films (119)
A film about love, also a memoir, about the trip made in the 1970s to Morocco by Jarda Ícone, an artist, sexologist, and octogenarian rocker, as she defines herself, and Lírio Terron, a human rights activist. In fact, a journey that is not over in their lives. Jarda Icon teaches classes on how women can obtain their own orgasm. With her group of disciples and friends Ana Brasil, Sheyla Fernanda, Caroline Sylvie and Lakshmi she develops self-sustainable feminist and artistic projects. The film is political, but not at all politicized in the traditional sense. It is an ode to the underground and counterculture movements, it is a hymn to freedom, and its title is also a tribute to Oswald d Andrade, one of the main names in Brazilian modernism.
Joy Is the Acid Test
An authentically marginal cinema created in Catholic university in Brazil. One of the most intriguing and imaginative moments in modern cinema in the voice of some of its select conspirators—with Carlos Reichenbach at the lead—, and through the most razing flow of images that can possibly be conceived.
The Good Cinema
Released from the Mental Health Wing of São Paulo State Penitentiary after forty years, the sadistic undertaker Zé do Caixão is back on the streets, haunted by ghostly visions and spirits of past victims but still set upon the goal that sent him to prison in the first place: finding a woman who can give him the perfect child.
Embodiment of Evil
"Portraits and excerpts from Brazilian films from all times. Actors, directors and images that affirm cinema."
Celebração - 100 Anos do Cinema Nacional
Television & Series (4)
The miniseries is an adaptation of the novel Tereza Batista Cansada de Guerra, by Jorge Amado. Born in the city of Cajazeiras, Tereza Batista, still a child, is sold by her aunt Felipa to the feared captain Justo. Collector of girls, the captain finds in Tereza someone who is not intimidated, even when she is mistreated. In her warehouse, she meets the student Daniel with whom she falls in love and surrenders. Caught in the act, Tereza kills the captain and is arrested. She achieves her freedom thanks to the intervention of lawyer Lulu dos Santos and begins to be courted by Colonel Emiliano. At this stage, she knows tranquility and security. But the colonel dies and she has to go to the house of Veneranda, the local pimp. All this misfortune happens while Tereza waits for the time to realize her big dream: to live alongside the fisherman Jereba, who disappeared from her life. Close to marrying Almério, a good man and settled in life, she meets Jereba, her true love.
Tereza Batista
Diana is a successful model who deals with competition and the envy of Débora, both at work and in the heart of photographer André. However, she begins to have spiritual dreams where she is transported to 1830s Paris and falls in love with Pierre, who looks exactly like André and is the great love of Marlene's life. Caught between two loves and two rivals, Diana must uncover the reason for it all.
Era Preciso Voltar
The series follows Secos & Molhados, the rock band that shaped music and concepts in Brazil. In exactly twelve months, the group broke all records — selling over 1 million records of their debut album and playing to 25,000 people at Maracanãzinho Stadium. With painted faces and sinuous dance moves, they brought gender issues, androgyny, and the poetry of authors like Manuel Bandeira and Vinicius de Moraes into the country's homes.
