Dona Onete—This Tiny Piece of My Heart
(Brazil, 90 min.)
Dir. Mini Kerti
Prod. Renata Brandao, Luisa Barbosa
Programme: Made in Brazil
A charming biopic, Mini Kerti’s film is a loving portrait of a grand figure in Brazilian culture, the singer-songwriter Dona Onete. Now in her eighties, Dona Onete made her mark as a union activist, educator and local Secretary of Culture before becoming a beloved composer and, latterly, a singer who has been embraced by Brazilians far from her home in the impoverished but spiritually rich Northeast. A happy mixture of Indigenous and Black parents, she writes and sings with feistiness and honesty.
Mini Kerti has fashioned a joyful profile of Onete, whose life has not been the easiest. As her story is gradually recounted in-between many songs, it becomes clear that this extraordinarily talented woman had to fight to find and maintain her voice as an advocate for workers, Indigenous and Black people, and above all, women in Brazil. A fraught first marriage produced children she loves but was never without battles as she struggled to achieve academic excellence while aiding workers to achieve goals in their labour campaigns.
Long before she became the Queen of Carimbo, Onete established herself as a professor of History and Amazonian Studies in Igaparé Miri, the famous Acai region of Brazil. Many of Dona Onete’s songs are about acai palm trees, which produces a fruit that’s remarkably healthy for its inhabitants and is exported to health conscious people throughout the globe. Mainly, though, she sings about love as a corporeal and spiritual force. Kerti was able to enlist the musical support of a roster of Brazilian talent–Gaby Amarantos, Fafá de Belém, Emicida, Jaloo and others—to perform with Onete in the film.
The film understandably makes much of Onete’s spectacular rise to fame in her 70s. She had composed hundreds of songs throughout her life without gaining much more than a reputation among singers—the cognoscenti—until she moved with her supportive second husband to Belem, the capital of the state of Para, where a local talented youthful band asked her to sing with them. Lightning struck and at the age of 73, she released an album that hit the global world music market. Suddenly, she was invited to prestigious international venues in Paris (Cabaret Sauvage) and England (WOMAD). Since then, Dona Onete has become a global icon—a singer songwriter for the ages.
As Kerti’s doc demonstrates, it couldn’t have happened to a better person. Dona Onete is a joyous artist, still filled with revolutionary fervour. Onete’s brilliance inspires other artists—particularly women—to follow their own paths. Director Mini Kerti has made a film brimming with love, music and passion. It is truly a hot doc.
