Dry Ground Burning

Synopsis

“I was remembering the time… That I got wrapped up in some crazy shit with my sister Chitara. My sister made history in Sol Nascente. That was in 2019. I’d just got out of prison for drug charges. My sister asked me to be a part of this crazy scheme she was caught up in. She got a hold of a map of underground oil pipes. She got it and then… she bought a lot in Sol Nascente. The oil pipes ran right under her land. She started making a lot of money with that. Her, Andreia, China…They made a lot of money. So I started working with them. She took me to the lot, where she built a huge structure. Really huge, it was crazy, dope as hell. She taught me how it all worked…how to get the oil from underground, and turn it into gasoline, and all that shit…And she set up a deal with the motoboys, they would buy gasoline from her… she refined the gasoline there, and they bought it off her… Besides the motoboys, Chitara also had a spot at the P.Norte market a stand where she sold her gasoline. And a bunch of other shit. Chitara also got mixed up in politics. She made history… We had Sol Nascente on lock, we fucked things up. We really fucked things up.”
Léa tells the story of the Gasolineiras de Kebradas, as it echoes through the walls of Colmeia, the women’s prison of Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil.

Director Biography

JOANA PIMENTA is a filmmaker from Lisbon, Portugal, currently living and working between the United States and Brazil. She teaches at the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University, as well as in the Bachelor of Film Arts program at Rutgers University. Her directorial debut, short film The Figures Carved into the Knife by the Sap of the Banana Trees (2014) won the Competition Award at Indielisboa Festival 2014 in Lisbon. Um campo de aviação (2016) is her second film project. ADIRLEY QUEIRÓS is a Brazilian filmmaker who lives and works in Ceilândia. A former professional soccer player, Adirley has directed four short and two documentary feature films, and received more than 40 awards in Brazilian and international film festivals.