QUEEN OF LAPA
Queen of Lapa
Theodore Collatos & CarolinA Monnerat, 2020
Catalog No.: FTF-083
Length: 74 minutes
A proud transgender sex worker since the age of eleven, Luana Muniz, now fifty-nine, shapes a new reality in her “hostel” by housing a new generation of transgender sex workers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Queen of Lapa explores the day-to-day lives, rivalries, and quests for love of sex workers, as Muniz’s guides them in a city full of hostility towards its LGBTQ community.
Directed by Theodore Collatos, Carolina Monnerat
Produced by Theodore Collatos, Carolina Monnerat, Matt Grady, Josh Crane
Executive Produced by Fuller Todd
Edited by Theodore Collatos, Matt Grady
Music by Michael Leonhart
Cast: Luana Muniz
Festivals: NewFest, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Latin Reel, Maryland Film Festival, Göteborg Film Festival, Scottish Queer Film Festival, San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Antenna Doc/Fest, Flickers Rhode Island Film Festival, RiverRun International Film Festival, FIFEQ - Montreal, Central Scotland Documentary Film Festival, Wicked Queer Boston, Humans of Film Amsterdam, New Hampshire Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, Tallahassee Film Festival, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, CineQ, Oxford Film Festival
WATCH THE FILM
PRESS
"Engaging vérité. The ambiance is more lush than impoverished, with the warm colors of Collatos’ cinematography capturing a Rio that can still be inviting and jubilant even when rent is overdue."
— Dennis Harvey, Variety
"One of the strongest and most impactful documentaries I’ve ever seen."
— Ondi Timoner, Film Director
“A story of humanity, details, fragility, consciences, feelings, discoveries. ”
— Marie Claire
“A fascinating piece of cinema verite.”
— Queer Guru
“Melodic, even hypnotic… A much needed intervention into a trans documentary ecosystem.”
— Mic
“Brilliant, tender and gracious.”
— Supamodu
“Radical vérité."
— No Film School
“Viewers will enter the cinema to watch strangers and leave feeling as if they have made new friends.”
— Eye For Film
“Humane and illuminating... the viewer is allowed to watch, unobtrusively and without judgment.”
— Take One Cinema
“Intimate and captivating.”
— O Dia
“Rare, clear-eyed, intimate filmmaking that needs to be seen, recognized and celebrated. ”
— Screen Anarchy
“Altogether different and remarkable.”
— Film Pulse
“The queen will long live on in our cinematic memory.”
— Hammer to Nail