YUCA direct ‘Thirst’.

Follows a woman on a journey of self-exploration as she seeks what previously felt out of reach: pleasure.

Shot on 35mm.

Words from YUCA below.


Could you talk about the social context under which ‘Thirst’ was made?

I think the first point is that we all live in a patriarchal society that for centuries has oppressed us and sought to control our lives, our bodies, our freedom, and also our sexuality. Although we have advanced in many ways over these centuries, we are still prevented from freely exercising several rights, including the right to sexual freedom, the freedom to be able to talk about sexuality, health, and pleasure without this being a taboo or suffer restrictions and censorship on the internet when we talk about it. We’ve always been taught that talking about it isn’t respectful, that this discussion doesn’t belong to us, and that it’s all too shameful or even a sin.

We are still prevented from freely exercising several rights, including the right to sexual freedom, the freedom to be able to talk about sexuality, health, and pleasure.

It turns out that we are in the 21st century and there is no longer room for this kind of thing in our lives, the discussion needs to move forward and women no longer accept being annulled. I think the film was born from this enormous desire to break with these social delays and speak directly with other women, open dialogue, and the possibility of demanding much more than what is “allowed” to us today.

Thirst 4

Can we explore the theme of water further?

Water emerged in different ways throughout the film’s creative process. We talked to many women and asked them to simply describe in a few words what orgasm feels like for them. Again and again, the answers were related to the fluidity of the water, the feeling of something overflowing inside them, of being immersed in a liquid state of freedom at that moment, and also how the orgasm forms like a wave of the sea.

In psychology, water is a very recurrent representation when we talk about feelings and our inner universe.

In addition to these answers that made perfect sense to me as a woman, we also thought about how the female body and anatomy are naturally moist, and how this relates to our own sexuality. In psychology, water is a very recurrent representation when we talk about feelings and our inner universe. All this came together so that we could create this metaphor of the water as a place of pleasure and freedom, because it has to do, first of all, with the sensation that water conveys to us. It was just the perfect metaphor.

BTS — Thirst

I’d love to discuss your intention to make a film designed to subvert censorship, what did that mean for the film and your creative process?

From the beginning, we wanted to get away from common representations of female sexuality.

From the beginning, we wanted to get away from common representations of female sexuality, we didn’t want to do more of the same. The idea was always to explore the poetic, subtle and synesthetic side of it all, so things were “hiding” within the visual poetry we wanted to build. As our creative process was dialogue with other women, our way of subverting censorship was to create an audiovisual narrative that spoke directly to other women. Almost as if we were talking in another language and no one around could understand what we were talking about. A film made by women, for women.

This worked very well, because the feedback and comments from women about the film were of a deep identification and understanding of what was being said. I think this is due to the fact that we didn’t intend to explain anything, we focused our energy on the sensation itself, and we sought to build an experience that goes far beyond what an algorithm is capable of “detecting” and censoring, because it’s a human feeling.

Thirst BTS 3

We focused our energy on the sensation itself, and we sought to build an experience that goes far beyond what an algorithm is capable of detecting.

What are you reading at the moment?

I have just started rereading Torto Arado, written by Itamar Vieira Junior. It was the best book I read last year, a very powerful female story that represents the deep identity of Brazil, unknown even to many Brazilians. There is a sentence that I believe sums up the experience of this reading:

“Each woman knows the force of nature that she shelters in the torrent that flows from her life.”

Director
Eduardo Lubiazi, Yuri Maranhão, João Machado
Executive Producer
Claudia Cavalheiro
Production Director
Débora Lemes
Production Coordinator
Director of Photography
Director of Photography
Thais Russo
Production Designer
Ana Cardoso
Costume Designer
Renata Scheidt
Casting Director
Ana Schoemberger
MUA
Editor
Colourist
Diego Cagnato
Still Photography
The Youth Company
Production Company

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