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ODU is an initiatory documentary. A dive into the Ifá religion, through the perspective of Babalawô Ivanir dos Santos who will initiate four Brazilian women in the cradle of religion. The film crew follows the group's pilgrimage through Rio de Janeiro, Baiha and Nigeria, more specifically in Obomosho, seeking to unravel the mysteries and accidents of life that made them be there and reconnect with their ancestry.
An aura of mystery is created in what involves the fate of Ivanir dos Santos and his four initiates, the starting point for asking the great question of the documentary: How a black man, son of a prostitute, without knowing his father, passing part of his life adolescence in childish reformatory, becomes a Doctor in History, and Babalawô (father of the secret). Coinscidences of destiny, his path crosses the fate of these four women, Monique Oliveira, Carla Maria, Mariana Gino e Eloísa Tavares, who are in search of reconnecting with their roots and ancestors.

Creator
Viviane D’Avilla is a Brazilian photographer and filmmaker. Graduated in Journalism, she directed her career and knowledge towards conceptual and documentary photography and filmmaking. She specialized in these areas in schools like: Schools of Visual Arts, at Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, in the International Center of Photography, in New York and New York Film Academy, NYC. D'Avilla has an extensive work of conceptual photography and documentary with gallery representations in New York and Italy. In 2017 she won the prize of best photography at the Florence Biennial, Italy. In 2018 she shot her first short documentary about an intersexual character in India, called GOPI. The film was an offshoot of her work as a documentary photographer and her debut as an audiovisual director. The movie GOPI won international and masters awards and was also selected for the competitive festival at the Rio Festival and received the award for best documentary, in Bangalore, India. In 2019, Viviane started her newest authorial project ODU, an spiritual odyssey that documents a very traditional ritual from the African religion and the initiation of 4 western women into the religion. In 2019 for Dona Rosa Films, a brazilian production company Viviane also co-direct and was the director of photography at the newest documentary about one of the most popular Brazilian musicians Luiz Melodia. In the end of 2019 D'Avilla directed and produced her first narrative feature film called Perda (Absence) more...

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