Statement

“Miúcha, the voice of bossa nova” tells the story of Brazilian singer and composer Miúcha. The film is directed by Liliane Mutti, a filmmaker and scholar, who authored a post-graduation thesis on Miúcha as a feminist figure and co-directed by Miucha`s own cousin, Daniel Zarvos, also Liliane Mutti`s husband. It was Mutti’s vision to tell Miúcha’s story in a way that highlights her personal struggles, that inspired our collaboration in this project.

The film spans twenty years, starting in 1960’s Paris and ending in an early 1980’s Rio de Janeiro. With Miúcha’s own narration and readings from her personal letters and diaries, we are taken on a journey of the many social and political changes of this period, through the lens of her experiences as a woman and her struggles to become a singer/composer. From her turbulent marriage with the creator of Bossa Nova, João Gilberto to her musical partnership and friendships with some of the most important musicians of her generation, including her brother Chico Buarque, Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, we have a front row seat to the expansion of the Bossa Nova movement and the difficulties of joining such an established boy’s club.

With a lot of Bossa Nova music and conducted through her personal archives: letters, stories, photographs, 16mm films, watercolors, and audio home recordings, we are privileged to a very intimate tale of one of the most important female figures of the Bossa Nova movement, who, until now has stayed in relative obscurity.