Événement

Ape Girl (documentary) Exclusive Industry Premiere

APE GIRL
(Brazilian title: Monga)
Exclusive industry premiere - first showing ever!
A documentary by Cris Siqueira

Sideshow troupes travel Brazil and the United States with a spooky attraction that turns a woman into a gorilla. In the fading world of traveling carnivals, a cast of fascinating characters struggles to keep a popular tradition alive.

Cinematographer: Ligia Murakawa
Executive producer: Valeria Blanco
Additional camera: Mica OHerlihy
Instrumental tracks: John Herndon and Maurício Takara
Theme songs: Jordan Davis, Lurdez da Luz & Zé Colméia, A Fuga, Clementine

Featuring artwork by Michael Arms, Silvana Mello, Mica OHerlihy and Tomas Spicolli

Partially funded by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

APE GIRL is a radically independent film four years in the making. It documents one of the most unusual incarnations of the traditional sideshow: the girl-to-gorilla attraction. In the act a woman turns into an ape and charges at the audience, who runs screaming into the midway. The film follows two troupes, one in each hemisphere, as they struggle to adapt to changing times: Tim Deremer's "Gabora", the very last girl-to-gorilla show in the United States and an unwavering nomadic family with a "Monga" show in the northeast of Brazil.

The project is the result of over ten years of involvement with the Brazilian circus and the American carnival. Director Cris Siqueira traveled with sideshows before and during production of APE GIRL. She was ticket seller, snake charmer, front talker, and, yes, even the ape girl herself. This experience gave her a unique perspective and unparalleled access to an otherwise secretive community.

This is a story of endangered collective memory in a rapidly transforming world, dying traditions in face of new moral codes and the effects of the technological revolution on popular entertainment. Through compelling and often paradoxical characters, APE GIRL tells a timely and universal tale of stubborn resilience and defiance of major cultural transformations.