November 14, 2023
FILM: NEIRUD
DIRECTED BY: FERNANDA FAYA
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Ah! The mysterious sides of families! This should be a genre representing so many documentaries today. Thanks to home video footage we’re often able to uncover elements of our families that we might have never really been aware of. There’s something spectacular and intimate about what our recorded imagery can tell us about the people we’ve known throughout our lives. This is partly what filmmaker Fernanda Faya does in her new film, Neirud. It is a loving tribute and slow reveal of the woman she called her aunt… who also happened to be a famous Brazilian wrestler AND her grandmother’s partner.
Faya had known Neirud for most of her life. When her grandmother Nely died, Faya attempted to record an interview with her aunt but never got a chance to finish it due to Neirud’s passing. Faya wanted to learn more about her. How did she and her grandmother meet? Faya had always heard that the two of them were part of a circus company they owned but never knew the full circumstances behind the development of their relationship.
Like a detective trying to find answers, Faya sifts through the few remaining photos of Neirud. She shows us some of those stills along with a few home movies that feature Neirud, her grandmother, and a small assortment of other friends and family. What becomes particularly interesting are the details Faya discovers about her aunt’s career as a circus wrestler. Apparently Neirud wrestled both men and women which, at the time in the 1960s, was illegal in Brazil. Neirud was known as “Gorilla Woman” – a perhaps politically incorrect stage name today. Yet, she thrived in the circus until she and Nely ran from it and focused on their own private life together.
These are just some of the many fascinating revelations Faya makes throughout the sleuthing she does for this film. Because so little footage remains, Faya relies on those photos, home movies, and some stock Brazil footage to tell her story. There are also phone conversations with Faya’s father and a friend of Neirud’s which is pretty revealing. These scenes are essentially empty black on screen images with the recorded discussions taking front and center. Even though there’s a lot we can’t see, the details that are passed on are pretty fascinating to hear. Viewers learn a lot about the state of homosexual relationships in the mid to latter parts of the 20th Century in Brazil. Frankly, the circus details are also quite interesting. Fortunately, Faya gives us a climax where we get to see Neirud in the ring showing her physical power and brutality. She was, as one interviewee comments, “a sacred monster of the ring.”
Faya is offering to us intimate details about her grandmother and Neirud. It’s fascinating to see their relationship in a time and place when it would not have been as accepted to publicly declare what they meant to each other. But this is also a portrait of the loving nature of Faya’s family who so warmly included Neirud as part of their unit. The film tells us a lot about the era in which the couple lived but also about the strange world of Brazilian circuses and female wrestling. The footage Faya is able to uncover and provide is priceless and revealing. The film is a great way for us to see a sliver of a world most of us likely know so little about.
Neirud is having its international premiere at DOC NYC. It is available to be screened virtually via the festival’s site until November 26th. For tickets, go to https://www.docnyc.net/film/neirud/
FILM: NEIRUD
DIRECTED BY: FERNANDA FAYA
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Ah! The mysterious sides of families! This should be a genre representing so many documentaries today. Thanks to home video footage we’re often able to uncover elements of our families that we might have never really been aware of. There’s something spectacular and intimate about what our recorded imagery can tell us about the people we’ve known throughout our lives. This is partly what filmmaker Fernanda Faya does in her new film, Neirud. It is a loving tribute and slow reveal of the woman she called her aunt… who also happened to be a famous Brazilian wrestler AND her grandmother’s partner.
Faya had known Neirud for most of her life. When her grandmother Nely died, Faya attempted to record an interview with her aunt but never got a chance to finish it due to Neirud’s passing. Faya wanted to learn more about her. How did she and her grandmother meet? Faya had always heard that the two of them were part of a circus company they owned but never knew the full circumstances behind the development of their relationship.
Like a detective trying to find answers, Faya sifts through the few remaining photos of Neirud. She shows us some of those stills along with a few home movies that feature Neirud, her grandmother, and a small assortment of other friends and family. What becomes particularly interesting are the details Faya discovers about her aunt’s career as a circus wrestler. Apparently Neirud wrestled both men and women which, at the time in the 1960s, was illegal in Brazil. Neirud was known as “Gorilla Woman” – a perhaps politically incorrect stage name today. Yet, she thrived in the circus until she and Nely ran from it and focused on their own private life together.
These are just some of the many fascinating revelations Faya makes throughout the sleuthing she does for this film. Because so little footage remains, Faya relies on those photos, home movies, and some stock Brazil footage to tell her story. There are also phone conversations with Faya’s father and a friend of Neirud’s which is pretty revealing. These scenes are essentially empty black on screen images with the recorded discussions taking front and center. Even though there’s a lot we can’t see, the details that are passed on are pretty fascinating to hear. Viewers learn a lot about the state of homosexual relationships in the mid to latter parts of the 20th Century in Brazil. Frankly, the circus details are also quite interesting. Fortunately, Faya gives us a climax where we get to see Neirud in the ring showing her physical power and brutality. She was, as one interviewee comments, “a sacred monster of the ring.”
Faya is offering to us intimate details about her grandmother and Neirud. It’s fascinating to see their relationship in a time and place when it would not have been as accepted to publicly declare what they meant to each other. But this is also a portrait of the loving nature of Faya’s family who so warmly included Neirud as part of their unit. The film tells us a lot about the era in which the couple lived but also about the strange world of Brazilian circuses and female wrestling. The footage Faya is able to uncover and provide is priceless and revealing. The film is a great way for us to see a sliver of a world most of us likely know so little about.
Neirud is having its international premiere at DOC NYC. It is available to be screened virtually via the festival’s site until November 26th. For tickets, go to https://www.docnyc.net/film/neirud/