ALZIRA'S STORY

ALZIRA DE JESUS RODRIGUES
1913-2007

"ONE OF THE TOP 10 BEST UNSEEN FILMS OF 2000!"

          -Film Threat

 

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ALZIRA'S STORY

From Northern Portugal to Northern Rhode Island...

a film by her grandson, Christian de Rezendes



© 2000 *breaking branches pictures
  • Color *
  • In English and Portuguese with English Subtitles **
  • Running Time:57/ 63 minutes
  • Recorded on Hi-8 and Sony Digital Handycam

    * Edited on the Avid Media Composer
    ** Mastered in Betacam SP &
    S-VHS

AWARDS !

WINNER!

WORLDFEST-HOUSTON
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL-
Silver Award


THE VIDEOGRAPHER AWARDS-
Award of Distinction

SEATTLE SUMMER FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL -
Documentary Finalist

RURAL POVERTY FILM FESTIVAL
Documentary Finalist


OFFICIAL SELECTION!

VIDEOLISBOA INTERNATIONAL VIDEO FESTIVAL -
Lisbon, Portugal

AMASCULTURA INTERNATIONAL
DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL -
Odivelas, Portugal

BARE BONES INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL -
Muskogee, OK

THE LIGHT + SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL -
New York, NY

THE RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL -
Providence, RI

THE PORTOBELLO FILM & VIDEO
FESTIVAL -
London, England

NEW HAMPSHIRE FILM EXPO-
Derry, NH

FIKE INTERNATIONAL FILM
FESTIVAL -
Evora, Portugal
Click here to Own Your Copy of Alzira's Story Today!

or e-mail: Christian de Rezendes at: BreakingBranches@nyc.rr.com

 

By 1929, Alzira de Jesus Soares had survived the conditions of her impoverished village in the north of Portugal, a place called Bouçoais - where her father and two younger siblings had died from influenza and starvation. Only months earlier. she had been granted the most unique of opportunities for those in her native homeland: a better life in America. She was to leave behind her mother, stepfather, and two new younger siblings. Speaking no English, Alzira boarded the steamship that would sail to Southern New England at he start of the Great Depression. She was 16.

By 1999, Alzira sat quietly in her northern Rhode Island home. Having sponsored 24 family members from her village of Bouçoais to a new life in America, her lifelong actions had needed no words...

Except her own.