Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business Directed by Helena Soldberg, 1995

This fascinating film skillfully combines reenactments, interviews with confidants and commentators, and footage from her many films to tell the haunting story of 1940’s superstar Carmen Miranda. Charting Miranda’s transformation from famed Brazilian singer to Hollywood’s first Latina star to independent artist, award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Helena Solberg shows how Miranda’s saga exemplifies contradictions in the relationship between Latin America and the United States that persist today. At the convergence of sexual politics, cultural colonialism, and one woman’s life, this moving film powerfully explores the complex factors behind the image and life of the “Tutti-Frutti Woman,” Carmen Miranda. A Women Make Movies Release

Awards:

1994 Brazilia Festival of Brazilian Cinema: Critics Award Winner; 1995 Havana Film Festival: Grand Coral - First Prize Winner;