Filmmaker Carolina Sá on 'To Say Goodbye': A Portrait of Two Women in Brazil

The Genesis of 'To Say Goodbye'

• 💡 The film originated from filmmaker Carolina Sá's personal struggle to adapt to life in Brazil, despite her Brazilian heritage.
• 🧠 Sá found a microcosm of societal divides within her grandmother's apartment, observing the parallel lives of her grandmother and her live-in helper, Jessara.
• 📸 Using her camera became a method for Sá to understand and make sense of the complex social dynamics she witnessed.

Two Women, Two Worlds

• 👵 Dona, Sá's grandmother, was raised in a privileged environment in Bahia, educated to be an exemplary housewife.
• 👩‍👧 Jessara, from a contrasting background in Bahia, had to leave school at 12 and became a live-in helper for Dona after facing significant personal challenges.
• 🏠 The film highlights these two opposite worlds existing side-by-side within the same apartment.

The Apartment as a Character

• 🏖️ The apartment features a striking geographical divide: one side offers a view of the iconic Copacabana Bay, representing a postcard image of Rio.
• 🏘️ The other side looks out onto a shanty town, showcasing precarious living conditions.
• 📍 This physical separation mirrors the social and economic distance between the two women, emphasizing their parallel but separate lives.

A Decade in the Making

• ⏳ Sá filmed over a period of 10 years, with initial filming in 2009 focusing on the women watching Brazilian soap operas (Nollas).
• 📺 By her return 10 years later, habits had changed: the Nollas were replaced by Netflix, Jessara no longer lived at the employer's house, and both women had aged and drifted apart.
• ✈️ The final filming block in 2020 captured the unimaginable – packing up the grandmother's apartment for her move to Portugal.

Emotional and Transformative Process

• 😥 Filming was an incredibly emotional experience for Sá, requiring her to step back and observe.
• 💪 She learned resilience from her grandmother and Jessara, women who were taught to persevere through hardship.
• 📻 The extensive material was also transformed into a political radio documentary, exploring the connection between Brazil's street-level politics and the lives within the apartment.