Swing and Sway

Directed By Chica Barbosa

Two girlfriends, separated by the North and South American hemispheres, navigate a tumult of images, violence, frustrations, and desires, forging a powerful connection that defies borders and distance.

  • ABOUT
  • BIO
The year in which everything radically changed, where real and invisible borders took on another dimension, is the root of a filmic provocation. Two girlfriends, separated by the North and South hemispheres of America, intend to dance in the tumult of images, violence, frustrations and desires. They do it through a game where registering themselves and the women around them enables a dialogue that becomes real and vivid, as a hug determined to resist the distance.
Chica Barbosa is a Mexican-Brazilian filmmaker based in Los Angeles, US. Her work focuses on non-fiction cinema, experimental and hybrid narratives, addressing themes like immigration, colonization, displacement, LGBTQ+ rights, identity and faith as an act of resistance. She also directs branded content and music videos, always looking to work with a diverse crew behind and in front of the cameras. She recently moved from São Paulo, Brazil, where she was part of the Film Collective “Cinefusão'' and where she started her own production company "En Caliente Films”, since 2014. She directed the short films “Ferroada” (Bite) and “La Flaca” (The Bony Lady) - a hybrid short film about a Mexican transgender woman and leader of the Santa Muerte religious movement in Queens, NY; the film won several awards and entered over 100 film festivals around the world. In 2020, she directed, along with Fernanda Pessoa, the short film “Same/Different/Both/Neither,” which premiered in the Short Competition of IDFA - International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and was also shortlisted in the IDA Awards. She is currently releasing her second feature documentary “Swing and Sway,” directed along with Fernanda Pessoa, selected to the Arts Talent Market at the Sheffield Doc Fest, Arché Lab (part of the Doc Lisboa Film Festival Industry hub), and Ji.hlava New Visions Forum: U.S. Docs in the Czech Republic.