In this program of adaptations of classic and ancient texts, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, and the oral tradition of Puerto Rico’s indigenous Taíno people are subjected to the whims and perversions of Gabriel Abrantes, Alexander Carver, and Daniel Schmidt.

Travel support provided by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

The Island Is Enchanted with You / La Isla está Encantada con Ustedes
Daniel Schmidt & Alexander Carver, USA/Switzerland/Australia/Puerto Rico, 2014, digital projection, 35m
Spanish with English subtitles
This enigmatic series of tableaux, exploring colonial legacies, the massacre of Puerto Rico’s indigenous Taíno people, and the insatiability of the libido, among other subjects, is a sensual and cerebral feast, rapturously interweaving elements of softcore, period films, music videos, and computer animation.

Ὄρνιθες / Zwazo
Gabriel Abrantes, Haiti/Portugal, 2012, DCP, 17m
Portuguese, Attic Greek, and Haitian Creole with English subtitles
An upstart theater director named Gabriel Abrantes attempts to stage a faithful production of Aristophanes’s The Birds in Haiti, only for the locals to lose their patience with his rather excessive approach…

Fratelli
Gabriel Abrantes & Alexandre Melo, Portugal, 2011, DCP, 27m
Portuguese with English subtitles
Gabriel Abrantes and Alexander Melo deconstruct the first section of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew as a playful, vibrant ode to bacchanalia, classicism, and homoeroticism.